News

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor After watching 20-year-old Mhairi Black’s maiden speech, when she showed how a young politician should conduct oneself, in a non-precocious or cringe worthy way(William Hague take note) I settled down to the last PMQs until after the summer recess. I hoped that established politicians had seen her speech and a breath of fresh air had blown through politics, which would enlighten me. Obviously they didn’t and I wasn’t. Harriet Harman, who was cheered by the...

Satire: Foxes Offered Last Minute Bailout Deal Britain’s wild foxes have been offered a last minute bailout deal by The Conservatives after talks to save the species from privileged countryside toffs reached a drawn-out conclusion. Leaders have agreed to keep the current legislation in place after marathon talks went on well in to the night. Under the deal, hunters will continue to overlook legal restrictions as long as anti-campaigners promise to restructure their attacks to focus exclusively on class warfare,...

By Rebecca Mossman, HR Director EMEA & APAC at HireRight Solving the productivity puzzle is fast becoming a key strategic priority for UK business leaders if they are to keep up with their international counterparts. According to the ONS, Britain produces 30% less per hour than workers in Germany and France. This means that it takes British workers five days to do what our German counterparts do in four. As a result, earlier this month George Osborne unveiled a productivity plan in...

By Steve Taggart As we reported recently, micro businesses and entrepreneurship are getting some great press lately and the growth of small businesses is helping to drive economic recovery here in the UK. But new research has shown that the so-called ‘startup revolution’ appears to be losing pace. The data, which was gathered by business service website Company Check, shows the growth in numbers of new businesses being incorporated each year to have slowed from 13.4% year-on-year between 2010-11 to...

By James Rubin, CEO, www.envirowaste.co.uk UK recycling rates increased rapidly by 32% between 2000 and 2012 but recently this rate has flatlined. Only 33.9% of household waste in London was sent for recycling last year despite Boris Johnson suggesting an initial target of 45% and the EU setting a target of 50% recycling by 2020. As Europe’s greenest major city with 40% of surface area made up of public green spaces, we should be able to work towards these targets....

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  Queen guitarist and animal campaigner Brian May is set to lead a protest urging policymakers to keep the Hunting Act intact outside Westminster on Tuesday. The musician and activist - along with May's Save Me Trust, PETA, the RSPCA, the League Against Cruel Sports, Born Free, Lush and Humane Society International – will descend on Westminster in an attempt to make the public aware of the high stakes of the vote: that amending the existing rules to...

By David Dumeresque of executive search experts, Tyzack Peter Whitehead, former editor of the FT Non-Executive Directors’ Club, wrote in a Financial Times article titled Non-executive director: a task for which no one is qualified: “The list of attributes required of a non-executive director is so long, precise and contradictory that there cannot be a single board member in the world who fully fits the bill.” There is no doubt that the role of the non-executive director (NED) has changed...

By Mark Mason, Chairman enterprise app consultancy and developer, Mubaloo According to the latest budget, the UK is growing faster than any other major country (UK, 2.6%, USA 2.4%, Canada 2.4%, Japan 0.1%, France 0.4%, Germany 1.5% and Italy which shrank by 0.4%). The UK is also borrowing less and is more focused on long term sustainable growth than it was five years ago. Indeed, we are now at the end of the longest continuous rise in public debt since 17th...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  Social media sentiment graphs have revealed that there has been a shift towards a more positive mentality in the latest London Underground Tube Strike, with the British 'keep calm and carry on' sentiment prevailing. Research by Falcon Social found sentiment on Wednesday evening as disruption first started was mostly negative.   However, that took a complete shift this morning when a lot of humour and good natured reactions featured amongst the top Twitter mentions. Not...