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The day after the UK voted to quit the European Union (EU), Baroness Martha Lane-Fox’s reaction was like much of the rest of the tech sector’s. “I was very upset,” she says. “It made me feel… uncomfortable.” As an industry, technology overwhelmingly opposed Brexit. At the time of the vote in 2016, around 90pc of those in the sector came out against leaving the European Union. Three years later, it’s time to move on, says the lastminute.com founder. While politicians have been wrangling over clauses, exit dates and transitional arrangements, behind the scenes the technology sector has been coming to grips with life outside the EU. And now, whilst many entrepreneurs in the space may not have voted for Brexit, they are starting to recognise the opportunities the historic break presents. “It’s a chance for us to reset the regulations,” Rob Kniaz, a partner at venture capital firm Hoxton Ventures explains. A chance, he says, to find the “sensible middle ground” … [Read more...] about How UK innovation can blossom post-Brexit by stripping away EU red tape

Damascene conversions happen all the time in politics. Winston Churchill was once a high-flying Liberal, but ended up as the mightiest Conservative Prime Minister. The Gang of Four split with the Labour party to form the SDP in the early 1980s. But sometimes strategic or ideological u-turns can happen almost by accident. The current Government, for example, is packed with free marketeers boasting impeccable libertarian credentials that are heading the most interventionist, high-spending administration since the Second World War. How did this happen? Partly it is the understandable result of  Covid emergency measures. But it also appears to be influencing longer-term strategy. One of the most dramatic conversions may well be that of Kwasi Kwarteng, who was appointed as Business Secretary last month . Once known for his trenchant economic liberalism, as a co-author of the 2012 book Britannia Unchained , the newly-elevated cabinet minister's short tenure has been marked by a … [Read more...] about Kwasi Kwarteng: from ‘Britannia Unchained’ to shackling business

Has Kwasi Kwarteng gone too far already? The new Business Secretary has spent the first few days in the job busily playing down the widely-held perception that he is a Right-winger. He has distanced himself from the more extreme free-marketeer views he espoused in the 2012 pamphlet entitled Britannia Unchained, which outlined his vision for the country. As a newly elected MP, Kwarteng – along with Liz Truss, Dominic Raab, Priti Patel and Chris Skidmore – denounced the UK’s “bloated state, high taxes and excessive regulation”, and described British workers as “among the worst idlers in the world”. And, despite being appointed less than a month ago, he has already executed his first U-turn, abandoning a post-Brexit review of workers’ rights after he was attacked for wanting to water down protections. When we meet (virtually, of course), he is adamant that much of the criticism was baseless: “People say we want to abolish workers’ rights; nothing could be further from the … [Read more...] about Kwasi Kwarteng: Brexit is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we must take advantage of

Joe Biden won the US presidential election – with running mate Kamala Harris – after receiving  the most votes of any US candidate in history. It is widely expected that Biden will roll the clock back as much as possible to January 2017, when he and Barack Obama left office. Biden wasted no time signing executive orders , with his official schedule for January 20 showing he set aside 30 minutes in the afternoon to begin that process. Biden signed 17 orders and actions just hours after being sworn in as US leader to break from policies of departing President Donald Trump and set new paths on immigration, the environment, fighting Covid-19 and the economy. In first-day moves, he ended Trump’s much-assailed ban on visitors from several majority-Muslim countries and halted construction of the wall that Trump ordered on the US-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration. He also set a mask mandate on federal properties to stem the spread of Covid-19; restored protections of … [Read more...] about Joe Biden’s policies: The President’s views on Covid-19, immigration and the environment

The tech giants will 'run rings around the Government' if duty of care laws simply adopt the companies' own rules, a group of senior peers have warned the Prime Minister. The cross-party House of Lords group, which includes the Bishop of Oxford Steven Croft and former children’s presenter Baroness Floella Benjamin, said the new online regulator had to be given ‘real powers’ to police social media algorithms that spread dangerous content. The warning comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson is currently considering proposals drawn up by the Home Secretary Priti Patel and culture secretary Oliver Dowden for imposing a statutory duty of care on tech companies to better protect their users. Under the proposals, which The Telegraph has campaigned for since 2018, a new online regulator - likely to be Ofcom - could levy huge fines and potentially prosecute executives of tech firms that breached the duty. Ministers have previously said they want the regulations to prevent a repeat of the … [Read more...] about Tech giants will ‘run rings’ round Government if duty of care only enforces companies’ rules, peers warn Prime Minister

It was 2015, and high-flying Scottish banker Jane Fraser had a public relations problem. The executive had just been put in charge of Latin American operations for Citigroup, America's third-biggest bank, and was facing a sexist backlash in the Mexican press as a female foreigner. Some bosses might have tried to out-machismo the country's testosterone-charged business elite - but instead Ms Fraser decided to embrace her feminine side. "My husband took me out, he said 'We're going to buy an elegant red dress, slightly higher heels than you're used to, and a new haircut, and you're going to stride on the stage," she said later in a CNN podcast. "He knew that if I could stride out there and be quite comfortable in who I am, and confident around that and transmitting something that was, 'I am who I am,' that that would be a benefit." That self-awareness has now paid off. The 53-year-old has just been named the next chief executive of Citi , the world's largest credit-card issuer … [Read more...] about Who is Jane Fraser? The Scottish banker who has just become the first female boss of Wall Street

Remainer plot EXPOSED as 'Whitehall shenanigans' used to punish team Leave (Image: GETTY) Sign up for FREE now and never miss the top politics stories again SUBSCRIBE Invalid email We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info Kate Hoey, Labour MP for Vauxhall between 1989 and 2019, has suggested the partygate fallout is being weaponised by Remainers. Speaking in the House of Lords, she said: "I think outside this place, and perhaps some elements of the media that many elements of the public -probably the majority of the public - want to draw a line under all this so we can move on so we can get on with the issues that are really effecting the country. But can I ask the noble lady, does she agree with me that there will be some people who will never ever give up criticising the … [Read more...] about Brexit: Remainer plot EXPOSED as ‘Whitehall shenanigans’ used to punish team Leave