My blog

Category: Features

  • Harry Hyman: a Labour government will be a helpful ‘resetting of the clock’

    Christopher Jackson

     

    I meet the entrepreneur and publisher Harry Hyman in his offices on Haymarket. He is ensconced in a corner office surrounded by John Piper prints and art which speaks to his love of theatre.

    Hyman has had an interesting life, succeeding in both the healthcare and publishing sectors. I am keen to know how it all began and ask him about his upbringing: “My parents both came from an immigrant background,” he tells me. “My father’s family came from Eastern Europe between 1890 and 1900. One lot came from what was then Belarus and the other lot came from what is now Poland but both I think then were under the Soviet influence. They probably wanted to get to New York, but they ended up in London by mistake, or because they didn’t have enough money to get there.”

    And on his mother’s side? “She was Anglo-Indian – and that meant nobody liking you, neither the Indians nor the British. People didn’t have very much money and so I think they were both very keen for people to do well and education was a very important part of that. It was drilled into you that education was vital.” He laughs: “I still believe that one of the few things that Tony Blair actually said that was probably right is: ‘Education, education, education’.”

    And how was Hyman’s education? “I knuckled down and did very well. I went to Cambridge, and graduated there with a first class degree in geography. I stayed for one year to think about doing a PhD but felt that wasn’t for me: it was too specialist and not very exciting. It’s a weird thing that when you study geography the more you go into a particular area it becomes like another subject: so for a physical geographer you almost become a geologist; a bio geographer becomes almost a biologist; an economic geographer becomes almost an economist; and a historical geographer becomes almost a historian.”

    But the year was 1979 and Thatcher was on the rise. Hyman intuited the enormity of the shift, and decided to enter the business world at perhaps one of the most opportune times in history: “I went off to Price Waterhouse and followed this quite conventional route of becoming a chartered accountant which I did very well at and I enjoyed my three and a half years there,” he recalls.

    However things were about to change for Hyman – and as so often happen, due to his meeting the right person at the right time. “I met this really entrepreneurial dynamic financier called Michael Goddard who worked at a business called Baltic plc and I had 11 very enjoyable hard-working years where I learned a lot about finance and about business and about negotiation but it instilled in me a desire to do my own thing.” Around that time Hyman had also begun to take an interest in healthcare. “I got very interested in health, and was interested to take the techniques of asset finance and structured finance, which was what Baltic specialised in, and apply that to different parts of the public sector which had been starved of capital because the Treasury controlled the purse strings.” Hyman saw that Thatcher’s administration was serious about shaking things up: “Norman Lamont introduced the Private Finance Initiative and I thought that was quite an interesting turning point; it was an opportunity for the government to form partnerships with the private sector to invest in infrastructure.”

     

    It was to be a huge success. Hyman left Baltic in 1994 to start his own company Nexus. This business set up Primary Health Properties; Hyman would manage it for 27 years, and only stopped being CEO in April 2023.

    When Hyman set up the healthcare business was he partnering with government from day one? “I got very interested in the fact that GPs, although they are independent contractors, have a contract with the NHS: as part of that they get their rent reimbursed to them by the NHS and of course the NHS is part of the British government. Therefore from an investor’s standpoint although your tenant is actually a group of GPs, the payor of the rent is actually the NHS which is the government: so you have a gilt-edged income stream even though your tenant is just a group of professionals.”

    For Hyman, this was a clear opportunity: “I saw that there was what I would call a yield and covenant arbitrage there and so set up the business to take advantage of that and to act as a funnel of capital back in, in order to modernise the NHS. Even today, 40 per cent of all primary care premises in the country are sub-standard and you are seeing a paradigm shift effectively away from an old-fashioned converted house where you had your polio jab on a sugar cube with a single handed GP giving it to you into a much more modern medical centre.” The beauty is that these centres are much more modern and contain ‘a raft of ancillary services’. This is, of course, also in the interests of the doctors. “They don’t want to take on the capital burden of providing a £9 or 10 million building: they are quite happy for a third party landlord like Primary Health Properties to be that partner and now our portfolio is around £2.8 billion: we have 514 centres, of which 21 are in Ireland and it’s a very interesting and safe and secure business model.”

    It sounds it, and the success of the venture has enabled Hyman to diversify into publishing. “Here at Nexus we publish B2B magazines and we run events around them. Our titles are Health Investor, Education Investor, Caring Times, Nursery Management, and today we have got a small publication called Nutrition Investor and we have Independent Schools Management. The theme of those is very much health and education. Property, health and education has been my raison d’etre for the past 30 years.”

    I say that publishing is a difficult sector compared with healthcare property. Why put himself through the stress? “The original reason is because I couldn’t find anything I wanted to read and so Health Investor is a B2B magazine focused on investors that are providing contracted out services to the NHS.   It’s basically an events business.  You obviously have to have content. I don’t think you can run the events without titles but as you know we’ve moved from a non-digital basis to a digital basis and people will pay for high quality content but it is quite hard on a lot of businesses who have really struggled with that.”

     

    And what does Hyman think of the prospect of a Labour government? “I think there’ll be a resetting of the clock, and that will allow someone to have a slightly longer timescale. I think Covid and the political contortions of late have given governments quite a short term time horizon which is not very good in terms of ensuring that infrastructure goes in to the built environment.”

    But that doesn’t mean that Hyman agrees with Labour, especially when it comes to its commitment to impose VAT on private school fees. “Will that apply to early years? Will it apply to all sorts of education? Will it apply to university tuition? Is it going to be five, eight, ten, or 20 per cent? How is that going to work? It sounds like a great manifesto commitment but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it never got legislated for because it will push much more demand back into the state sector which is hard pressed anyway. In France everyone goes to a state school as I understand it. You are then talking about a wholesale system change.”

    Hyman’s success has allowed him time for his passions, chiefly opera. He founded the International Opera Awards in 2012, with a view to helping the sector. What was it that drew him to classical music? “They are quite profound stories. The topics in Shakespeare are enduring and unfortunately people think it’s all DJ toffs walking round Glyndebourne. Most opera houses go out of their way to try and encourage a younger generation of opera goers otherwise the whole audience will be dead in 10 or 15 years’ time.”

    The problem is that television has encroached on the economics of live performance, so it’s not an easy sector in which to pay the bills. “My shtick is to try and encourage younger people to make the grade from music college through to a proper career in opera whether they be singers, directors, musicians, or conductors – but it’s tough. Last year we gave out £100,000 worth of bursaries to 20 people: it’s not that enormous a sum of money but can make the difference between someone stopping their career and carrying on.”

    The plight of even the most talented musicians is an extremely difficult one. “You go to music school and then you get your music qualification – but then you have to make it as an artist and that will require you to sing in a chorus or hope to get spotted and get a supporting role. That in itself is difficult – and if you are not from a less well-off background or if you are an overseas person, it’s even harder. We have supported some Ukrainian people who have the right to be here as a student but they don’t have the right to work.”

    This interest brings him full circle back to his parents. “They were very interested in opera.  I first went in 1984, and it has been a journey since. I like Wagner: his music is absolutely sensational and the stories he writes about are primeval almost. The Ring is very profound isn’t it?  It’s about man’s quest for money and power and ends in disaster.  They all end up regretting having it but it’s this lust that drives them.”  And with that, I head back out onto Haymarket, reflecting that it’s not often you talk about Wagner and the private finance initiative in the same conversation – but Hyman is an interesting man with a broad frame of reference.

     

    To learn more about the International Opera Awards go to http://operaawards.org

     

  • Dinesh Dhamija: Massive Renewable Deal and Battery Boost

    Dinesh Dhamija

     

    There were two standout news stories this week to cheer the clean energy sector.

    First, Microsoft’s commitment to power its data centres with renewable electricity in a $10 billion deal. This will add 10.5 gigawatts of generating capacity, the equivalent of powering 1.8 million homes, and is eight times bigger than the next-largest corporate renewable electricity deal, between mining company Rio Tinto and an Australian solar company.

    Microsoft needs the extra power because it’s forging ahead with new data centres to service AI and cloud computing customers, part of an upsurge in energy demand in the United States, soon to be repeated in Europe.

    “The nationwide [United States] forecast of electricity demand shot up from 2.6 per cent to 4.7 per cent over the next five years,” reported Grid Strategies in a recent report. It predicts that more than $150 billion will be invested in data centres up until 2028, alongside more than 200 major manufacturing facilities.

    In 2023, corporate deals for a record 46 gigawatts of new solar and wind capacity were announced, as companies like Amazon and Microsoft sought to reduce their carbon footprints.

    All this activity and development is positive news, but the context is important. There’s such a huge growth in demand for energy that some believe more coal, oil and gas sources may also be needed, negating any positive impact on climate change. “Gas is the only cost-efficient energy generation capable of providing the type of 24/7 reliable power required by the big technology companies to power the AI boom,” said one energy investor. The intermittent nature of wind and solar power is highlighted by fossil fuel lobbyists as a central problem.

    Renewable energy champions argue that, by contrast, AI can help solve the reliability issue for wind and solar power, through its predictive abilities. In a second clean energy breakthrough, the G7 this week announced a renewable energy storage target: a six-fold increase in capacity by 2030 using batteries, hydrogen and water.

    The International Energy Agency foresees batteries making up 90 per cent of new storage capacity, with hydroelectric power accounting for a smaller share. Batteries have enjoyed a dramatic uptake in demand over recent years, as their costs have fallen by 90 per cent since 2009. Batteries added 42 gigawatts to global electricity supplies in 2023. We will doubtless hear more self-serving predictions from the hydrocarbon industry about how renewable energy cannot power the economies of the future, so it’s important to pay attention to developments like these: massive renewable energy projects and game-changing storage solutions.

    We’re in the middle of an energy transition, with incremental progress taking place all around us, whatever the fossil fuel lobby might say.

    Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers.com, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament. Since then, he has created the largest solar PV and hydrogen businesses in Romania. Dinesh’s latest book is The Indian Century – buy it from Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1738441407/

     

  • Michael Gove on how the Tories can win the next election

    Michael Gove

     

    When I hear the pessimistic talk about the upcoming General Election, I think back to the 2017 vote during which the Conservatives went more than 20 points ahead in the polls. Everyone thought that it was going be a landslide. In fact by the time we got to election day, we ended up forfeiting our majority and managing to govern with the support of the DUP.

    At the moment people are telling you that the next election is a foregone conclusion since Labour are 20 points ahead, and that there is an automatic inevitability regarding what will happen in the next election. However, there’s a lot we can still do: we can ensure that Labour are facing the kind of scrutiny that they have managed to evade for the last four years and see that the holes and weaknesses in their policy prospectus are held up to effective attack.

    Of course, if we are going to do that, we have got to move the conversation on from some of the introspective chatter to which Conservative MPs can sometimes be prone. We need to start by being proud of our achievements.

    For instance, the education reforms that we brought in in the early years of Conservative-led government were bitterly contested. We were told that those reforms would make no difference and that we were on an ideological jolly that would end in tears. Thirteen years later, and we have seen a decisive move towards higher standards for all of our children and for those of us who care about social mobility. One of the most striking things, is that it’s not just the case that school standards have improved – it’s also the case that the poorest children have benefitted most.  When we came to power in 2010, more boys from Eton went to Oxford and Cambridge than boys eligible for free school places. Now we have a dramatically increased number of children from disadvantaged backgrounds at our best universities than at any time since the Second Wold War.

    It is not just strength and confidence in our record that we need. We also need to make sure that we go into the next election with a manifesto which is based on hope. We have to show that as a party that believes in capitalism that the next generation has the chance to acquire capital and a chance to acquire the homes that they will grow their families in and pass on to the next generation. We also need to make sure that we have policies on the provision of infrastructure – on liberating industry and enterprise, on having a tax structure that makes sure that people will put in that extra effort in order to make this country great.

    Thirdly, we need to make sure that people understand the risk of Labour as well. In many areas Labour are weak, where their policy mixes are either entirely toxic or entirely absent and it is our responsibility to make sure that at the next election rather than it being simply a referendum on this government, it becomes a choice between the chance to extend opportunity and a Labour party who will put everything that we have achieved in the last 13 years in jeopardy.

    Let’s take the welfare system as an example. Under the Conservatives this has been reformed though universal credit, and this was another policy which was vigorously contested by the opposition. It has resulted not only in operational success but it also meant that during the Covid-19 pandemic we were able to get help to those who most needed it remarkably quickly. Under Labour between 1997 and 2010, a million more people became unemployed. By stark contrast, we have created more than a million new jobs while we have been in power. To my mind the best thing that any government can do is to provide people with a route to independence; ultimately, the enduring way of tackling poverty is to ensure that people have the skills and the support to make their own life and make their own choices, rather than being dependent on the state.

    One of the problems that we have sometimes as Conservatives is that we risk being seen as administrators and not evangelists. That’s a criticism which is often levelled at ministers. The word narrative is overused, but politicians do need to tell a story. They need to explain why it is that we are taking this difficult decision, or moving in that particular way. We need to have a vision of how individuals can flourish in the country we want to build and that means being able to respond instinctively and coherently to new challenges.

    Everybody in Westminster is fascinated and interested by politics.   Most people in the public at large are wise enough not to waste too much time paying attention so when we do have their attention during a General Election campaign, we have got to be clear. During the Brexit referendum, the “Take Back Control’ slogan encapsulated a set of arguments which you could then unpack in a variety of areas which allowed you to then make the arguments that you needed to make. The best simple sentences are the product of careful thought and the careful thought can then be unpacked once the simple sentence is valid.

    Of course, we need to do all this while also facing inflation. It is simply the case that as inflation increases, interest rates increase, and access to capital becomes more difficult for people. That has ramifications in my Department: house builders themselves will build fewer homes during an economic downturn because they want to keep the price of the product that they are selling from falling too far. We should not be passive in the face of those challenges. Firstly, we have to make the planning system work, and balance the desire that people have to protect the quality of life which they have in particular communities. One of the big challenges that we have in England particularly is that our cities – which is where many young people, of course, want to live and work – are much more geographically spread out than comparable cities in Europe or in the US. There are a huge number of brownfield sites and buildings which are suitable for turning into new housing. Many of these are currently either prevented from being turned into new homes by the obstruction of the Mayor of London, or by difficulties with the effectiveness of the planning system.

    In tackling all of these things, we have got to have a series of solutions that deal with the geographical challenges that the housing market faces in different parts of the country. More than that, we also need to change some of the incentives: at the moment the incentive is very much for many local authorities to turn down housing. We need them to welcome it by making sure that they get a bigger share of uplift that comes from planning permissions being granted: it’s only when you create those incentives that you can begin to let local politicians and local people see the double benefit that comes from new development.

    An emphasis purely on quantity is the biggest problem. If you have someone who is thinking about a new development – whether that is digging an existing brownfield site in one of our great cities or expanding a settlement – if they think about that development in terms of making it beautiful then it gives real life to a community and creates an attractive destination. Take Poundbury as an example, which I’m aware not everybody likes. But the King deliberately set out to build a new suburb with Leon Krier who is a very distinguished neo-classical architect to help. He got in landscape architects like Kim Wilkie and he thought: “We are going to make it beautiful.” As a result now, even though it was derided by the fashionable end of the architectural community, houses in Poundbury fetch more on the open market than houses in Dorchester itself.  It is rare that you have a new development attached to an existing town where the new homes are more attractive and more valuable.

    We managed to do this in Edinburgh in the 18th century. We managed to do it in parts of London. We have been less good at it recently but it seems to me that while not everyone would wish to live in Poundbury and it’s not necessarily to everyone’s taste it is certainly far more to their taste than many of the developments that have been created elsewhere.

    We have time now to reflect on some of the mistakes we have made, and be honest with the electorate about what they are. But we also need to be clear about what we have achieved and what our values are. We don’t have much time but we do have just enough to be able to do that and for me it’s bracing to think about the essence of the argument. Keir Starmer does not have a programme or a platform. He does not have a thought-through sense of where he wants to take this country.  So this election will be tough but we are absolutely capable of winning it.

  • Emma Roche on the possibilities of a philosophy degree

    Emma Roche

    I remember, aged 14, reading Socrates’ famous dictum ‘’the unexamined life is not worth living” in the book Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaardner and feeling inspired by it. The book was written as an introduction to philosophy. I was always curious. I wanted to ask the “big” questions.  Philosophy made sense to me . I enjoyed knowing there was a body of wisdom spanning two millennia to help me think about what really mattered.  This passion for the subject led to my successful campaign to get philosophy on to my school’s A Level syllabus.

    Simply translated philosophy means the “the love of wisdom”. It gets a bad reputation for being an abstract and opaque subject. Yes, it is a subject with a long history, but it is not outdated. Its concepts have a timeless application: rational reflection and analysis. It can be criticised for not being a science and therefore not providing definitive answers. This is to misunderstand the position as in practice philosophy provides the framework which enables problem solving.

    Philosophy is also a broad field that covers a wide range of topics. It informs ethical debate, political theory, the function of language/communication, the relationship between the mind and the body and more recently artificial intelligence. It asks questions such as: “What is the nature of justice?” “What is the good life?”; “What is truth?”; “What should you do and why?.

    When discussing the subject, I am often asked“..but what can a philosophy undergraduate really offer future employers?” or  “How can I convince my parents that philosophy is a worthwhile use of three years at university?”. To help answer these questions, I reached out to Dr Stevie Makin, who was one of my philosophy lecturers at Sheffield University. He recently retired after 32 years of teaching philosophy undergraduates. His response to the question was both unequivocal and enlightening. He said “Employers want people who can think. Problems are best dealt with by thinking. And philosophy teaches you how best to think – Clearly; Critically; Carefully. That’s what employers are after. The actual content of the job, what it is that they want you to be good at thinking about, is down to whatever career you are drawn to, be it law, school teaching, accountancy, social work, healthcare … whatever. They all require people who are good at thinking. Indeed, if a career path didn’t require good, clever, creative, flexible and trained thinkers, then that career is likely to be shunted off to AI in the coming years”.

    When philosophy is presented in these terms its value seems more obvious. What employer would not want an employee who (a) had chosen a degree which encourages rigour of thought and problem solving and (b) is the kind of individual who is drawn to examining  and interrogating ideas for the benefit of the employer/colleagues or clients.

    Philosophy is therefore a great foundation for a range of careers. I read philosophy at university knowing I wanted to be a lawyer. It was the sage advice from my cousin (who at the time was a criminal barrister) that I should read a subject that I was passionate about and would enjoy. I therefore read philosophy at university knowing that on completion I would then immediately begin my legal qualifications (at the time about 50% of newly qualified lawyers were non-law undergraduates).  I am still, to this day, very grateful for this advice because philosophy is a discipline that I have used throughout my life both professionally and personally. It is important to think about your choice of degree in a wider context.

    Whilst a degree in philosophy enabled me to pursue a career in law it can equally provide the foundational skills which would be relevant to a full spectrum of career options from law, accounting or finance through to careers such as a government ethicist, filmmaker, journalist or a computer scientist. Philosophy helps to facilitate meaningful discussion, to step outside normative beliefs and to disagree agreeably. These are really useful skills for any career.

    It is also interesting to anticipate the future of AI and the role philosophy may play in a career with it. Aristotle wanted to understand the nature of beings and their functions. He might view AI as a fascinating artifact of human ingenuity, perhaps seeing it as a tool that extends human capacity for communication and knowledge retrieval. He may categorise AI inventions like ChatGPT within his framework of “techne” or craftsmanship, considering it as an example of human beings using their rational faculties to create something useful.

    However, Aristotle might also raise questions about the limitations of AI. He might inquire into the extent of its understanding and its capacity for moral reasoning, and suggest that it is something we may end up relying on too much rather than thinking for ourselves. Aristotle emphasised the importance of practical wisdom and virtuous action, so he might question whether AI could possess such qualities or merely simulate them.

    Philosophy graduates could help navigate the complexities of our rapidly evolving technological landscape. They are armed with a nuanced understanding of ethics, critical thinking and human values. It means they can serve as stewards of ethical AI development, advocating for transparency, accountability, and the protection of human rights. Their expertise in philosophy of mind could contribute to discussions on the nature of consciousness and the ethical implications of creating sentient machines. Philosophy graduates could therefore facilitate meaningful human-machine interaction, designing AI systems that prioritise empathy, inclusivity, ethical decision-making and possibly even AI rights!

    Putting degree choices to one side for a moment, we must not forget that philosophy is also an important and practical tool to help us live well and in ways that we can flourish. It helps us think about purpose, what we value and our own moral compass.  Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were the first psychotherapists,  psychologists and life coaches. You only need to look at how popular the Stoic movement is becoming with various celebrities such as Adrian Edmondson and athletes such as Mark Tuitert practising and advocating Stoicism as way of life.  It is for this reason that, alongside being  a lawyer, I qualified as a philosophical life coach. I wanted to learn how to use the philosophical art of inquiry to specifically help people find the courage to understand themselves, find purpose and also to have a different sort of impact on the world by connecting with it more meaningfully.

    Ultimately philosophy teaches us to think critically, to be open to and to respect the fact that there may be more than one way to view a problem. In an age that is so information-rich, philosophy teaches us that wisdom and knowledge are different. Knowledge is the accumulation of facts, information, and skills acquired through education, experience, or learning. Wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge and experience to make sound judgments, decisions, and choices. It involves deep understanding, insight, and discernment about the complexities of life, human nature, morality and the universe. Philosophy teaches us to love wisdom.

     

    To contact Emma go to http://emma-roche.com

     

  • Stephen McPartland MP: “The UK can become the global superpower for cybersecurity”

    Christopher Jackson

    I meet the likeable MP Stephen McPartland at the House of Commons and immediately warm to his cheerful, optimistic nature. McPartland is one of those MPs who quietly and behind the scenes make the political weather without the general public being aware of it. The 47-year-old is leaving Parliament at the next election, and if I had to select somebody who embodies what will be lost after the next election when so many experienced members will be retiring, I would choose him. Whatever one’s politics, there will be an awful lot less experience of the kind the current MP for Stevenage in Parliament this time next year.

    But before he does leave Westminster, the government has given him an important job to do – a sort of last hurrah. McPartland is leading the independent review into cybersecurity and economic growth.

    The review was announced by the deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden in Lancaster House, that impressive venue modelled on the Palace of Versailles. It was an opportunity for the government to announce the Pall Mall Initiative whereby Britain, France and 35 other countries have agreed to increase efforts to stop hackers from targeting companies.

    McPartland recalls the seriousness of the mood: “It was announced as quite a big deal. The idea behind it is that cybersecurity is an incredibly important product which the UK has to offer.  We are seen as one of the world leaders and the government’s ambition is for us to become the cybersecurity superpower around the world so that UK technology and investments are seen as amongst the best.”

    And so what is McPartland’s role in this? “I have been charged with doing an independent report into how we can change the narrative around cybersecurity so that it is seen as an enabler of economic growth as opposed to just purely a defensive measure.” McPartland is keen to emphasise the momentum which the industry has, explaining that in the last seven years the sector has grown from £5 to £10 billion, and currently employs almost 60,000 people in the UK. He says that the industry can grow exponentially to £40 billion over the next seven years: if such growth were achieved, it could create 120,000 jobs.

    McPartland is keen to outline the scale of the opportunities. If we make progress in this area, cybersecurity could become a keystone of our future economy. “We have a greatly skilled workforce,” he tells me. “A lot of our children leaving school and going onto apprenticeships or to university all have technology skills. They have grown up with technology; they understand the importance of security. The younger generation don’t know anything other than technology. So we have a huge advantage there.”

    So how can we win the future? McPartland is optimistic on this point too.  “When you look around the world at our insurance, financial and legal systems, we are really respected and it’s a similar situation when it comes to cybersecurity, whether you think of GCHQ or the National Cybersecurity Centre. In addition to that, British intelligence is seen as very high quality.”

    But in order to realise these opportunities, we also need to rethink the way we view cybersecurity. McPartland explains: “At the moment, cybersecurity is seen as something IT people do – it’s seen as reactive. But what I’ve been thinking about is the question of how you make cybersecurity an enabler of economic growth.”

    To do this McPartland is looking at a range of areas. “One is the question of how you digitise your company faster. In particular, what are the barriers to digitising your company? These could be to do with regulation,” McPartland explains, “or perhaps it might be that there’s some problem in the supply chain.”

    Another area the review will look at is exportability. “We’re looking at the question of how we can ensure that the UK is seen as a technology superpower for cybersecurity. It might be that we could provide some kind of internationally recognised standard – almost like a digital City of London so that it is globally recognised that we are the safest country in the world to do business with, and with the safest products.”

    That leads McPartland into a third area which his review is looking at. “That’s about closing the skills gap and making sure we can work with the education system and employers to make sure that we have the skills we need. We’re also – and this is the fourth area – looking at the question of competitive advantage. Put simply, if you have got the safest product, you can use cybersecurity as a strategic advantage and it will also help you sell your product. That’s because the person buying your product is not only going to be backed up by great insurance, finance and legal skills but it’s also going to be the safest product.”

    I’m interested to delve deeper into the employability issues and ask what kind of changes this deepening understanding of cybersecurity might bring? “There are big changes going on around the world at the moment. Looking at recent legislative trends in Europe and the US, you can actually see that there are going to be some changes at the very top of organisations which are then going to require a whole series of roles from the top down all the way to entry level. Essentially, cybersecurity is going to be very much like health and safety: it is going to be something that is integral to a company’s future. Some of those roles haven’t even been developed yet: this is one of those exciting fields where the solutions are moving at such a pace that it changes what happens behind it.”

    How does all this fit in with the buzz around the AI sector? “I know there are a lot of young people who may be very interested in AI but you can’t really have an AI strategy without a cybersecurity strategy. However AI operates, you need to know that AI is secure and then you need to ensure that if somebody is going to use AI in a negative way that your products are then secure from that kind of use of AI. So the very essence of AI is going to create more need for in-depth and innovative cybersecurity.”

    Much of what McPartland describes seems to open up onto the need to reskill the existing workforce in order to make cybersecurity an effective priority. When I ask him about this, he says: “There are already companies that are providing advice to boards on the type of questions they need to be asking around cybersecurity. A lot of those boards are very comfortable asking questions of auditors around finances and what they need to know – but they are not really sure what questions to ask around cybersecurity.”

    I ask how the situation is for small businesses versus large FTSE 100 companies. McPartland explains: “As part of the review we are doing a call for evidence. Net Zero did 50 odd round tables over a year, and we did 26 of them in eight weeks. These range across the whole of the economic sector in the UK so we have everything from insurance to sports and entertainment. The idea is to get businesses of all different sizes to try and understand what the government can do to help. This is an independent report so although it has been commissioned by government, I can go off and talk to who I need to and then develop the recommendations and then government can respond to them. This is not something the government is telling industry: we are out there asking.”

    And what will all this mean for the apprenticeships agenda? “There is a huge opportunity for apprenticeships. I have been a Member of Parliament for 14 years, and the number of apprenticeships in my constituency is massive. In any growth industry there is always huge opportunity for apprentices but the trick is to ensure you channel that growth so that those companies can then go off and hire those apprentices.”

    All of this is very exciting and you can feel that McPartland’s is a boyish energy unlikely to be checked by the small matter of not being an MP anymore. As we walk off the Terrace at the House of Commons, I tell him he’s too young to retire – and he laughs it off, evidently happy to be in Parliament now, but knowing that for a man of his talents there will be much to do outside Westminster when that time comes. Meanwhile, once McPartland has handed in his report, the government is expected to respond to it in June. We’ll report back on its reception.

     

  • Celebrating Earth Day – an Atlantic Divide

    Dinesh Dhamija

     

    How important is the environment in the US versus the UK?

    This Earth Day – which fell on Monday 22 April – President Biden announced a $7 billion solar energy plan to benefit 900,000 American households, generate 200,000 jobs and achieve $8 billion energy savings.

    Rishi Sunak promised to ban wet wipes containing plastic. In the States, it’s a whole week of events: Tuesday is clean water, Wednesday is clean transport, Thursday clean energy and Friday clean air. In the UK, Scotland ditched a major climate commitment, and the British government was busy trying to deport immigrants to Rwanda.

    With elections looming on both sides of the Atlantic, the environment is a hot topic for both electorates. What’s alarming in the UK is how the Conservative Party, which you might hope would endorse strong environmental action, to conserve the natural world, has capitulated to the oil and motoring lobbies.

    In desperation, Prime Minister Sunak spotted that if he championed drivers frustrated by environmental regulations, it could win him a few votes. Never mind the growing cost to the nation’s health from road pollution.

    For President Biden, taking decisive environmental action sets him far apart from the environmental vandalism of his predecessor and forthcoming opponent Donald Trump, who withdrew America from the Paris Agreement and routinely calls climate change a ‘hoax’.

    Americans love personal freedom, so the environmental debate is a tricky one for them. Do they forever side with big oil, so that they continue to drive polluting cars and run businesses unfettered by regulations, or do they see freedom from dirty air and water, and potential salvation from the many threats of climate change as more important?

    Recent droughts, wildfires, floods, and heatwaves across the States appear to have registered with many voters. A survey by the Pew Research Centre found that 54 per cent of Americans view climate change as a ‘major threat to the country’s well-being’ and 67 per cent think the country should prioritise renewable energy.

    There’s a deep divide between Democrats (90 per cent are in favour of renewables) and Republicans (just 42 per cent). So that makes Biden’s position easier to understand.

    In the UK, there’s a similar pattern: 84 per cent of Labour voters think man-made climate change is real, versus 65 per cent of Conservative voters. You might hope that Rishi Sunak would harness that 65 per cent, rather than pander to the climate denying 35 per cent.

    The road to net zero and to averting climate disaster will not be smooth. It will take bravery and leadership from leaders of all stripes.

    So, let’s celebrate Earth Day with renewed vigour this year and hope the message gets heard.

    Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers.com, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament. Since then, he has created the largest solar PV and hydrogen businesses in Romania. Dinesh’s latest book is The Indian Century – buy it from Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1738441407/

     

  • From mobile app designers to SEO professionals, what are the most lucrative freelancing jobs?

    Finito World

    New research has found how much freelancers can charge in the US, with those making mobile apps charging approximately $1,553.50.

    The study, conducted by invoicing software company Bookipi, used freelancing platform Upwork to find how much freelancers in 40 different countries charge on average per job. They looked at several popular services, including logo design, video editing, and data entry. The starting and end prices were collected for each service in each country, and an average price overall was calculated.

    Mobile app freelancers rank as the most expensive freelancers in America, with the average price of a job costing $1,552.50. Following in second is web programmers, where the average price of hiring a freelancer was found to be $574.65.

    Creative writers rank third most expensive, with an average freelancer rate of $177.27 per job. Ranking as the fourth most expensive freelancer job is SEO, with an average rate of $162.31. Rounding up the top five is CV-writing, with a cost of $140.65 per job.

    As well as looking at how much people in the United States could make in different freelancing jobs, the study also looked further afield to see which countries had the most expensive freelancers.

    Australia ranks as the country with the most expensive freelancers, with the average job price costing $594.56. Australia was also found to be the most expensive country to hire a freelancer for creative writing, web programming, or mobile app development projects.

    Following in second is India, where the average price of hiring a freelancer was found to be $501, while Morocco ranks third with an average freelancer rate of $402.03 per job.

    In contrast, the United States ranked 17th, costing an average of $243.72 per freelancing job – 59% less than Australian freelancers. The United States were in the top 5 most expensive countries for freelancers working in logo design, SEO, resume writing, and web programming.

    Speaking on the findings, Tim Lee, CEO and founder of Bookipi, said: “Our team members come from various corners of the world – Asia, Africa, Europe, and America and their life stories and experiences contribute to our team’s richness. Working closely together has taught me an immense amount about appreciating different cultures. As a result, we were interested in how these different experiences are reflected through the costs of freelance workers worldwide.

    “Typically, countries with robust economies and high living standards tend to host the most expensive freelancers, which the data reflects by finding Australia as the most expensive freelance country. Although this is true for India, the second country to appear in the ranking, freelancers can command a higher rate thanks to their specialized skills and expertise in industries such as software development, IT services, and digital marketing.

    “We hope this ranking will help empower freelance workers around the world to know their worth and be more confident in fairly pricing their services.”

  • Y Knots author Omar Sabbagh gives his advice to young writers

    Omar Sabbagh

    My first ever publication as an aspiring writer was in 2004.  I’d attended a brief course in creative writing in late 2002, at the American University of Beirut (AUB).  This was after I’d left my undergraduate berth at Oxford months earlier.  And it just so happened that a piece I wrote, ‘Benches,’ a surreal, dream-like short story written in the second person and influenced by my having recently read at the time Kazuo Ishiguro’s breathtaking but disorienting book, The Unconsoled, was scooped up by my course instructor, Professor Roseanne Khalaf for an anthology she was putting together with another editor, Transit Beirut (Saqi Books, 2004).  Since that time, I have published much work in different genres, from short fiction, to poetry, to full-length novellas, to different kinds of critical writing, devolving from scholarly papers to literary reviews and journalism.  But in October of 2023, my short fiction collection, Y Knots (Liquorice Fish Books) was published.  It collates in one volume most of my best short form imaginative prose published between 2004 and 2022.

    There are a few dovetailing reasons for the title of the collection, and they synergize in a nicely serendipitous way.  Firstly, many of the stories register and explore (if they don’t always resolve) issues of identity; and being a male, and the male chromosome being ‘Y’, the title in this sense is apposite.  Secondly, and perhaps more banal, any writer of fiction knows that stories are driven by tensions, which trigger and spur the river of narrative.  Hence the invoked concept of ‘knots.’  However, another sense, more philosophical, derives from an insight that became increasingly compelling for me as I moved from my twenties into my thirties and now, forties.

    When we are young, and I mean by this later adolescence into young adulthood, our tendency is to try to understand or comprehend all the phenomena and anomalies that surround us or interest us.  Bookish youths like myself hunger to answer each and every why-question; to as it were, necessitate our experience.  The older one gets, however, and the more of one’s expanding life-experience is seen to be or to have been unpredictable, the more complicated and entangled life gets, the more we realise how little ‘control’ (mental, as otherwise) we really do have over the course of our lives, the more the question (if now rhetorical) to ask becomes, not ‘why?’ but rather, hey-ho, ‘why not?’  This is why I think I was a lot more skeptical about things like religion in my youth.  The older I got, the more I might look at historical phenomena like the miracle of Mohamad’s message or indeed the idea that God became man and walked the earth, and so on, and say to myself (given enough experience in our topsy-turvy world), well, why not?  Why not believe that such phenomena might have truly happened?  Not, therefore, trying to reduce them or explain them away.  One becomes more accepting as one ages, I think, because there’s little other option, if one wishes to stay sane and/or bear the possibility of some kind of happiness or at least, contentment.

    And so, here’s my two pence of advice.  As a young writer with literary aspirations, you need to get in the habit of accepting rejection like a friend, because like a friend, it will, nearly always, visit you often near the start of your serious efforts.  Treat rebuffs as opportunities to hone and chisel the muscle of your writing.  And though as a writerly type you’re bound to be more of a perfectionist than others, who may be blessed or cursed with less artistic temperaments, try to always show patience with yourself.  Thinking that writing needs to be prepared to perfection in mind before you put pen to paper is a flawed way of looking at the practice of writing, because of the simple reason that you do need to be fully in the medium to fully know where you are going.  Because, in short, though thoughts may precede words, words deployed always then engender thoughts.  It’s the opposite of a vicious cycle: it’s a gladdening and exciting cycle that most writers feel emboldened by as they write.  A quest of sorts, it’s where the magic happens; and if you bear too much puritanism with yourself or with others, in the senses outlined above, your quest may be more likely to end in a cul-de-sac.

     

    As well as learning to accept yourself as a writer and the role that others will inevitably play in your writerly life, you need to be above all else patient.  I myself flout that bit of advice on a daily basis, but it still remains valid.  You might be in your early twenties, and feel that as a writer you need to get ahead, but the truth is that if you were ever going to get somewhere in the literary world, you will indeed get there, by hook or by crook.  I look back to my small delight in having my first piece of writing tout court published in 2004, and I know that at that time I never envisaged some of my successes, pound for pound of course.  Be patient.  There is a term I learnt from Ford Madox Ford, discussing technique, ‘progression d’effet’ (I think, like many such terms applied to prose, it originates as applied to the drama).  It indicates why in a narrative the unraveling of the plot or events or themes, or what have you, speeds-up proportionally the further you are in it.  Simply because, I suppose, the more ‘causes’ as it were laid down in prose, the more and the quicker the ‘effects’ come.  It’s actually quite commonsensical.  However, it also applies to one’s writerly career, often enough.  I have had work published in the last six or seven years that far outweighs in both quality and quantity the previous fifteen or so.  So, keep plugging away: one day you’ll look over your own writerly shoulder and marvel at what you may have achieved.

     

     

  • Introducing the Shadow Pledge

    Finito World

    The employment market can be a bewildering place for hirers and job-seekers alike, As a rule, the people who leave school, college and university who know exactly what they want to do are lucky – and rare. Not everyone can be a doctor, an architect or a lawyer where the path is set, and the profession regulated to make life easier for the entrant.

    The rest of us are encouraged to apply for internships and work experience – and we do so in droves adding to the general confusion. This is highly competitive and, although the Old Boys’ network is not as powerful as it once was, the chances of success still all too often revolve around who you know. Of course the difficulty works the other way as well. Employers routinely point to recruitment as one of the most difficult areas of business. Organising work experience placements requires time that many small employers simply do not have.

    Given that today’s workers are likely to need two or three careers with reskilling and lifelong learning becoming the norm, the fight to get experience or even find out what is out there will become even more important. With AI increasingly involved in the job application process, candidates are often left rejected, dejected and without really knowing whether the job would have been right for them in the first place. Employers may be screening out the best person for the job who has an amazing attitude to work because they do not tick all the algorithmic boxes.

    But what if we did this another way? At Finito, we always encourage candidates to select a minimum of three separate career paths. This focus is best tested by shadowing someone in the sector to check rigorously their suitability and commitment. This is why Finito has decided to join forces with the MP for Stroud Siobhan Baillie and campaign for the Shadow Pledge.

    The brainchild of Finito CEO Ronel Lehmann, the Shadow Pledge is a simple idea: anybody over 18 years old can shadow someone who is employed, and most workers can spend that time with a Shadow without it negatively impacting their week. While there are strict HMRC rules about payment for internships and work experience, under this scheme there will be no requirement for funding, remuneration or travel expenses because the candidate is simply shadowing.

    The benefits of this are innumerable. There is no need for parental chaperoning, extensive risk assessments or insurance issues (save that certain roles such as manufacturing, engineering or jobs involving children may still require additional steps). It would be up to the employer to set the rules and requirements like providing a CV in advance. The simpler for all involved, the better.

    As a result of the Shadow Pledge, people of all ages will be able to gain a new sense of understanding about the workplace and opportunities at the right time in their lives to foster ambition.  Meanwhile, employers will acquire not only the pleasures of short term mentoring but also advance knowledge of potential candidates and spot key employability skills that a computer may miss.  The Shadow Pledge will enable us to shape and win the future of work.

    This is why we’re asking all businesses pledge to offer up to half a day of shadowing every year for all levels of their team: normal time in the life of CEOs, secretaries, HR assistants, plumbers, teachers, drivers, journalists, MPs, dentists, supermarket managers – including the boring bits. For the rest of us, the request is that we normalise shadowing.  We can start encouraging everybody to ask for shadow placements whether or not there are jobs going at the time and regardless of background and lack of connections.

    This would amount to a major shift in our work culture, and it’s one which is badly needed. It will provide an important flexibility for job-seekers and employers alike. Happily the idea has already met with some high-profile endorsements. The legendary Rob Halfon MP endorsed the idea, even while he was Minister for Skills and Apprenticeships. Meanwhile, the Rt Hon The Lord Mayor, Professor Michael Raymond Mainelli (Alderman) has offered Mansion House to get the square mile engaged. The Department for Work and Pensions has also shown considerable interest in the idea.

    We live in a world of too much regulation where people feel stymied by lack of opportunity. The Shadow Pledge is an idea intended to connect us and it is on the basis of this connectivity that the will should be built. This is the way to start to do that and we commend the idea to our readers.

     

  • India Seeks Energy Independence by 2047

    Dinesh Dhamija

    To coincide with the centenary of its independence from Britain in 2047, India’s leadership has announced a new ambition: energy independence.

    The ruling BJP – widely expected to win the current general election – pledged that independence will be achieved “through a mix of electric mobility, network of charging stations, renewable energy production and improving energy efficiency,” while reducing petroleum imports.

    This ambitious target builds on the drive towards renewable energy generation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi established from the earliest days of his administration, starting in 2013 (and even before, when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat).

    As I outline in my book The Indian Century, Modi’s embrace of solar energy has been transformative for India, harnessing a source of power that the country has in greater abundance than almost anywhere else on earth. Here’s a brief excerpt:

    “Added together, the total solar energy which pours down upon India from its annual 300 cloudless sunny days is 5,000 trillion (5 quadrillion) kWh, or around 7 kWh per square meter per day. Capturing just a tiny fraction of this solar energy could meet all of India’s energy needs. In fact, a year’s worth of Indian sun would produce more energy than the country’s entire fossil fuel reserves.”

    To bring this potential energy boon to fruition will take years of infrastructure development, investing in a nationwide smart grid, support for the transition to EV manufacturing and a national charger network, further subsidies for rooftop solar systems (such as the scheme launched in February this year) and encouragement for the large-scale wind farms, solar parks and ‘Green Energy Corridor project’ that are already in development. The BJP has also promised to invest in green hydrogen production, which as a green hydrogen businessman is music to my ears.

    Politically, energy independence is a smart move. A resurgent India will have more credibility on the global stage if it is not in hock to Russia for discounted fuel when many other nations are boycotting the country.

    Environmentally, it makes complete sense to decarbonize wherever possible, allowing the government to demonstrate to its own people that climate change and clean air is a priority. Extreme heat and pollution are already threatening to make parts of India uninhabitable.

    The benefits of renewable power will become ever more obvious, as economies of scale, technologies advance and infrastructure connections improve. The BJP has promised that 10 million Indian households will receive up to 300 units of free electricity per month, under a new solar scheme, to improve the standard of living for the country’s poorest. If India can deliver independence from poverty for its people by 2047, that would be an even greater achievement.

     

    Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers.com, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament. Since then, he has created the largest solar PV and hydrogen businesses in Romania. Dinesh’s latest book is The Indian Century – buy it from Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1738441407/