News

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...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  A new infographic has been built by Project Lower to help businesses cut their energy bills. The resource outlines a five-year plan with information on how businesses can save money on their energy bills whilst creating a greener and more efficient workplace. With 42 per cent of workers saying that the recent economic crisis has made it more important to make the workplace more sustainable, this tool could be a useful 'how to' guide for...

By Robert Sun Preparing the next generation for success in life is perhaps the most important task of any society. So it comes as no surprise that here in the US, there is immense pressure at the national level to measure our progress in educating our children. The question we must ask, however, is whether the measuring sticks we use to accomplish this task are truly accurate. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, is whether high-stakes testing produces graduates prepared to...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  A new report on university education has found studying profession-linked degrees is more important than ever. The study revealed that almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of professionals believe it is now more important than ever to choose a vocational degree linked to a profession, such as law or medicine, particularly now the price of going to university is so high. Over 2,000 graduates and high-net-worth professionals were polled in a study commissioned by Investec Private Banking to reveal...

By Alan Owens, Partner and Head of Technology at law firm DWF The current Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations explicitly fail to address the big issues facing the global tech industry – data and US dominance. These issues have come right to the fore following the recent EU action against internet giant Google. Google has been in the crosshairs of the EU for some time, replacing Microsoft as its US tech target of choice. On 27 November last...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  Police targeted, stores looted and havoc wreaked across the streets of Baltimore. The past week has been a mass of ugly pictures in Maryland as footage emerge from riots that broke out after the funeral of Freddie Gray, 25, who died after suffering a spinal injury in police custody. Like the London riots, citizen journalism has played a prominent role in conveying the events which seems to have humanised the uprising. Subsequent media responses have been...

By Ivan McKeever, CEO SwitchMyBusiness.com It is a political cliché that if every one of Britain’s 5.2 million small and micro firms were each helped to create one job, we would wipe out our unemployment problem. But what do those parties seeking our votes offer beyond tempting rhetoric at election time? A survey for SwitchMyBusiness.com, an energy compare and switch service for small businesses, revealed 93 per cent of small business owners want drastic change from the next Government. And...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  Protein World's 'Beach Body Ready' campaign has kicked up such a big fuss of late you would have thought body-shaming was a new concept, but the reality is that the girl in the yellow bikini has merely drawn people's attention to a more prominent body shaming platform, one that is far more pronounced and more destructive than any London Underground billboard ad. Social media compounds body image issues in ways no other platform has ever managed...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  Next-generation betting exchange Smarkets has reached the one billion pound traded milestone. A strong response to the Cheltenham Festival and record-breaking interest in the Grand National built on momentum from 2014 pushing the company over the £1 billion mark. Cheltenham saw trading volume grow by 320 per cent year-on-year, whereas the response to the Grand National smashed the company’s one-day record for GBP volume traded, recording a revenue increase of 359 per cent. Revenue has snowballed in the...