News

By Jack Peat, TLE Editor  When the exit polls were revealed at 10pm last night the entire nation was left scratching their heads. Paddy Ashdown said live on television that he will eat his hat if the poll, which left the Liberal Democrats with a measly ten seats in the House of Commons, was right. The reality is that the party could receive even fewer seats than that. The exit poll gave Conservatives 316 seats, Labour 239, the SNP on 58 and...

By David Ferrabee, Director of change management specialists Able and How General elections are notorious for the turmoil as well as the sense of renewal they generate. Despite all the grievances that get aired and the abuse that gets hurled, there is real excitement and hope that things are changing. This is a time for big visions and promises, and that is something which business leaders, who often have to transform their businesses, can relate to.  The all-important issue of...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  Bargain hunters bagged hundreds of cheap deals this week in a bizarre auction at Edinburgh Airport. Security scanners, a fire engine and two planes were just some of the items which went under the hammer for “scrap value” as airport chiefs flogged off their old equipment. The auction of redundant equipment included arrival and departure signs, airport vehicles, terminal seating and two old Fokker 27 aircraft used for fire training. A 2004 Schmidt snowplough valued at over £10,000...

  By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  Europe is getting back on track, according to Schroders' Senior European Economist Azad Zangana, who believes the unclogging of the banking sector along with falling oil prices and quantitative easing is prompting better-than-expected results. Despite Greece being nowhere nearer to agreeing the terms of its next bailout, raising the likelihood of a forced exit from the eurozone, peripheral markets have seen little contagion and there is even room for optimism in Europe. Firstly, Zangana argues, the weaker euro...

By David Binder With the election mere days away, and with all manner of policies, arguments, counter-arguments, slogans, tweets and hashtags swamping us, you could be forgiven for not knowing who to vote for. One way to help navigate this dilemma is to ask ‘what matters to me/my family/my dog/my community/town/country/universe (delete as appropriate), and then look at what each party seems to be saying on that issue/s and proceed on that basis. I’ve written before (here and here on why I believe...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) have created an infographic to demonstrate the role political parties play in enabling a flourishing life. With the impending General Election just two days away, the group of leading academics have completed an audit of the political parties’ manifestos in order to assess their stance on UK and global poverty. The results showed the Green Party goes the furthest in their stand against poverty with a score of 3.9 out of...

By Jack Peat, TLE Editor  Nasal, uncharismatic and incapable of eating a bacon sandwich in public, Ed Miliband has been the target of vitriol personality attacks since winning the Labour party leadership contest against his brother in 2010. One of the lines that has become synonymous with the election is, “I could vote Labour, but not Ed Miliband”. Curious logic given the nature of party politics and, well, democracy, but perhaps not surprising given that political engagement has become about switching...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  The Labour Party has ramped up the battle of the video in the run-up to the General Election, releasing another video featuring an A class celebrity. Steve Coogan is the latest celeb to appear in a Labour Party video, urging voters to side with Labour in order to prevent further privatisation of the NHS. He said: “Now this election is on a knife-edge but if you want a government that believes in working families, in a better...

By Jack Peat, TLE Editor The only thing we can say for certain in the run-up to the 2015 General Election is that there are no certainties. Set to be the closest fought election in recent history the electorate is split and Westminster is divided. Very few political commentators feel confident enough to call it one way or the other and the polls have been returning the same results since the start of the year. So what is going to happen? Well, we...