Stephen Adams, a former advisor to the European Commission’s trade division and a director at the consultancy Global Counsel, said the new rules “will place some serious demands [on importers]”.
There is a truce in the British-EU sausage war. The extension of the grace period for chilled meats going from Britain to Northern Ireland has bought time to find solutions. It is unlikely to be used successfully. And it concerns a part of the world which lacks the luxury of using war as a metaphor for trade disputes.
The Financial Conduct Authority’s chief executive officer has said the regulator is still learning about how to deal with digital entrants to financial services but its work would be made easier by tighter legislation.
Speaking at Global Counsel’s event yesterday (July 14), Nikhil Rathi was asked if the FCA had the framework and firepower to properly regulate digital entrants to the market.
Evaluating the costs associated with the UK’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 deserves far greater attention. It suddenly entered the fray last week when Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, was asked who would be expected to pay the touted £1 trillion cost — including £10,000 per home to replace gas boilers — in an interview with Andrew Neil.
The speed with which the European Commission has had to frame its "Fit for 55" climate package will likely lead to lengthy, difficult negotiations with the European Parliament and EU Council, according to Brussels-based energy expert Giorgio Corbetta of strategic consultancy Global Counsel.
Central to Boris Johnson’s political sense of self is the notion that he is a “Brexity Hezza”: “Brexity” because he led the charge for the UK’s exit from the European Union; and “Hezza” because, like Michael Heseltine, his political passion is regenerating parts of the country that have suffered years of post-industrial decline — the policy known as “levelling-up”, even if precise definitions of it are hard to come by.
After a poor set of local election results and a botched reshuffle, Labour hasn’t had the best of weeks. But one thing it may have gotten right is the appointment of Angela Rayner as “shadow secretary for the future of work”. While it is easy to mock the elaborate titles bestowed on the deputy leader after she was sacked from as party chair and national campaign coordinator, her brief is nothing to scoff at. The Conservative party would do well to appoint their own equivalent to sit on the front benches.
Until recently, concerns about the impact of technology on the workplace have largely focused on the so-called “gig economy”. This nebulous term refers to a whole range of jobs typically characterised by insecure and generally low-paid employment mediated by digital platforms – think ride-hailing, food delivery and courier services.
"Politically, the Finance Ministry is regarded as a heavyweight portfolio and there is some expectation that the appointment... primes (Mr Wong) as the leading candidate," remarked Andrew Yeo, head of strategic consultancy Global Counsel Singapore.
Mr Yeo, however, did not rule out both Mr Ong, the new Health Minister, and former army chief Chan Chun Sing, the new Education Minister, as contenders to be chosen as the new 4G leader.
Giving their thoughts about each of the three potential candidates, the analysts said that the decision behind the new appointments are unconventional at this stage of their political careers.
Mr Andrew Yeo, senior associate at strategic advisory business firm Global Counsel, said that for Mr Wong, for instance, it may seem like his new role as finance minister may place him as the leading candidate.
After all, Mr Wong will be assuming the portfolio at an administratively complex phase, Mr Yeo noted, with the pandemic requiring adept management of competing priorities.
If politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose, what are they doing when they don’t say anything? This is the central mystery behind one of the untold stories of the pandemic in the UK: the precipitous decline in migration since the lockdown began last year. What does it mean for the economy as it reopens this week and what does the government think about it?
For 20 years the Conservatives have campaigned for stricter controls on migration in order to reduce the total number of people coming to live in the UK, whether for work, study or family reasons. Even Boris Johnson, a supposed liberal on these matters, made it a manifesto promise that “overall numbers will come down”. This was much to the dismay of businesses which benefited from relatively cheap supplies of labour, and which thought ministers were bluffing about wanting to cut net migration even as they pursued ending free movement through Brexit.
