Explainer-in-brief: Why paper bank notes are finally on the out June 24, 2022 Hear, hear: we all have 99 days left to use our £20 and £50 paper banknotes before they’re out of the market. Why is the Bank of England taking these notes away? The OId Lady says paper notes are easier to counterfeit than plastic ones, so it’s time to get rid of them. Plastic ones [...]
The Roman Empire has a lesson for Andrew Bailey on devaluing a currency June 24, 2022 Winston Churchill once said: “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” Those words apply to many aspects of our lives, not least economics. The past few weeks have seen the pound slump in value. In May alone, it fell by around eight per cent on its year-on-year value [...]
Price of Aussie wine could fall victim to Treasury reforms – yes, even after the trade deal June 24, 2022 AT THE end of last year, to much fanfare, the UK and Australia signed the free trade deal – the first negotiated from scratch following Brexit. The UK is the number one destination for Australian wine exports in value and volume, exporting 246 million litres of wine worth AU$449m in the 12 months to March [...]
Does pollution pay? It might do unless we develop legal remedies for greenwashing June 24, 2022 Greenwashing has become prevalent as sustainability shot to popularity. But there's few ways to deal with it.
Letters: Home ownership isn’t everything June 24, 2022 [Re: Government admits most Brits will not benefit from Boris Johnson’s ‘benefits to bricks’ housing plans, June 22] In essence, the idea is positive but, in practice, it’s not currently feasible. Take for example the government’s plan to allow people on housing benefits to use welfare payments towards a mortgage. Welfare payments stop when a [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Behind the pensions triple-lock promise June 23, 2022 The pensions triple-lock was introduced in 2010, to ensure payments rise each year keeping up with the cost of living. It works in a simple way: state pensions rise in line with whichever is the highest between average earnings growth, inflation or a flat 2.5 per cent rise. Last year the government suspended it, mainly [...]
On Brexit’s sixth birthday, the DUP has come back to haunt Boris Johnson June 23, 2022 The problem with inchoate rejections of globalism is that they don’t have a Facebook profile to remind you when they were born. It’s easy to forget but today is six years since Britain voted to leave the European Union. It’s Brexit’s birthday: I’ve got the candles, let’s hope the cake isn’t held up in customs. [...]
A summer of discontent is the unions’ fight for power in the modern workforce June 23, 2022 This week, London was awash with bikes and e-scooters as the biggest rail strikes in thirty years kicked off on Tuesday. Other unions were watching closely as they plan for their own industrial action. Some are calling it the summer of discontent, as a waterfall of job losses and long hours stir up a storm [...]
As the Tories fight on both political flanks, they need to ditch policy-by-stereotype June 23, 2022 TODAY’s by-elections risks exposing the government on both political flanks. A loss in Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, would dent their working class 2019 gains, and a defeat in Tiverton & Honiton, in rural Devon, would strike deep into their southern heartlands. Losses on both these fronts in the next general election could be the recipe [...]
Letters: Regulate Now or Pay Later June 23, 2022 [Re: BNPL set to hit $607bn by 2026 despite regulatory scrutiny, analysts predict, yesterday] Against a tumultuous economic backdrop, the need for robust and proportionate regulation of BNPL is arguably more urgent today than it was when the Woolard Review was published at the start of 2021. The Treasury’s response is therefore overdue, but welcome. [...]