Beware the Big Society: a lesson for Labour in how not to sell a big idea
Now would be a good time for Ed Miliband to think about the Big Society. As opinion polls show more people seriously imagining him as prime minister, the Labour leader needs a compelling story about...
View ArticleMeet Mondelez – the new global face of Kraft Foods
More than 90 per cent of shareholders approve the new name, which takes effect later this year.With Kraft splitting into two publicly traded companies later this year, shareholders have finally settled...
View ArticleMorning Call: pick of the papers
The ten must-read comment pieces from this morning's papers.1. What's the point of social mobility? It still leaves some in the gutter (Guardian) Nick Clegg's desire to fast-stream clever kids out of...
View ArticleHP cuts 30,000 jobs
Mike Lynch, founder of Autonomy, exits.The PC manufacturer Hewlett-Packard is to cut almost 30,000 jobs, the company has announced, in one of the biggest mass lay-offs in the last decade. The decision...
View ArticleOpinionomics | 24 May 2012
Must-read comment and analysis. Featuring the fiscal cliff. Don't fall off!1. Has the ‘greenest government ever’ given up on carbon budgets? (Left Foot Forward) Reg Platt reveals that there is a...
View ArticleThe Work Programme flounders
Iain Duncan Smith to set up review as £5bn scheme fails to help those most in need.Iain Duncan Smith’s pledge to “make work pay” is a laudable aim that no-one would argue with. The reality, however,...
View ArticleWhat it is like to be a man with an eating disorder?
Too often, help and discussion is targeted only at women.I still remember, vividly, the time I realised I had an eating disorder. I was in the toilet of an east London beerhouse, whose German...
View ArticleMarie's place is empty
Remembering Marie Colvin, 1956-2012.I walk along Fatemi Avenue in Tehran amid the swirling dust of a gathering electrical storm, the tulip-shaped towers of the Hotel Laleh swimming in a heat haze over...
View Article"Fiscal cliff" could knock 6.5% off America's Q1 and Q2 annualised growth
"Taxmaggedon" would hit in JanuaryThe American Congressional Budget Office (the inspiration for our own Office of Budget Responsibility) has released a report warning that the impact of the upcoming...
View ArticleImmigration missing government target
Citizens from non-EU countries continue to be the largest group of migrants to the country.Estimated total long-term immigration to the UK in the year to September 2011 was 589,000, compared to 600,000...
View ArticleIn the Critics this week
Linda Grant on British Jewish writers, Naomi Alderman's exlusive short story and Jemima Khan interviews Anne Frank's stepsister Eva Schloss. In keeping with this week’s overarching theme for the...
View ArticleNews Corp and Hunt’s office: in numbers
Leveson Inquiry hears that 1000 text messages were exchanged.Frederic Michel has just given evidence to the Leveson Inquiry. Michel, who is News Corporation’s head of public affairs in Europe, was...
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Recession deniers proved wrong
Our economics editor gives his verdict.So the recession deniers were wrong again. As I predicted, rather than GDP growth for the first quarter of 2012 being revised up it was actually revised down by...
View ArticleFarage's hint of a pact with the Tories is a sign of weakness
If Ukip could find enough half-decent candidates the party wouldn't be angling to share with the Conservatives.Nigel Farage is proving to be a very effective nuisance to the Conservative leadership....
View ArticleOther people's business, Thursday 24 May
Fat-cat fatigue and the colour-blindness of digital cameras.1. On the edge of the euro storm (Schumpeter) While peripheral countries in the euro zone suffer from credit drought, and investors dump...
View ArticleMail wins Huhne 'lesbian love triangle' stories legal fight
Judge orders Trimingham to pay the Mail's legal costsThe partner of MP Chris Huhne, Carina Trimingham, has had her claim for harassment and breach of privacy against the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday...
View ArticleShould we end free banking?
Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England's Executive Director, spoke today on the future of UK banking, and argued that we nede to tackle "the dangerous myth of free in-credit banking". Bailey told the...
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Being NEET is no fun at all
954,000 young people are not in education, employment or training Today’s headline grabbing bad news number is 0.3 per cent. That is the latest revision to the GDP figures for the first quarter of this...
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More Americans are pro-life and more believe abortion should be legal. (Not a...
A strange finding by pollsters Gallup.A rather odd trio of findings by the American pollsters Gallup. The proportion of Americans describing themselves as "pro-choice" has fallen to a record low of 41...
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Chart of the day: Recession deniers eat crow
The figures for GDP growth in the first quarter of 2012 were revised today, as many, from Goldman Sachs' Kevin Daly to the Sunday Times' David Smith predicted. What they didn't predict, however, was...
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