A revitalised gig economy free from controversy is in all of our best interests October 7, 2021 Back in 2009, the gig economy promised to revolutionise the relationship between companies and the people working for them. The main attraction of the gig economy is that it offers freedom; freedom to set your own rules and have the flexibility to work when it suits. This was the future of employment, but fast-forward a [...]
Editorial: Boris the boxer owns the ring – but the real fight is yet to come October 6, 2021 In the city that gave us Tyson Fury – the heavyweight champion of the world – Boris Johnson proved yesterday that he owns the ring of British politics. Manchester saw a bravura performance – the ability to land the well-placed jab at Labour, the crowd-pleasing hook on enemies both real and imagined, and the footwork [...]
Party time for Tories as Boris Johnson shows off his iron grip on British politics October 6, 2021 Boris Johnson’s bouyant speech today was a fitting end to a Tory party conference that was marked by an overriding sense of triumphalism. Endless crates of Bollinger were cracked open with the ease and vigour of a teenager necking their first Bacardi Breezer. The Midland Hotel’s bar was packed round the clock with bespectacled and [...]
Opinion-in-brief: hybrid work should become part of company culture October 6, 2021 The past 18 months have been extremely transformative for our working lives. They have poked holes in the rigid tradition of presenteeism and prompted companies to explore new ways of working. With the return to London’s office, companies are under pressure to prove they’ve learned their lessons. Spaces are being repurposed to foster better in-person [...]
Welcome to the Green Room: Boris needs to finally deliver Net Zero October 6, 2021 As Boris Johnson strides onto the stage at Tory Party Conference he’ll promise the earth – and talk about saving it. The environment is front and centre of British politics now and Boris has made no secret of his ambitions to go green. Last year, in typical style, the PM vowed that Britain could become [...]
Fuel prices going up, green energy getting cheap: now it’s time for a flexible energy grid October 6, 2021 The ongoing gas crisis has highlighted that our current energy system is unsustainable. As fuel prices have tripled in a year, our dependence on it seems more and more risky. It has also become clear that the unhappy history of geopolitics and fossil fuels – brought home by Putin withholding gas supplies into Europe over [...]
Grenfell should stand as a reminder that we have a long way to go on housing October 6, 2021 Housing is at the centre of today’s political conversation. The electorate is acutely aware of the housing crisis, and is demanding sincere policies to solve it. At the Conservative Party Conference this week, Michael Gove talked about raising living standards and making homes a safe and decent place to live in this country. Gove has [...]
Editorial: The City’s values endure in its buildings – old and new October 6, 2021 If we have learnt one thing from the last year, it’s that Canada is perhaps a more fragile thing than some of us thought. Resilient, yes; able to bounce-back, that too. But nonetheless, as a community, as a place dripping with both history and innovation, we can never take it for granted [...]
Scantily clad CMA guidelines will do little to fend off greenwashing on our high streets and in our banks October 5, 2021 restore it. The term greenwashing wasn’t invented by the environmentally active Gen Z or even the older cohort of millenials. It dates back to 1986 when American environmentalist Jay Westerveld used it to describe hotels asking their customers to reuse towels to limit water usage while they abused neighbouring nature areas for their premises. Washing [...]
Save Bevis Marks: Skyscraper plans are a menace to the City’s heritage October 5, 2021 The business of London is business. So it has always been. The earliest surviving piece of writing from the city, inscribed on a wooden tablet barely a decade after its foundation by the Romans in AD 43, is an IOU. For two millennia, people have been coming to London to make money. It is the [...]