Anxious East Africa holds its breath: Still no election winner while fraud claims start to fly August 12, 2022 NAIROBI – East Africa is holding its breath this Friday morning as Tuesday’s cliffhanger elections in regional powerhouse Kenya still has not produced a clear presidential winner. While vote counting in the country is reaching its final stages, in an extremely close race between the two main candidates, confusion is growing as a range of [...]
We must help grassroots sport clubs at risk of collapsing April 1, 2021 While kids across the country could barely contain their excitement this week with the resumption of grassroots sport, the sad reality is that many local community clubs which bring opportunity, escape and structure to the lives of young people are on the brink of financial collapse. Over the last year, young people have felt the [...]
Deliver us from Evel: Whitehall is gearing up to fight Scottish Independence June 24, 2021 Six weeks on from the Scottish election defined by a campaign for a second independence referendum and the Nationalist camp has been eerily quiet about indyref2 since the ballots were cast. Nicola Sturgeon and her party’s commitment to a second independence vote remain undimmed, but they know Scots are wary of rushing into another campaign [...]
How worker shortages are cleared will determine UK economy’s trajectory September 4, 2021 You would be forgiven for forgetting we are currently amid one of the best runs of economic growth in living memory with all the negative news about supply chain snarl ups, worker shortages and soaring inflation flying around. A slew of data published this week, alongside a raft of announcements from supermarket, retail and food [...]
Five charts which explain what is going on with inflation November 1, 2021 “Output gap”, “bottlenecks”, “core inflation”, “base effects”, “second-round effects” “labour participation rate”. These are some of the key industry terms essential to understanding what’s going on with inflation. Soaring job vacancies reflect the strong economic recovery of the world’s major economies, as Covid-19 induced restrictions have been gradually eased. Shortages of materials, energy and transport [...]
DEBATE: Is Universal Credit fit for purpose? March 4, 2021 Jonathan Reynolds, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions says NO Universal Credit has failed on its own terms. It is not offering a route out of hardship instead it is perpetuating a cycle of debt and destitution that is hurting our economy. The system starts people off in debt through the five week-wait, [...]
London Mayoral elections: Whoever wins, scratchy relations with Downing Street must be mended to fight for the capital April 22, 2021 The Covid crisis has laid bare some of the UK’s harshest inequalities, nowhere more starklythan in London. East London boroughs have seen some of the highest death rates in thecountry, and London’s unemployment rate has soared. But other boroughs have some ofthe country’s lowest death rates, and the city that has lost most jobs has [...]
Cineworld plunges to $3bn loss as screen closures continue March 25, 2021 Cineworld announced this morning that it has secured $213m (£155.6m) bond from investors to help with reopening costs as it revealed it plunged to a $3bn loss last year. The cinema chain posted a loss after tax of $2.65bn in the year ended 31 December, compared to profit of $180.3m in the previous year. Revenue [...]
So we’re going back to the office – now we need to fix childcare July 14, 2021 As July 19th draws nearer, so too does the end of the official guidance to work from home if you can. The predicted move back to offices (for a few days a week at least) is much anticipated by central London’s shops and restaurants, desperate for footfall to increase. But for London’s working parents it [...]
Services sector expanded at fastest rate in 24 years in May June 3, 2021 The UK’s service industry saw business activity grow at its fastest rate in 24 years last month as the reopening of the country’s economy after the pandemic continued apace. The UK Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for services rose to 62.9 in May, up from 61 in April. Any score above 50 indicates growth. It [...]