A small price to pay: we must avoid compulsory home working for the City December 6, 2021 As Christmas approaches, there’s a clear sense of excitement in the air – a feeling that this Christmas will be better than last. There can be no doubt that 2021 has brought us closer to what feels like normal life. Britain’s vaccination programme has helped to protect the most vulnerable from Covid-19, and allowed our [...]
Letters: Time to hold firm and keep our freedom December 6, 2021 We were told “15 million jabs to freedom” some time ago, yet we now face a situation where Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland now have vaccine passports as a requirement to participate in various parts of society and England keeping Plan B “in reserve”. A handful of European countries have faced mass uproar over vaccine [...]
Best of this week in our opinion pages: from the call for a more inclusive job market to flooding and big tech mergers December 4, 2021 As the tense exchanges between the UK and France over migration remain on top of the news, Eliot Wilson looks at Home Secretary Priti Patel’s management – or mismanagement – of the Channel crisis. To achieve a long-term solution and avoid further tragedies, the government should firstly stop the dangerous crossings, and secondly modernise the [...]
Less tax, higher public services, Singapore-style December 3, 2021 IT’S possible to have your cake and eat it too: high quality and universal public services at a fraction of the cost to taxpayers along with a strong economy. This is not just some figment of my imagination. It’s the country where I grew up: Singapore. The Singapore government spends about £3,500 less per person [...]
Business rates are an outdated tax which threaten to bury our high streets and shops December 3, 2021 Businesses have been through hell and back over the last two years. From on-off lockdowns, to a botched trade deal with the EU which failed almost every sector of our economy, the business community is suffering. With the Omicron variant creating a new cloud of uncertainty that is hanging over our economy, businesses are facing [...]
The CMA’s showdown with Facebook over Giphy foreshadows a crackdown December 3, 2021 You probably don’t think of GIFs and think of showdowns with tech giants. Mostly, these short clips decorate people’s texts and social media profiles. Now, they are at the forefront of regulators’ efforts to rein in big tech. On Tuesday, the UK’s competition regulator – the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) – told Facebook (now [...]
The old crowd of New Labour won’t save Keir Starmer’s skin December 2, 2021 Four days after Tony Blair published his hymn sheet for Labour to win another election, Keir Starmer had a reshuffle. Packing the front benches with familiar names and talent from the old New Labour crowd, Keir tried to assemble a cabinet to eventually win a ballot. Today’s by-election in Old Bexley and Sidcup will be [...]
Open the floodgates: Britain’s planning reform needs to defend our homes December 2, 2021 Brits have been told to brace for flooding with an exceptionally wet January and February forecast by the Environment Agency. In England, there are 5 million properties – one in six – at risk of flooding. Overflows are a complex issue encompassing planning and resilience, climate change and housing. But it is not one taken [...]
Nicola Sturgeon can huff and puff but she won’t get a new independence referendum December 2, 2021 Scottish independence is not even in the top half-dozen priorities for voters in Scotland, yet once again Nicola Sturgeon used her speech to the SNP conference this week to bang the drum for another push for independence. She is obsessed. Fixing the economy post-Covid? The mounting crises in the Scottish NHS? The appalling decline in [...]