Several months ago when we invited Jonty Bloom, one of the media’s most respected journalists to come and speak to our guest audience, we knew it would be informed, relevant and fascinating. What we didn’t know was that the day before (4th September 2019) Boris Johnson would deliver a stunningly inelegant performance at his inaugural Prime Minister’s Question time, the day after losing his first vote in parliament to prevent a further delay in delivering Brexit. (more…)

There are mixed signals in today’s jobs figures for the UK. Optimists will point to continued record employment, a slight fall in unemployment and earnings growth higher than at any point since the recession – despite everything, the labour market is still going strong. For pessimists though, there are strong signs of things slowing down: vacancies have fallen to their lowest since 2017, the growth in employment is virtually flat, and the number of young people not in employment or education is rising again. So what is really going on? (more…)