Big tech’s year of rough seas has taught us a lesson in naming winners and losers December 16, 2022 IF 2022 has taught us anything, it has shown us how there are no clear business winners or losers from the pandemic. The rough year for big tech is a case in point. Although many of the Faang (Meta neé Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet) cashed in on the various lockdowns, this year has [...]
Letters: A whole new world of forex December 16, 2022 [Re: UK banks face wave of ‘exotic’ forex derivatives claims after collapse of Pound, yesterday] Businesses, which were scrambling to protect their bottom lines against the dollar’s record highs and the euro, pound and yen’s record lows, have been let down by traditional banks. This “wave” of “exotic” forex derivatives highlights that despite fierce fintech [...]
Fusion energy may only heat a kettle but it will power future investment December 15, 2022 For seventy years, nuclear fusion has always, and only, been the next big thing. Its promise is tantalising: near limitless, zero-carbon energy. Unlike fission, its cousin which powers today’s nuclear plants, it also leaves no long-lasting radioactive waste. We have long known it is theoretically possible. In the most over-simplified terms, two light elements (like [...]
London is triumphing over its reputation as the weird cousin of US tech successes December 15, 2022 Next year will mark twenty-five years since the dot.com boom that took place between 1998 and 2001. It was a time of huge creativity. Capital, talent and enthusiasm flowed into new ideas and young start-ups. What can London in 2023 learn from those heady days? We were there in 1998 with the lofty ambition of [...]
Let’s be honest, we’re still squandering post-Brexit opportunities for Britain December 15, 2022 Is Brexit a proven failure? Remainers latching onto the associated costs of leaving the customs bloc certainly think so. Some recent polls even indicate a majority for rejoining the European Union. Meanwhile, evidence of the benefits of taking back control appears scant. The government delivered a faster vaccine programme, signed trade deals and talked the [...]
Explainer-in-brief: How to solve a problem like the unions? December 15, 2022 Yesterday Keir Starmer branded the nurses strike “a badge of shame” on the Conservative government. The Labour leader held little back in Prime Minister’s Questions as the country faces industrial action today. But it was also a distraction technique for an opposition party gripped with indecision over the strikes. Rishi Sunak rightly called Starmer’s demands [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Snowballing homelessness in London December 14, 2022 For some, the snow has brought a layer of white beauty to our capital. For others, it is a menace. When temperatures fall below zero degrees, something called the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol is activated to support people sleeping rough. Mayor Sadiq Khan activated it last week, and councils and charities have been scrambling to [...]
If we want a new generation of leaders, we need to teach kids politics at school December 14, 2022 We need to start treating political education like maths or English, like a basic, essential knowledge bank that you can draw on as you go through life.
HSBC UK CEO: To maintain our competitive edge, we need to convince businesses to invest in the UK December 14, 2022 In the midst of today’s economic backdrop, the critical challenge facing both public and private sectors is supporting growth through the choppy waters ahead – and the key to this is giving business the confidence to innovate right across the UK. At the heart of the solution is partnerships, whether that’s between businesses, sectors, policymakers [...]
If we concede to the unions, Britain will find itself in a dizzying wage-price spiral December 14, 2022 A wage price spiral. We have not experienced one for so long that for most people the phrase might just as well be written in the Old English of a thousand years ago. It is, well, sort of comprehensible but only just. But such spirals can take hold with terrifying swiftness. Towards the end of [...]