Explainer: What’s wrong with music streaming? January 31, 2023 Today is another rough day for tech. Streaming giant Spotify suffered significant losses in the last quarter, despite a rise in subscribers. Operating costs soared to 44 per cent after the platform made a mistake common in tech: expanding and hiring during the pandemic without thinking of long-term implications. This is not the first bad [...]
When recessions hit and policy breaks down, we need charities to fill the gap January 31, 2023 When governments fail to act, someone else must step in. These organisations, like the network of homelessness charities at St Martin-in-the-Fields, are London's unsung heroes, writes Elena Siniscalco
Sadiq Khan: London councils waste money bidding for levelling up cash January 30, 2023 Sadiq Khan accused the government of forcing local councils to waste money bidding for cash as part of the “levelling up fund”. Speaking in front of the Levelling Up Committee, he said councils were criticised if they fail to bid for funding from Westminster, even though only one in five councils is successful. The London [...]
Persimmon and Barratt to sign Gove’s cladding contract as others stall for time January 30, 2023 A handful of developers plan to sign the government contract to fix buildings affected by cladding and other fire risks in the coming weeks. Levelling up secretary Michael Gove gave developers a six-week deadline to commit to more than £2bn of repairs to fix the issues in buildings taller than 11 metres. This comes on [...]
Explainer: Another problem with HS2 January 27, 2023 Britain is a country of many things, but right now, its railway is known for all the wrong reasons. On top of the strikes that make it impossible to plan a trip anywhere in the country – or to know whether you’ll manage to catch your flight from Stansted – the HS2 is back on [...]
Explainer: Does Meta need Trump more than Trump needs Meta? Probably not January 26, 2023 Big personalities, like winter colds and bad habits, always come back to haunt you. Donald Trump is no exception to this rule – and he just got back his platform to shout, very loudly, at your face. Facebook and Instagram – the Meta twins – decided to reinstate Trump’s account, two years after his suspension [...]
Explainer: How human rights laws could soon change in the UK January 25, 2023 In all these years of Brexit politics, one of the main themes was the Conservatives’ desire to be more independent from European courts. By leaving the EU, they partially achieved this goal – yet the UK is still part of the European Convention on Human Rights, still subject to the decisions of the European Court [...]
We need closer ties to EU to protect our national security, Labour says January 24, 2023 Britain should have closer ties to the European Union in order to project our national security, the Labour Shadow Foreign Secretary has said. At a speech at Chatham House, David Lammy said yesterday Labour’s first priority on foreign policy will be strengthening its ties with Europe on national security if it wins the next election. [...]
Analysis: Labour’s foreign policy tilting towards the European Union January 24, 2023 A party in opposition always finds itself caught between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, it must set out future policies to look credible and to give reasons to be trusted – and voted – to the electorate. On the other, it is always wary of overpromising and then having to break [...]
Explainer: A very German stalemate over tanks for Ukraine January 24, 2023 You don’t need to be a defence expert to know something is up with Germany and tanks. Today, the German government has once again refused to commit to sending tanks to Ukraine – attracting further criticisms from its international friends and allies. The tanks row is nothing new – pressure on Germany has been piling [...]
