The year in sterling (GBPUSD): Theresa May’s election shocks, Mark Carney’s rising rates, and Brexit, Brexit, Brexit December 19, 2017 It was a brave trader betting on sterling at the start of the year. Economists were fearful for the British economy as 2016’s dramatic fall in the pound fed through to surging inflation; Theresa May was still a novice as Prime Minister; and the Brexit process had not yet truly begun. Brexit has – as [...]
Jordan B Peterson interview: The unlikely conservative superstar on the high price of fame, causing offence and THAT interview with Cathy Newman July 5, 2018 Professor Jordan B Peterson’s apartment smells of meat. It’s 8am and his wife, Tammy, is fastidiously slicing a pile of steaks, frying them, and shovelling the unadorned results into a stack of Tupperware containers. It was Tammy, his childhood sweetheart who now works full-time for Peterson PLC, who greeted me when I arrived at his [...]
Catalonia tries to avoid repeating history, but Spain has economic reality on its side November 1, 2017 Karl Marx famously wrote: “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce”. The phrase might well have been coined with Catalonia in mind. Generalissimo Franco began a military coup against the elected Spanish government in the Canary Islands in 1936. The battle spread across Spain, and Catalonia was the last redoubt of the Republic [...]
Jeremy Corbyn clashes with Theresa May over her flagship grammar schools plan September 14, 2016 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has clashed with Theresa May over her plans to push for new grammar schools, increasing the pressure on her flagship reforms. Earlier today London mayor Sadiq Khan called on May to drop to her first major policy as Prime Minister, which she has described as a key part of Britain becoming “the great meritocracy”. [...]
Blame Jeremy Corbyn for the increasing number of public sector strikes August 16, 2016 The total number of working days lost through labour disputes last year was, at just 170,000, the second lowest annual total since records began in 1891. What a difference a year can make. Southern Rail commuters have endured months of misery due to the prolonged series of strikes called by the RMT. Union members on Eurostar [...]
Watch: Award-winning Kes director Ken Loach made a documentary about Jeremy Corbyn September 21, 2016 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has premiered a new documentary made about his leadership campaign by award-winning director Ken Loach. Loach is a long time Corbyn supporter, having joined the Labour leader on anti-austerity protests, and he is among the speakers expected at separate conference being run by the Corbyn-backing Momentum campaign alongside the official Labour event next week. But he is also [...]
Labour leadership: Channel 4 Dispatches goes undercover in Jeremy Corbyn supporters group Momentum September 19, 2016 A documentary set to air tonight will provide an undercover look at Momentum, the grassroots group of supporters backing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Channel 4 said Dispatches has discovered "a number of hard left revolutionaries inside and influencing Momentum, one of whom advocated a “flood” into the Labour Party and others that want to oust anti-Corbyn MPs [...]
Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour should focus on growth above inequality August 22, 2016 It used to go without saying that growth matters. But if former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers now feels the need to take to the pages of the FT to make the “progressive case for economic growth”, it shows just how far other issues, whether inequality or climate change, have come to dominate the thinking [...]
Brexit: EU Withdrawal Bill passes after MPs traded barbs in late-night debate September 12, 2017 Theresa May’s government won the first vote on the EU Withdrawal Bill in the early hours of this morning, 318 votes to 296. Prominent Remain campaigner Anna Soubry told the House earlier in the evening: “We must begin the process [of leaving the European Union] and see it through…”. However, the government looks set to [...]
Jeremy Corbyn is on course for an increased mandate in Labour’s leadership election, pollsters say August 30, 2016 Jeremy Corbyn is set to secure an even bigger mandate in the Labour leadership election, according to figures from YouGov. In a survey of party supporters for The Times, YouGov found Corbyn beating his challenger Owen Smith by 62 per cent to 38 per cent. It marks an improvement on Corbyn's 59 per cent victory in the previous [...]