Any other business
The extinction of the arts has been deferred – for now
The government’s £1.57 billion lifeline for the cultural sector was bigger than most practitioners were expecting — and drew a…
Why Boris Johnson’s ‘New Deal’ won’t save us
John Maynard Keynes looks down and smiles, recalling his own perhaps too-often quoted remark that ‘when the facts change, I…
Tinkering with VAT won’t make us trust the government
Should Chancellor Rishi Sunak cut VAT as an emergency stimulus to the consumer economy? When Labour’s Alistair Darling made a…
Is there anywhere visitors will be welcome this summer?
Do stock markets foretell the future while politicians fudge and economists mumble? No: share prices collectively have a life of…
Who would want to come to Britain for a holiday now?
All logic suggests that the 14-day quarantine for arrivals from abroad really is, as Michael O’Leary of Ryanair put it,…
Our theatres are dark – and in danger
Car showrooms are open again: some dealerships, with a hint of forgivable hyperbole, report a surge of pent-up demand. And…
Bailing out businesses looks inevitable – but it’s not all bad
Should the government be prepared to take equity stakes in major companies that will struggle to survive the current crisis?…
Rico Back’s departure is a first-class opportunity for Royal Mail
The Royal Mail worker who rang my bell to deliver an Amazon package on Friday was wearing a glittery ball…
It’s mavericks like Elon Musk who’ll get us through this crisis
This month’s most significant corporate deal attracted less attention than it might have done in normal times, crowded out by…
Now is not the time to throw money at airlines
British Airways warns of 12,000 redundancies. Ryanair announces 3,000 job losses as ‘a minimum to survive the next 12 months’;…
Rishi Sunak must stick to his guns
Was the Chancellor wrong to guarantee only 80 per cent, rather than 100, of ‘coronavirus business interruption loans’ to keep…
Will GSK show us what ‘purpose before profit’ really means?
Keep your eye on GlaxoSmithKline. The UK-based multinational drug-maker represents the future, both as a mass-producer of the vaccines that…
A lesson in survival from pre-21st century Marks & Spencer
When I wrote last week about business-to-business pain-sharing for survival, I was naturally thinking first about UK companies. I say…
At least some of the Chancellor’s promises are actually working
The phrase ‘sharing economy’ was coined a decade or so ago to describe collaborative new business models made possible by…
Spare a thought for the poor estate agents
The suspension of the residential property market is disheartening for those who were hoping to buy a first flat or…
Have you been invited to a Zoom cocktail party yet?
The CBI’s guidelines on ‘best practice for business’ during the pandemic tell the 1,500 larger companies that make up the…
Airlines are no special case when we all need a bailout
The world needs airlines — and, barring Armageddon, will still have some when this crisis is over. It will also…
The antidote to virus panic is in the hands of entrepreneurs
‘It’s a ghost town,’ said the officer manning the body scanner at Manchester airport — Manchester, New Hampshire, that is,…
Britain’s economic fate doesn’t depend on Heathrow
Hit-and-miss, heavy-handed, but a necessary use of justice to deter repetition. That was my summing-up, last year, of the Serious…
Coronavirus is a chance to buy cheaper – but it comes with a health warning
If anything, stock markets have been slow to respond to the spreading coronavirus outbreak. Stories of Chinese supply interruptions, from…
Time for new leadership at Barclays and HSBC – and a new name at RBS
After a dull interlude, the big banks in their annual results season look a bit more interesting again. First to…
Never mind the numbers – the boardroom gender battle has barely begun
It’s the way the world’s going, but still it looks quite impressive that the number of women directors of FTSE100…
Is it worse to be an environmental polluter or a moral one?
So farewell Bernie Ebbers, former chief executive of WorldCom, the long–distance phone operator that became America’s biggest-ever bankruptcy case in…
The most sinister thing about Huawei may be how clean it is
I first wrote about the risks and rumours around Huawei — and made bad jokes about its name — in…
HS2’s completion is as likely as King Harry’s coronation
Seven years ago, when HS2 was still officially costed at £33 billion, I wrote that I was looking forward to…
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