Facebook is to hire 10,000 people in Europe to work on the metaverse. It has the potential to change our work, our leisure and our lives. Simply put, the metaverse is the next big thing. But perhaps we should start by explaining what it is… Most people have heard of virtual reality: the belief is …
In September Germany went to the polls to elect a new government – and a successor to Angela Merkel, who had decided not to seek a fifth term as Chancellor. The result was inconclusive. The Social Democrats (SPD) topped the poll with 25.7% of the vote and a provisional 206 seats in the Reichstag, with …
There have been a thousand-and-one articles written since the pandemic on people’s changing attitude to work. Millennials and the generations that follow them – so we are told – want different things from work. Flexibility, the option of working from home and, above all, to work for a company that shares their values: that values …
As the UK economy has gradually recovered from the effects of the pandemic there has been the usual mixture of good and bad news. The glass could be half full, with the UK growing at the fastest rate of G20 countries, or half-empty, with worker shortages threatening to derail the recovery, both being headlines within …
At the end of August the CEO of Australian airline Qantas said that the pandemic had cost “billions” in lost revenue. No shock there – but on the same day another airline did come out with a surprising announcement. America’s third-largest airline, Delta, said that it would impose a $200 (£145) monthly surcharge on employees …
Whichever side you were on in the Brexit debate there was little doubt about one of the central arguments: leaving the EU would free the UK to do its own trade deals with countries and trading organisations around the world. At the end of January the BBC reported that the UK was applying to join …
Setting out the government’s tax and spending plans for the year ahead, the Chancellor announced new measures to help business and jobs through the pandemic and to support the UK’s long-term economic recovery and a series of tax-raising plans to help rebalance the public finances. Here is a summary of the main points. Coronavirus support …
Introduction It is interesting to look back 12 months to Rishi Sunak’s first Budget: it was followed by a year none of us could have predicted or imagined. The Conservatives had won a comfortable majority in the December 2019 General Election. As expected, Sajid Javid became Chancellor and, in January, announced that the Budget would …
Back in 2018 Mike Ashley, owner of Sports Direct and other high street brands, famously declared that ‘the British high street will be dead by 2030.’ The targets of his anger were MPs in general and the then-Chancellor Philip Hammond in particular. Any more taxes on the high street, Ashley argued, and it would collapse …
