The City is resilient but it needs to nurture its small businesses and advocate for a return to the office June 21, 2021 Over the last 12 months, the City has faced twin challenges from Britain’s exit from the European Union and the pandemic. Despite these challenges, the financial and professional services sector has demonstrated remarkable resilience as well as playing a key role in supporting other parts of the economy. We cannot, however, afford to be complacent. [...]
Andy Haldane became the media darling of economics, the Bank of England must continue his legacy June 20, 2021 After 32 years at the Bank of England, the current senior economist at Threadneedle Street – Andy Haldane – is moving on to new pastures. His departure as one of the top dogs at the Bank of England will leave the oldest and first central bank without his valuable experience. But as communication with the [...]
Saturday essay: Lockdown has entrenched tribal fault-lines. Is there still British common sense? June 19, 2021 There is little doubt, now, that the widely misunderstood silent majority rarely benefits from taking the advice of tribal politicians. Typically it is the other way round. Why is it that so many politicians are often much more tribally unforgiving and prone to political exaggeration than voters? Because the need for political guidance will seem [...]
DEBATE: Are pedestrianised streets enough to bring retail back to life? June 18, 2021 Oxford Circus is being given a makeover. On both sides of the tube station, cars will be banished, and the space will be transformed into two “piazzas”, as the Italians call it. Westminster Council, who are spearheading the project, will pedestrianise the area in hopes of injecting life back into fledgling shops struggling to make [...]
Screenshot: Can GB News survive the ad boycott backlash? June 18, 2021 This week **Media Moment of the Week: Richard Madeley goes full Partridge **Can GB News survive the ad boycott backlash? **London’s bumper fintech float: a Wise move Media Moment of the Week: Richard Madeley goes full Partridge It’s always risky when producers attempt a comeback of an old show, so I was sceptical when I [...]
GB News has been ‘cancelled’ and made a roaring success out of it June 18, 2021 In less than a week, GB News has achieved what it set out to do. In his opening introduction, Andrew Neil vowed to expose “cancel culture” and focus on the news that matters to people outside of the “Westminster bubble”. Right on cue, a host of companies from Octopus Energy to the cider firm Kopparberg [...]
Boris Johnson stands at the crossroads of another Huawei saga if Amazon Web Services crushes UK cloud products June 18, 2021 Cloud computing in the UK is at a crossroads: on one path is a vibrant domestic growth sector able to compete on the international stage, down the other is an industry dominated by a few Big Tech giants and stymied by policy inaction. In recent years, British tech companies are being overlooked time and time [...]
Britain can win the race for hydrogen supremacy if it faces down competition from Japan June 17, 2021 Japan has made an unprecedented commitment to hydrogen power as an alternative energy source, investing US$19.2 billion in the technology in new funding alone. As first out of the starting blocks, Japan has staked its claim as the world leader in the industry. We are at a critical juncture, however, and there is a golden [...]
The vaccine rollout has been a success but it has still fallen prey to Whitehall inefficiency June 17, 2021 Dominic Cummings has yet again attempted a forced exorcism of Matt Hancock from the government. To the ex-special adviser, the Health Secretary represents everything wrong with Whitehall and its bureaucracy: a failure to innovate, to find creative solutions or to ensure pinch points of stasis in existing symptoms do not become endemic. In this, at [...]
Politicians have learnt the lessons of 2008 but we should still fear inflation June 17, 2021 Forecasting inflation is like forecasting exchange rates. In both cases, economists must go out on a limb. Given the number of factors that come into play, making predictions about inflation and exchange rates leads more often to fiasco than to kudos. Let’s consider a recent, telling example. High inflation expectations were rife in the months [...]