Passengers have already been advised to organise travel plans well in advance of Christmas. Now it’s a necessity. The RMT union has announced a further wave of strike action from Christmas Eve to December 27. This is in addition to walkouts throughout the month and into January.
Of course, many key workers have little alternative but to travel during the holiday season. Many will have been hoping to catch one of the few trains running to make it home to see family and friends. That may no longer be possible, and after two years of December lockdowns some Londoners will again be consigned to a Christmas alone.
The impact will cascade into 2023. First, because of the effect industrial action will have on crucial engineering works that often take place over the Christmas period. And second, what it will mean for the high street, where retail businesses will be desperate to attract shoppers for the Boxing Day sales.
Striking workers retain some public sympathy, in recognition of the fact that a sub-inflationary pay offer represents a real-terms fall in living standards. But Christmas Day strikes risk exhausting all that goodwill.
There is also a more fundamental danger to the railways. That travellers fall out of the habit of using the rail network as they used to, simply because it is seemingly never there when they need it.
The future is fintech
Old Street roundabout may forever be besieged by roadworks, but the East London Tech City is powering ahead. New figures reveal that London has secured first place in the race to become the fintech capital of the world, leapfrogging rivals such as New York and San Francisco.
London attracted £7.8 billion in venture capital funding since the beginning of the year, significantly ahead of its rivals. The capital has long been a world leader in fintech and home to Europe’s largest tech ecosystem, with access to a global financial centre to boot. Brexit, Covid and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have all posed a threat to London’s fintech scene. And we have seen widespread redundancies in the global sector in recent months. But the city is powering ahead, retaining a well-earned reputation as the place to invest in and grow financial services businesses.
And it’s not just fintech. This news follows a recent Dealroom survey which found that London is the continent’s most successful place for ‘unicorns’ — that is privately-held firms valued at over £1 billion — to establish new start-ups.
Building and maintaining a tech ecosystem is painstaking work but the benefits, to the city and the country as a whole, can be enormous. Policymakers, from City Hall to central government must provide a stable framework so that this success story continues and sparks more unicorns into life.
The rivalry hots up
A fish finger croissant? The sandwich, on sale at a train station, has divided opinion on social media and disgusted some French traditionalists. Put another way, the mind games ahead of Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final between England and France have already begun.
Our opponents may be defending champions and can field the brilliant Kylian Mbappé upfront, but they are surely no match for Harry Kane powered by an English twist on classic French cuisine. It sounds like a recipe for World Cup success.
