Voting with your wallet is the ultimate consumer power December 4, 2018 The Labour party leadership believes that income inequality is far too high. As socialists, they think of income as centrally distributed, like slices of cake at a birthday party. Top company executives have seen sharp increases in pay in recent decades, so in Labour’s view, that means less sponge and icing for workers. The cutter [...]
The G20 was a temporary truce, not the end of Trump’s trade war December 4, 2018 It would be easy to see last weekend’s G20 meeting as heralding a thaw in the US-China trade war. But sadly, it hasn’t. There are some positives. It looks increasingly likely that the US will not put in place a fresh 10-25 per cent tariff hike in January on $250bn of Chinese exports, as most had [...]
The City is the goose that lays the golden eggs December 3, 2018 The Financial Conduct Authority has taken its boldest step yet into the debate about banks' Brexit contingency plans. In a letter to lenders the City watchdog warned that it will not accept “steps being taken which could expose clients or markets to unacceptable risks.” Specifically, the FCA warns that they will intervene if they suspect [...]
London Stock Exchange eyes Experian boss as new chairman December 3, 2018 The chairman of credit reporting company Experian is tipped to become the next head of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Don Robert, who is a member of Court at the Bank of England, is the frontrunner to succeed the LSE’s outgoing chairman Donald Brydon, according to Sky News. Discussions between Robert and the LSE’s board [...]
Support your local small business all year, otherwise it might not stick around December 3, 2018 American Express’s Small Business Saturday last weekend saw a call to arms to encourage us to shop locally and support small businesses. Since its launch in 2010, this annual event now reaches millions of people across the US, UK and Australia, helping independent retailers get their share of the Christmas spending frenzy. Small Business Saturday [...]
Heed Hammond’s warning: We must not be prisoners of change December 3, 2018 Britain has become a single issue nation. So all-consuming have the ins and outs of Brexit become that the national debate seems incapable of concentrating on anything else. Which was why it was so surprising when Philip Hammond spoke to a small business audience last week and didn’t drop the B-word once. In so doing, [...]
British tax burden at 50-year high, according to TaxPayers’ Alliance December 2, 2018 The TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign group has called for lower taxes as ‘poorest’ families struggle with current levels. The TPA, linked to the Atlas Network of free market advocates, said the UK’s tax take was at a 50-year high of 34.6 per cent of GDP. National current receipts are at a 21-year high as a proportion [...]
Macron feels the heat as protests ramp up December 2, 2018 When Emmanuel Macron landed in Paris after the G20 summit in Argentina his motorcade delivered him straight to the Arc de Triomphe, where he was confronted with a vivid depiction of the anger felt by many of his citizens – and of his own place in this crisis. One of the country's most famous monuments [...]
Trump cancels new tariffs as China pledges to reduce trade gap December 2, 2018 US president Donald Trump has scrapped plans to increase tariffs on Chinese goods, in an announcement that sees the year-long US-China trade war cool considerably. The White House announced it would hold fire on raising tariffs on $200bn (£156bn) worth of goods from China. They had been scheduled to increase to 25 per cent from 1 [...]
Our broken university system is setting future Britain up to fail November 30, 2018 Two news stories this week should strike terror into the hearts of anyone concerned with the British higher education system. First, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) released figures on the impact of a university degree on earning potential, and found that sometimes it just isn’t worth it. By the age of 29, men who studied [...]
