Why a Canada-style Brexit deal is unlikely October 16, 2018 Brexit is now less than six months away. Yet somehow, a deal feels further away than it did just a few weeks ago. The stakes are fairly high. Models estimate that GDP will shrink by much as eight per cent. Some of the damage has already been done via the corrosive effects of uncertainty and anticipation of a [...]
Theresa May tells Cabinet to ‘stand together’ over her Brexit plan October 16, 2018 Theresa May told her Cabinet to “stand together” in order to get a Brexit deal with the EU today during an extended meeting of her top team. Ministers debated the PM’s negotiating stance for two and a half hours on Tuesday morning, just a day before May will once again try to sell her plans [...]
Royal Mail ’embarrassed’ at lack of shareholder engagement over executive pay October 16, 2018 Royal Mail’s remuneration committee chair Orna Ni-Chionna told MPs today she was “embarrassed” at the failure to engage with its shareholders before a major revolt over the pay for its outgoing chief executive Moya Greene. Ni-Chionna, appearing before the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee, said it was a “huge disappointment” and “shock” that [...]
DEBATE: Should the government set guidelines on meat consumption to combat climate change? October 16, 2018 Should the government set guidelines on meat consumption to combat climate change? Ben Glover, a researcher at Demos, says YES. Last week, the UN’s IPCC warned that to avoid disastrous levels of climate change we must make “unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” – including cutting meat consumption. That’s because livestock counts for about [...]
Theresa May’s new merger powers would be a hostile takeover by the state October 16, 2018 Back in July 2016, Theresa May launched her campaign for leadership of the Conservative party by promising radical action on foreign takeovers of British businesses. In the wake of Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury and Pfizer’s failed bid for AstraZeneca, May promised to defend workers and local communities from transient shareholders who, she said, were more [...]
Ignore the chancellor, we don’t need Chequers to end austerity October 16, 2018 I generally presume cynicism in politicians’ arguments. But Philip Hammond implying a Chequers-style relationship with the EU is needed to “end austerity” was shocking in its brazenness. Ahead of the October Budget, the chancellor has echoed Theresa May in suggesting that looser government spending is just around the corner. Their calculation seems to be that [...]
Google joins the list of firms deserting Saudi conference over missing journalist October 16, 2018 Google became the latest name in a long list of high-profile companies to drop out of an investment conference in Saudi Arabia late last night, amid building criticism of the state's handling of a missing journalist. A well-known critic of Saudi Arabia's policies, US resident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was last seen entering [...]
End of austerity not ‘compatible’ with eliminating deficit says Institute for Fiscal Studies ahead of Budget October 16, 2018 The government faces a stark choice between upholding Theresa May’s promise to “end austerity” or meet its target of eliminating the deficit, according to a detailed analysis by one the UK’s most trusted economic bodies. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) will today say that chancellor Philip Hammond will have to find an extra £19bn [...]
Europe’s banks are right – the EU must act to avoid a Brexit cliff edge disaster October 16, 2018 Retail king Lord Wolfson raised eyebrows at the weekend when he insisted that a no deal outcome to Brexit talks “would not be a disaster”. The Next boss was referring to the overall effect on trade and, politically, he articulated his point well – you have to be prepared for no deal in order to [...]
Finance chiefs desert Saudi business summit as backlash to missing journalist intensifies October 16, 2018 The global boycott of a high-profile Saudi investor conference gathered pace yesterday as the bosses of JP Morgan, Ford, Blackstone and BlackRock led an executive exodus following the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The US resident and critic of the Saudi government has not been seen since entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October. [...]