Letters: A five star review – if it’s true April 22, 2022 [Re: Fake reviews and ‘subscription traps’ could be illegal under new proposals, April 20] The watchdog is finally baring its teeth on a hugely important issue for consumers that has not been properly addressed for years: fake reviews. A fine of 10 per cent of global turnover for those that fall foul is a big [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Boris Johnson’s partygate purgatory April 22, 2022 As Boris Johnson was in India yesterday, MPs were busy debating whether he should be referred to the Privileges Committee for having allegedly misled Parliament on partygate. The opposition claims that Johnson lied to MPs when he said no rules had been broken. The government initially tried to stop the Labour motion, putting an amendment [...]
As we’re pushed towards supply chains of isolation, we must protect openness April 22, 2022 Globalisation is dead. So declared Chip Bergh, the chief executive officer of Levi’s, the maker of the iconic 501 jeans, at this year’s World Retail Congress. That doesn’t mean globalisation is going away; but it will need to take a very different form from the one we once knew. The principle of comparative advantage is [...]
Chatbot matrixes are an outdated betrayal of the strengths of our tech capabilities April 22, 2022 Have you ever solved your problem with the British airways chatbot? I certainly haven’t. It’s a trivial, and perhaps first-world gripe, but it was a startling experience to struggle with what should have been a straightforward problem as a result of clunky tech.
Self-confidence has left Nato and Britain unprepared for a threat against the alliance April 22, 2022 Earlier this week, General Sir Richard Barrons warned the Defence Select Committee that the United Kingdom (UK) would not be ready if Russia attacked British territory or that of Nato allies. Since 1949, the government has pledged to defend the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation alliance. Although one nuclear-armed peer is unlikely to attack another, the [...]
Rain Newton-Smith interview: Go for growth to turbocharge economic resilience April 22, 2022 Everyone knows the dismal time the UK economy is in for over the coming year – but let’s recap. Living standards are scheduled to fall at the steepest rate in 66 years as a result of wages failing to keep pace with an average annual inflation rate of over seven per cent, according to the [...]
Letters: Next episode might be better? April 21, 2022 [Re: Netflix shares tumble as streaming giant loses 200k subscribers, yesterday] Quelle surprise, as the French would say. After years of being trapped at home having little else to do except watch TV, people have started to cancel their subscriptions for Netflix. If the streaming giant wasn’t prepared for this moment, then they really were [...]
Has British politics finally become a meme? April 21, 2022 Is an Islington suit an Islington suit if it was bought in Camden? Does Keir Starmer have more “posh north London” vibes than Jeremy Corbyn? After all his time in politics was “a tiny brain” the best slur Boris Johnson could come up with for the Leader of the Opposition? Yesterday’s PMQs was an old-school brand of entertainment.
Our judicial system is failing as courts and the profession lose their lustre April 21, 2022 As we finally emerge from the worst of the pandemic, things like the Nightingale Courts might be a fading memory. Much like the Nightingale Hospitals, they were set up to deal with urgent cases and individuals who couldn’t have their needs addressed remotely. In the case of the courts, they were a genuine commitment to [...]
London could be revolutionised with an Oyster-card system for drivers in the capital April 21, 2022 Not since the advent of the motorcar a century ago have London’s roads undergone such rapid change. Some of this is driven by technology – electric cars, e-bikes, e-scooters – and some by policy changes to tackle the city’s carbon emissions.The latest is the Mayor of London plan to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone [...]