Be under no illusions: The National Living Wage will cost jobs February 24, 2017 Imagine that you didn’t know how cold weather and turning on the heat affected the temperature of a room. You’d watch the boiler burn more or less gas, and you’d watch the weather get colder and hotter, but if the thermostat and central heating were working properly there’d be no change in the temperature of [...]
The civil service is ripe for disruption – and Brexit could well be the catalyst February 24, 2017 We are approaching a serious crisis in the relationship between ministers, advisers and civil servants. While governments have often grumbled about the quality of the civil service, there are signs political discontent is growing. Why? The stakes are higher. The challenges posed by Brexit dwarf anything we have seen before. And so the relationship between [...]
Europe must reinvent itself or markets will tear it apart February 24, 2017 As I sit on an over-crowded train at rush hour for the fourth time this week after a 12 hour shift (I hope my American co-anchor who doesn’t believe in European holidays is reading this), I look around and wonder how many people in the carriage still believe in Europe. On 23 June 2016, 59.9 [...]
Ministers set to face spending watchdog scrutiny over Green Investment Bank sale February 23, 2017 Government ministers are in the glare of Whitehall spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) as the Green Investment Bank privatisation drags on, Morning Wire has learned. With Australian investment bank Macquarie hopeful of clinching a deal soon, the government sale has come under intense scrutiny from politicians in recent weeks. MPs, led by the Green Party’s [...]
MP committee tells press industry: Toughen up regulator or face feared Section 40 February 23, 2017 A group of MPs has called on the press industry to toughen up its regulator or face the much-feared Section 40. Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport committee today published a report calling for the industry’s preferred regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), to make itself compliant with recommendations set out by Lord Justice Leveson after [...]
Unilateral free trade: The selfless Brexit policy that is best for everyone February 23, 2017 There is a clear ethical choice at the heart of trade policy, with direct implications for Brexit. The choice is between selfish, self-interested or selfless policies. And the counter-intuitive truth is that it is selfless policies that maximise prosperity in the long term. So what is meant by selfish, self-interested and selfless? Selfish policies are [...]
Scrap the utopian net migration target (among other things) to reconcile traditionalists and liberals on immigration February 23, 2017 Across the West, we are experiencing a growing cultural clash between liberals and traditionalists. It was encapsulated by Clinton versus Trump, and now by Macron against Le Pen in France. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair recognised this 10 years ago, saying: “The real dividing line to think of in modern politics has less to do with [...]
Government isn’t doing enough to mitigate the environmental hit from Heathrow expansion, warn MPs February 23, 2017 The government looks set to flout recommendations made by its own climate change advisers regarding the environmental impact of Heathrow expansion, MPs warned today. The Environmental Audit Committee has found the government is not doing enough to show it can mitigate the environmental hit the new runway is expected to have, and looks set to [...]
Clear off: Canada steps up fight to retain euro clearing after expert warnings against “currency nationalism” February 22, 2017 High-profile regulators, politicians and financial experts have warned that any move by the European Union to force euro clearing out of London could have grave consequences for global economic stability. Sir Jon Cunliffe, the deputy governor of the Bank of England who supervises financial stability, hit out at “currency nationalism” on Wednesday, saying: “Such a policy if [...]
Maintaining London’s euro-clearing crown is vital to EU as well as the UK, says Canada MP Mark Field February 22, 2017 London’s deep, liquid markets and the breadth of its financial and professional services mean that it stands unrivalled as a European financial centre, which is one of the reasons why it has dominated the foreign exchange market in such a decisive way. The City’s traders now sell more than twice as many euros as all the [...]