Spectator Briefings

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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

Liz Kendall’s humiliating welfare climb-down

‘This government believes in equality and social justice,’ began Liz Kendall. Which government she was describing is anyone’s guess. I suspect that if you were to ask the general public what they thought the government believed in, ‘equality’ and ‘social justice’ wouldn’t even make the top 100 printable responses.  The government were facing a backbench

Steerpike

Watch: Pro-Palestine mob in Leicester chant ‘death to the IDF’

Pro-Palestine demonstrators on the streets of Britain have been led in a chant of ‘Death, death to the IDF’ – in a sick imitation of punk duo Bob Vylan’s performance at Glastonbury. Protestors who gathered in Leicester on Sunday shouted the slogan during a speech by controversial activist and ex-Guantanamo inmate Moazzam Begg. Begg, now

Isabel Hardman

Labour MPs are still sceptical of the Welfare Bill

Liz Kendall tried to use her Commons statement on the government’s U-turn on some of the disability benefit cuts to persuade her colleagues that the changes made the legislation worth supporting. Not all of them sounded very convinced: there were repeated complaints about a ‘two-tier system’ whereby two people with the same needs would get

Stephen Daisley

Being a Christian isn’t easy

Spare a thought for Chris Coghlan, who has learned to his horror that not only is the Pope a Catholic, his own priest is one too. The Liberal Democrat MP, who voted to legalise assisted suicide, attends St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Dorking. He complains to the Observer that Father Ian Vane ‘publicly announced at Mass that he was… denying me

James Heale

How big will the Labour welfare rebellion be?

This afternoon Liz Kendall will update the House of Commons on her revised plans for welfare, following the concessions wrung out of her by Labour MPs. The Work and Pensions Secretary announced plans on Thursday night for £3 billion in additional funds. This will allow current claimants of personal independence payments to keep their current