Why cricket is like spam
The holiday season gets into full swing, but a shadow has been cast by the abysmal failure of our boys to get anywhere near the enormous target of 509 which Australia set them to win in the second Test match. It may seem preposterous even to have thought they would. But a revolution seems to […]
Charter for Growth backed by Mayor of London
Volterra has been in the news this weekend for the research they provided to the Charter for Growth campaign by the New West End Company. West End & Knightsbridge retailers pledge 2,000 jobs for Londoners with flexible Sunday Trading Hours. This move marks the launch of New West End Company’s Charter for Growth, backed by Mayor […]
Scandinavia provides the evidence for Osborne’s war on welfare
George Osborne’s budget has been met with predictable outrage from the poverty lobby. The cuts to the welfare budget will allegedly create shocking levels of deprivation. Young people in particular, it is stated, have been singled out for punitive measures. On the face of it, the arguments do seem plausible. Many people on benefits will […]
Closing the gender pay gap
Those who were lucky enough to attend the Wimbledon Tennis Championships recently cannot have failed to take in the sense of tradition that surrounds those who pass through the gates of the All England Lawn Tennis Club. But in one important sense, Wimbledon is a beacon of progress in the UK – since 2007, the […]
Guaranteed bank deposits and the market for lemons
One aspect of the Greek crisis which will affect many readers is the reduction in the amount of cash in a bank deposit which is protected. The Bank of England announced that the current guaranteed amount of £85,000 will be cut to £75,000 on 1 January. This has led to predictable outrage, with Andrew Tyrie […]
Volterra gives speech at Annual Transport Practitioners Conference
Partner Paul Buchanan and Senior Consultant Lucy Dean recently spoke at the Annual Transport Practitioners Meeting (TPM) Conference. Their presentation ‘Can you change government’s mind on major infrastructure projects’ was based on work produced by Volterra on HS2, Crossrail and, topically, the London Airport expansion. They discussed the factors that affect government decision making on […]
Child poverty is thankfully not rising – but the archaic definition needs to go
David Cameron is feeling the heat. This is not just a consequence of the sudden dramatic rise in London temperatures. The need to extract something meaningful from our EU partners and the increased threat of terrorist attacks are sleep-depriving problems. But the Prime Minister did have one good result during the past week. Despite widespread […]
Short termism in Financial Markets
There has been an immense focus on the Financial Sector in the years since the 2008 Financial Crisis, and rightly so. It was the worst since the Great Depression of 1929 and systemic risks in the financial sector contributed heavily to the depth of the recession. Since then there have been Libor scandals, misselling claims, […]
Who plays better poker? Cameron, Sturgeon or Varoufakis?
The gracious Palladian architecture of Edinburgh has often led the city to be described as the Athens of the North. If the referendum result had gone the other way, much closer parallels would have rapidly emerged. A high spending left-wing government, faced by a collapse in revenues with the fall in the oil price, would […]
Volterra provide expert witness at Kent planning inquiry
Volterra partner Ellie Evans was recently an expert witness at a planning inquiry into the Gallagher Group’s proposals to create an industrial and warehouse development, Waterside Park, at Junction 8 of the M20 in Maidstone, Kent. Ellie’s evidence on the economic benefits of the scheme – which had previously been refused planning permission by Maidstone […]
