OPINION - The Standard View: The quick (and low cost) wins to boost the capital

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Whoever wins the next election must unleash the capital’s economic might. That’s the message from BusinessLDN, whose aim is to make our city the best in the world in which to do business.

Today, the group has published its manifesto for the next government setting out recommendations including “quick wins” to boost growth quickly alongside longer-term measures to stimulate the economy. And even better, many come at low or no cost to the Exchequer.

These include setting out a tax roadmap to encourage investors and provide much-needed certainty, undertaking a review of the tourist tax, giving longer-term funding commitments for future affordable housing programmes and championing the UK’s world-leading university sector.

Rather than another five years of nibbling around the edges or, worse still, levelling-down London, the next government ought to lay the foundations to crowd in further investment, boost the supply of housing and ultimately let London lead the way.

The alternative is more of the same: higher taxes, underfunded public services and stagnant living standards.

Mosley helped many

There are some people who, through a combination of their work and force of personality, simply capture the public’s attention. Dr Michael Mosley — doctor, presenter, documentary maker and author — was one of those people.

His death at the age of 67, on the Greek island of Symi, has sparked an outpouring of affection from people who felt that they knew him, respected him and relied on his science programmes to make decisions about their own health.

Dr Mosley was perhaps most famous for popularising the 5:2 fasting plan. His colleague, Mimi Spencer, who co-wrote The Fast Diet with Dr Mosley, said that it gave him joy “because it benefited so many people”. He helped them make choices to improve their quality of life. In the most painful of times, that ought to be of comfort to his loved ones.

Trailblazing on her terms

Regrets? Naomi Campbell has had a few, but being late — very late — was never one of them. To that end, the Standard’s editor, Dylan Jones, who worked with Campbell for years at Condé Nast, had plenty of time to prepare his questions for an interview with the London-born supermodel ahead of her forthcoming show at the V&A.

An entire show dedicated to a living model? “I feel honoured and blessed,” she says. But then again, Campbell has always been a trailblazer, as the first black woman to appear on the cover of Vogue Paris and US Vogue’s September issue. Breaking barriers and making waves issimply what she does — on her own schedule.