Who can you turn to when there is nowhere left to go?

By Mark Lunn, founder, Caburn Communications

When I tell friends I’ve been working with a new lender for three years on market entry into the High Cost Short Term Credit market, they pull a face of disgust and say, “eeew, you’re helping a payday lender like Wonga… how do you live with yourself, they charge immoral amounts of interest”.

Hey.  We’re the future again.

In his final prime minister’s questions, David Cameron famously observed that he had been the future once.  Then he was out.  Well, PM Sunak’s first cabinet shows that past performance is not necessarily an indication of future results. 

His cabinet is characterised by recalls from the Cameron, May, Johnson and even Truss eras.  A cabinet of all the talents, internal constituencies or conflicting factions…

The autumn budget: three reasons for caution

Was this week’s budget the work of a skilled Chancellor or a lucky one?

In truth, it was neither.  As those more fluent in the machinations of party politics will recognise, it was the budget of a Chancellor who is desperate to be Prime Minister.

Company cultures are running on fumes: should we return to the office?

By Guy Corbet, Fourteen Forty

We’ve learned an awful lot about working from home.  It has given many people the freedom to combine work with more family time.  It has been the miracle that has kept the economy spluttering on through the lockdowns.   

Many now don’t want to go back to the old normal drudgery of commuting to the office. 

In the cold light of day, and in the long run, will that position really be possible to maintain?  And are we seeing that company cultures are already running on fumes? 

Five 2021 predictions to ignore (or at least take with a pinch of salt)

By Gareth Streeter, Fourteen Forty

Writers of “2021 predictions” lists have indulged the temptation to be both dramatic and definitive.  And they all follow one clear narrative.  Covid will depart.  It will leave behind it a world that is forever changed.

But does the available evidence bear this out?  Or have some of our would-be futurologists over-egged the pudding? 

What business wants to see from the new business secretary

By James Boyd-Wallis, Fourteen Forty

New business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng MP is on paper one of the most pro-free enterprise ministers to run the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in years.

Weak Links #10: getting back to business

How should business prepare for 2021?

The vaccine is enabling politicians, business and the public to contemplate a return to normal.  But, as the Chancellor says, “the economic emergency is just beginning”.

So, how can businesses and brands adapt to and benefit from the changes in consumer behaviour? What should they do to prepare their people and their workplaces for the return?  How can we tackle late payments for good?

We hope you enjoy this edition of Weak Links and we wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.