Labour’s shadow justice minister quits amid party’s ‘lack of tolerance’ July 20, 2019 Labour’s shadow justice minister Gloria De Piero has resigned from her role and decided she will not stand at the next general election. The MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire has said she is concerned by the party’s “lack of tolerance” amid “grim” online abuse. Read more: Government launches review into Britain’s financial rules ahead of [...]
Did the BBC conspire to make Boris look better on TV? No. November 15, 2019 During my Masters degree in journalism I spent some time working for the BBC’s Daily Politics, now known as Politics Live. The show was produced and broadcast from the BBC’s Westminster studios in Millbank, and every day it was all hands on deck as a team of editors, producers, guest-bookers, script writers, presenters and technical [...]
PM Johnson scrambles to save Brexit deal ahead of key Saturday vote October 17, 2019 The stage is set for a dramatic showdown in parliament this weekend, after a last-minute Brexit deal put the ball in Westminster’s court. Boris Johnson claimed a victory yesterday morning with “a great new deal that takes back control” agreed just minutes before he left London for the European Council in Brussels. The Prime Minister [...]
Regional investment, not taxes, holds the key to bursting the London bubble August 6, 2019 For populist left-wing, typified by Jeremy Corbyn, there are few problems that can’t be solved by taxing the rich. But who exactly are they? A new report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) sheds some light on this much-maligned demographic. To be in the top 10 per cent of income tax payers you need [...]
Brexit: Bercow reconvenes MPs as Supreme Court rules PM’s prorogation unlawful September 24, 2019 Update: John Bercow has said parliament will resume business tomorrow morning The Supreme Court has ruled that Boris Johnson’s move to prorogue parliament for five weeks was unlawful. Supreme Court president Lady Hale told the court this morning that parliament had not been prorogued, leaving it to Speaker John Bercow to decide the next steps. [...]
Can Boris Johnson magic the most important rabbit of all from out of his hat? October 31, 2019 Dynamo and Derren Brown had better watch out, for there is a new challenger looking to break through and compete for the title of Britain’s finest practitioner of magical arts: Boris Johnson. For his first act, our putative contender conjured up a Brexit deal with the EU that had previously been described as impossible to [...]
How business rates reform can thwart the retail apocalypse October 1, 2019 When businesses like Thomas Cook fail to adapt, they are smited by new technologies with leaner business models and more efficient practices. This is Joseph Schumpeter’s creative destruction in action. Yet there is something profoundly bleak about boarded-up shops or “clearance sales” posters in the windows of once thriving businesses – particularly as the demise of [...]
Government rubbishes Hammond’s hedge fund Brexit conspiracy theory September 30, 2019 The government has hit back at aBrexit conspiracy theory that Boris Johnson is colluding with currency traders by forcing a no-deal Brexit, claiming Labour is causing greater yet market uncertainty. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell demanded answers from the Conservatives, after former chancellor Philip Hammond wrote an article for The Times which claimed that speculators had [...]
Galliford Try joins the Winters of discontent October 31, 2019 Standard Chartered, Lloyds Banking Group, Aviva and BT Group: even the Investment Association (IA) must have been surprised by the rich seam of targets it uncovered when it launched a campaign to curb the lavish pension perks enjoyed by the chief executives of listed companies. A quarter of FTSE 100 bosses have seen their pension [...]
Labour’s renationalisation plan ‘would cost £200bn’ October 14, 2019 The Labour party’s plans to renationalise water and energy utilities, train companies and the Royal Mail would cost at least £196bn, new analysis by the country’s biggest employer organisation has revealed. The huge sum is equivalent to the total amount of income tax paid by UK citizens in a single year, and is almost as [...]