Pancake fever: I can’t believe it’s not batter March 3, 2014 DUST off your sieves and practice your frying pan skills, it’s Pancake Tuesday. Whether you’re getting ready for Lent or you’re just a fan of pancakes (like us) – today is the day to get “battered”. Last year Sainsbury’s alone sold 1.731m lemons in the run up to Shrove Tuesday and it plans on a [...]
City Matters: The growth of Islamic finance is critical to sustaining the City’s export weight February 23, 2014 GEORGE Osborne signalled last week that he plans to encourage more trade and investment in next month’s Budget announcement. The chancellor rightly pointed out that this was critical to securing a sustainable recovery across the UK. The City plays a crucial role in underpinning the wider economy through job creation, investment, trade and exports. That [...]
City Matters: The City and Scotland are natural allies in protecting our global competitiveness February 9, 2014 SCOTLAND’S future relationship with the rest of the UK has once again been making headlines, as we edge closer to the September independence referendum. For Londoners, the “Scottish question” can seem far removed. But having visited Edinburgh and Aberdeen last week, it is clear to me that this relationship is crucial to firms on both [...]
City Matters: Social impact investing: The City must embrace a future of philanthropy January 29, 2014 THE CITY has always been a crucible for debate, innovation and philanthropy. All three are crucial as we strive to rise to the complex challenges posed by the “new normal” – a fast-developing globalised world where resources are increasingly scarce and in demand. I am particularly keen to draw upon the City’s energy, expertise and [...]
Businesses slam Labour tax plan January 27, 2014 LABOUR’S Ed Balls was facing mounting and angry opposition from the business community last night over his plans to increase the top rate of tax to 50p if his party is elected in 2015. The shadow chancellor claims that his tax hike would raise £3bn a year and help cut the budget deficit, helping him [...]
City Matters: Social impact investing: The City must embrace a future of philanthropy January 26, 2014 THE CITY has always been a crucible for debate, innovation and philanthropy. All three are crucial as we strive to rise to the complex challenges posed by the “new normal” – a fast-developing globalised world where resources are increasingly scarce and in demand. I am particularly keen to draw upon the City’s energy, expertise and [...]
City Matters: Why the City will lose out if its fails to capitalise on London’s diversity January 12, 2014 EAGLE-EYED City workers may have already spotted this, but there are some slightly unusual adverts on the side of their buses this year. Alongside the regular adverts for London attractions and products, three buses have been specially wrapped to enable 34 organisations to proclaim that “We are all dedicated to diversity”. While commuters can be [...]
Boris and his ‘Nick’ names January 7, 2014 Nick Clegg got an unfortunate 47th birthday present from Boris Johnson yesterday when the mayor implied that the deputy PM was little more than David Cameron’s condom. Employing his usual linguistic flair, the London mayor called Clegg a, “lapdog-cum-prophylactic protection device" on LBC radio. He prefixed it with, “I don’t want to get into some [...]
Solve the capital’s hidden transport crisis by bridging the Thames Chasm January 6, 2014 SOMETIMES a crisis doesn’t seem like a crisis because it is the status quo and people just take it for granted. For London, a case in point is the Thames Chasm – the acute shortage of road crossings of the River Thames east of Tower Bridge. The inability to get across the East Thames is [...]
The Queen’s list honours the City January 5, 2014 THE NEW Year’s Honours List of OBEs, CBEs, Knighthoods and everything in-between contains more decorations than Claridge’s Christmas Tree, and this year the City had a number of notable inclusions. Former Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker got a knighthood, as did former Lord Mayor Roger Gifford, while chair of Land Securities, Alison Carnwath, [...]