Explainer-in-brief: Behind Rishi Sunak’s VAT cut promise July 28, 2022 Rishi Sunak has announced a plan to cut VAT from energy bills in a bid to ease the burden on households. Many, however, have seen it as a desperate attempt to revive his “underdog campaign” for the Tory leadership. His flagship ideology thus far has been that tax cuts would stoke inflation by encouraging people [...]
B Corps aren’t woke capitalism – they’re a useful tool even for hardcore capitalists July 28, 2022 LIKE most entrepreneurs, I like independence, to the point of being contrary sometimes. So, when I first heard about a movement that judges how ethical your business is, I had an almost allergic reaction. Initially, it seemed the fast-growing B Corp global accreditation, born in the USA in 2006, which “marks” a business against its [...]
The Big-Bang 2.0 fails to make City rules fit for an era of crypto and email not Telex July 28, 2022 THE Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022, introduced last week, failed to usher in the “Big Bang 2.0” of financial services regulation we were promised. It is true that many of the initiatives contained within the bill are sensible, welcome, and necessary – but they are nowhere near as radical as what is required to [...]
We should question the mandate of the Bank of England – not its independence July 28, 2022 ONE OF the most surprising things to come out of the race to replace Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party has been the space the Bank of England has taken up in the discourse. One unsuccessful candidate argued the government should have more oversight of the Bank’s activities and current frontrunner Liz Truss [...]
Letters: You can’t always be everything July 28, 2022 [Re: A recession will tempt firms into short-term cuts, July 6 ] Mass job losses continue to take place across the tech industry. While it’s easy to blame external factors, such as the lasting impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, macroeconomic challenges and a difficult fundraising environment, an important strategic factor has been largely ignored – [...]
As we look back on pandemic mistakes, we need to count livelihoods in our losses July 27, 2022 MINISTERS don’t need to face the inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic until next spring, the chair of the probe, Heather Hallet, announced this week. As part of its mandate, the inquiry will “listen to and consider carefully” the experiences of those who lost family members or “have suffered hardship or loss” as a result of [...]
Stop throwing around cash promises and cut red tape July 27, 2022 THE Conservative party leadership candidates agree that the British economy is in dire straits. Inflation is biting incomes, growth is stagnant while public services are faltering. In response, Liz Truss backs a bold new approach encompassing supply-side reforms, while Rishi Sunak promises a “radical set of Thatcherite reforms that will unleash growth and strengthen our [...]
The race for Tory leader is out of step with our social media news addiction July 27, 2022 REALISTICALLY, whenever I have the time and can be bothered, I will always turn to traditional news sources instead of simply people on Twitter. But it would be misleading to say this does not require a concerted effort. My incentive to go on social media is instinctively stronger. It’s full of my peers, friends, people [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Did we save the NHS? July 26, 2022 During the pandemic, the flagship slogan from No10 was centered around protecting the NHS. Without the health service, we were repeatedly told, the collateral damage of deaths and waitlists would enact a toll much greater than Covid-19 on the UK. A damning report released yesterday by a cross-party group of MPs suggests the damage has [...]
A London transport funding deal must not come at the cost of accessibility July 26, 2022 HOW many of us have gotten lost in the maze between Bank and Monument station? Imagine how much harder it would be if you suddenly couldn’t remember where you had to go. “I get very confused with technology”; “I can’t ask what I’m doing wrong to a machine”. These are common refrains from people affected [...]