Opinion-in-brief: Brexit barriers are hampering our small businesses September 28, 2021 The energy and ambition of Britain’s start-up community is palpable. According to the latest research from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, two-thirds of UK adults are looking to start a business in the next three years. Compared with the start-up ecosystem of a few years ago, today’s firms are forging ahead with an eye to the [...]
Mike Lynch extradition decision will be watched by tech entrepreneurs the world over September 28, 2021 The coming days will define whether British entrepreneurs are subject to British law, or the whims of American prosecutors. The consequences could be felt for years and have a direct impact on the likelihood of homegrown tech giants being created here in the UK. Last week the Home Office decided to delay the extradition to [...]
Shortages are a devilish dance with Covid and Brexit September 28, 2021 There’s an old cartoon that has Satan outside a church, crying. A passer-by asks him what’s wrong and he responds “They blame me for everything in there!”. For the past 18 months, Covid has been the folk devil of almost every business issue. Look at what’s happening now, with fears of a further “winter of [...]
Ancient Rome taught us a lesson in destroying our digital footprint September 28, 2021 During the Roman empire, former emperors and elites had their image destroyed from the public memory through vandalised statues or even removal of names from official documents. The practice was known as Damnatio Memoriae or the condemnation of memory. The images of former emperors and elites were vandalised or their names removed from official records. [...]
Editorial: It’s time to be straight on the cost of net-zero September 28, 2021 In the final years of New Labour’s time in office, free market campaigners, deficit hawks and the Conservatives sought to change the language used for government projects. For years, Gordon Brown et al had used the word investment to describe the use of public money. Those campaigners and politicians were successful; first, the word investment [...]
Time to go nuclear: a net zero solution to the gas crisis September 28, 2021 Last week gas prices soared to record highs and there’s no signs of them falling anytime soon. Prices have surged as the world has emerged from the pandemic; they are now trading at around four times the average of the last decade. Renewable energy has been the easiest scapegoat and climate sceptics are trying to [...]
Opinion-in-brief: Woke-chain is the new orange for Lib Dem voters September 27, 2021 It’s perhaps no surprise that young, left leaning voters are driving crypto uptake in the UK. A series of car crash general elections have primed the political left for the market’s merciless swings of fortune. A survey by Savanta has confirmed the rainbow alliance as the natural political home of crypto holders: 29 per cent [...]
Keir Starmer’s 14,000 word memo sums up the Labour party’s existential challenge September 27, 2021 We are in the throes of the Labour Party annual conference in Brighton, the opposition’s seaside shindig where members mix with party grandees, policy is debated and the would-be government parades its show ponies for the media and the electorate. It provides an opportune platform for individual shadow ministers to catch the attention of the [...]
Sunak must nurture British business with fair taxes and smart reforms September 27, 2021 London’s famous vibrancy has returned. City streets once again teem with activity, pent up for so long but now unleashed. Yet it would be a mistake to assume the journey ahead is an easy one. London – like the rest of the UK – stands at a crossroads. And the path we choose will decide [...]
Our regulatory cheat sheet needs a post-Covid rewrite September 27, 2021 The success of a financial centre depends largely on the rules it is governed by and the quality of its rulemakers. The UK’s regulatory regime is widely regarded as one of the best in the world due to its transparency, openness and – crucially – ability to evolve. Exiting the European Union and the pandemic [...]