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06 February 2012 - Lunch Meeting - London

The City and Europe

The Prime minister, David Cameron, has stated recently that the City of London is under “constant attack” from EU directives and is “a key national interest that we need to defend”.  Stuart Fraser, from the City of London Corporation has added “a deal in Europe, in the Eurozone, could marginalize the City”, and the Mayor, Boris Johnson, has suggested that a Tobin tax, favoured by the European Commission and a number of Eurozone states would reduce London’s competitiveness. These comments raise big questions: Are the City and the EU fundamentally incompatible? Could the City really thrive outside the EU? Would closer integration with the EU stifle London’s competitiveness and reduce it to a regional financial centre? Could closer integration help the City to become even stronger and more international?

Sponsors:

• Intellect

23 February 2012 - Breakfast Meeting - London

The new European landscape

The European landscape is changing fast. Repeated Eurozone crises have indicated fragility but also, perhaps, an underlying determination of key players to work for a satisfactory outcome without overpaying for it. From a UK perspective, the implications of such changes are not yet clear. Will the UK be relegated to the slow lane, cut out of coordinated Eurozone decisions? Is the competitiveness of London threatened? How can the overall economic power of Europe be harnessed? These issues have profound implications for UK business.

08 March 2012 - Breakfast Meeting - London

Getting the best out of the Civil Service and IT

All Governments depend on the Civil Service and IT, and especially ones, like the current Coalition, with an ambitious programme of reform and cost saving. The Public Administration Select Committee, chaired by Bernard Jenkin has produced hard-hitting reports on both subjects. In the case of the Civil Service, it has urged the Government to produce a comprehensive change programme with clear milestones, or face failure. Regarding IT, the Committee has stated that governments have wasted an obscene amount of public money and are dependent on a small oligopoly of large suppliers. These are issues of substance and vital concern to both the public and private sector. Join Bernard Jenkin to hear his views and discuss effective ways to address these issues.

Sponsors:

• Intellect

10 May 2012 - Lunch Meeting - London

The Economic Alternative

Since the 2008 credit crisis, debate has raged as to whether the way to restore UK growth requires fiscal stimulus or austerity. The Coalition government has resolutely pursued austerity and planned, initially, to cut the current account deficit in the lifetime of the current parliament. Growth however has fallen and the deficit reduction plan is not on course. This may be due to external conditions in the Eurozone and the overall world economy, but it is possible to take an alternative view. Join Ed Balls to hear his diagnosis of the problems of the UK economy and his views on how they should be tackled.

UK banking reform

Since the credit crunch of 2008, there have been numerous, not always coordinated, initiatives to reform aspects of banking. The US has passed the Dodd-Frank Act and progress has been made in defining Basel III capital requirements, and in building bank balance sheets to meet them. From the UK point of view, the Vickers report has been published but legislation on the main recommendation of 'ring-fencing' is some way off. This leaves many businesses unclear about  the likely scope and pace of change in UK banking.