Spectator Briefings

Sponsored content

Sponsored content

Pioneering innovation: launching the world’s first graphene-enriched carbon fibre facility to advance vision 2030 and global innovation

As I reflect on the monumental achievement that we’ve reached with GIM GrapheneFibre, I am both humbled and energised by the possibilities this milestone brings. Together with our partners in Saudi Arabia, Organized Chaos, we have officially launched the world’s first commercial production of graphene-enriched carbon fibre – a groundbreaking leap that firmly places Saudi

How can we unlock longer working lives?

How do we get Britain back to work? Tackling our high rates of economic inactivity has been described by Liz Kendall, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, as ‘the greatest employment challenge in a generation’. The challenge is indeed a serious one. Since the pandemic, the proportion of workers who are economically inactive

A perfectly modern education

Walking through Sherborne’s streets, it is clear there is something special about this gorgeous Dorset town. Routinely named in lists of the UK’s most beautiful places to live, it has a tangible air of history, with a glorious abbey standing at its heart. But it’s the two full-boarding senior schools and two local prep schools

Urgent action is required to address pensions adequacy

Since its introduction just over a decade ago, automatic enrolment has undoubtedly transformed retirement savings in the UK, allowing millions of workers to effortlessly save for their future.  Some 22.6 million people now contribute to a workplace pension, an increase of 47 per cent before auto enrolment’s inception in 2012. That is a significant achievement.

Where next for pensions auto-enrolment?

Since its introduction just over a decade ago, automatic enrolment has undoubtedly transformed retirement savings in the UK, allowing millions of workers to effortlessly save for their future.  Some 22.6 million people now contribute to a workplace pension, an increase from 47 per cent prior to auto enrolment’s inception in 2012. That is a significant

Adani Green Energy accelerates decarbonisation of India’s grid by developing world’s largest renewable energy project

With India’s economy due to grow almost 7 per cent this year and an environmental necessity for clean energy, the country urgently needs to decarbonise its energy system at scale. The dual challenge of satisfying the rising demand for energy while ensuring a cleaner and greener future requires extraordinary ambition and scope. Adani Green Energy

The vaping industry: time to step up

You may have recently seen billboard or newspaper adverts calling for better regulation of the vaping industry, to help combat the levels of underage vaping and the sale of illegal vapes. These are the work of BAT, the biggest vaping manufacturer based in the UK. As a FTSE 10 UK company, our call for the

Latest from Coffee House

Britain is playing into Hamas’s hands

Keir Starmer’s government has suspended trade talks with Israel and summoned the Israeli ambassador over the ‘intolerable’ offensive in Gaza. To be honest, I’m surprised it’s taken ten months for any doubt to be cleared up. But now it is entirely clear where the government stands vis-à-vis our supposed great ally in the Middle East, Israel, and the Islamist

Why the Trump-Putin dialogue is so dangerous for Ukraine

“Look, are you serious? Are you real about this?” That question, according to US vice president J.D. Vance, was the essence of yesterday’s phone call between his boss Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. What Vance meant was to question whether Putin was serious about peace. But turning the question on its head would actually be far

Steerpike

Clegg: Starmer’s EU deal is a ‘damp squib’

In a blast from the past, the UK’s onetime deputy prime minister Nick Clegg popped up again in London today to muse, 15 years on, about his party’s coalition with the Conservatives. But despite this being the purpose of his talk, it didn’t take the arch-Remainer long to get to the subject of the European

James Heale

What has reaction been to the UK-EU deal?

18 min listen

Fallout continues from yesterday’s summit and the announcement of a deal between the UK and EU – or is it fair to call it ‘fallout’ as, despite criticism over the deal from Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch, has the public got Brexit fatigue?  James Heale and Michael Simmons join Patrick Gibbons to talk about the

Gavin Mortimer

The EU’s power is waning. If only Starmer could see it

Britain is back in the big time. Or at least it is according to Sir Keir Starmer, who was tickled pink with the ‘reset’ relationship agreed with the European Union on Monday. ‘It’s time to look forward,’ declared the Prime Minister, standing alongside the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. ‘We’re ready to work