Latest news with #DavidCameron
Entrepreneur
2 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Founders, Step Up
This Government has shown it is taking UK tech seriously, now founders need to step up too Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur United Kingdom, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. For those that remember the heady days of David Cameron, George Osborne and the then Mayor of London Boris Johnson finding every opportunity to come to Old Street roundabout to celebrate the area's emerging startups, the first nine months of the new Labour administration gave the impression of a Government that was largely indifferent to tech. However, the last six weeks have changed that. Starting with some major AI commitments announced alongside Jenson Huang from NVIDIA at London Tech Week (a much more high profile tech leader than former PMs were able to bring to the UK's flagship tech event), followed by the Spending Review and the Modern Industrial Strategy, the Government has set out a clear roadmap for founders about where its priorities for policy and investment will lie. As a VC very active in the UK early-stage ecosystem, of course we don't look to Government for guidance on investment opportunities, or expect Government to have the power to dictate innovation. But the Government does play an important role in the ecosystem. Firstly, it has a loud voice. And anything the Government can do to showcase success, signal the scale of the opportunity for UK companies and demonstrate a real commitment to back British tech innovation sends a strong message to international investors and customers looking to work with new start-ups. But more importantly, the Government can create material commercial opportunities by unlocking the UK's massive public sectors for digital innovation. And this matters for start-ups. And that is what was most exciting about these policy announcements in recent weeks. They give a very clear sense of where Government will be focusing its funding, procurement and regulation. And these are big industries with huge potential for digital disruption that we're talking about. From the NHS to national defence, from education to green industries - there are billion-dollar opportunities for start-ups who know how to look for them. What caught my attention wasn't just the scale of investment, but how these announcements add up to something bigger - a government that finally understands tech isn't just about apps and algorithms, but about rebuilding Britain's industrial base: With a new £27.8bn National Wealth Fund prioritising clean energy, digital, manufacturing, the UK is now a major co-investor in climate infrastructure The UK now sees defencetech and dual-use innovation as core to its industrial future, not just its national safety, with a new £2bn+ annual defence R&D budget Dedicating £1bn+ for cross-government digital and AI transformation will unlock a new era of govtech innovation. The most important is the Government's push for Digital ID. This will have major repercussions for fintechs and the way individuals interact with public services The UK wants to lead in making the things that matter, from biomanufacturing to smart robotics to deeptech scale-up. With £2.5bn for quantum, £1bn for semiconductors and £1bn+ for compute, AI, and synthetic biology this is about scaling up national capabilities The NHS will undergo one of the biggest programmes of digital transformation the world has ever seen. £10bn committed to NHS tech and digital transformation will put tech at the heart of our NHS. The regions matter. The Government will be investing in clusters up and down the country, which is good news for founders based outside of the capital. Significant expansion of the British Business Bank (to £25.6bn) makes it one of the most important state-backed investors in Europe. Now, I know what you're thinking. Government promises are cheap, and Whitehall's track record on tech delivery is mixed at best. Fair enough. But here's what's different this time: these aren't moonshot commitments decades away. This is funding that's being deployed now, with departments that have clear mandates and Ministers who understand the urgency. So what does this actually mean for founders building companies right now in the UK? These policy announcements signal the Government's attention. These are the sectors which Ministers, policymakers and Treasury officials will be prioritising in the coming years. If you're a pre-seed founder, building for alignment with UK capability priorities is a very sensible idea. These are the sectors where decisions will be made faster, and budget will be more available. Here's the practical bit: start with your local Catapult centre - they're your fastest route into government procurement conversations. Then work backwards through Innovate UK and UKRI. Don't pitch your product; pitch the problem you solve. If you're building AI for fraud detection, lead with "we can save the public sector £2.6bn annually" not "we've built a great ML model." Founders become adept very quickly at speaking the language of their core customers. Founders learn to speak 'corporate' early on if they are selling to enterprises and global organisations. The same should be true for founders speaking to Government. Learn their language and frame things in terms of outcomes, resilience and productivity. The UK is hungry for globally ambitious founders building 'infrastructure layers' in every sector. If founders can demonstrate they are building national capabilities to increase UK digital sovereignty they will be welcomed with open arms by Government. Rightly so, international events have overshadowed many of the policy announcements. But to my mind they are the most significant combination of Government policies for UK founders in many years. This won't last forever. Political priorities shift, budgets get cut, Ministers move on. But right now, for the first time in years, government and private markets are aligned on what Britain needs to build. The founders who move fast on this will have a structural advantage that lasts decades. The question isn't whether you can build a billion-dollar company in this environment. It's whether you can afford not to try.
The Sun
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Our political party system is shattering and Britain could soon become ungovernable
Days before the 2015 General Election, then Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: 'Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice - stability and strong Government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband.' Given the decade since: six Prime Ministers, four elections, Brexit gridlock, a pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis, partygate and the mini-budget, many rightly wonder: if that was stability, how bad could chaos have been? 3 But at the time, Cameron's pitch worked, partly because many Brits feared Labour might end up governing in a three-party combo with the Lib Dems and SNP, with the late former Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond calling the shots. Unlike our neighbours on the Continent, we aren't used to coalitions and dislike the idea of smaller parties potentially holding the Government to ransom. Fast forward to 2025 and it looks like Brits might have to get used to coalitions. Our political map has been reshaped. Fewer than half the public now describe themselves as strong supporters of any one party. The days of being 'a Labour family' or voting for 'anything with a blue rosette' are over. Voters are now far more promiscuous, shopping around to see what they like best. 3 As recently as 2017, the two main parties took over 80 per cent of the vote. That plummeted to 57 per cent in last year's election, a post-war low and our polling suggests it's fallen further still since - just 43 per cent now say they'd vote Labour or Tory. Instead, voters are turning to new emerging parties on the right and left. Last year's General Election was the first time post-war that more than three parties each won over ten per cent of the vote, and more than four won over five per cent. Why is this happening? More in Common's latest report Shattered Britain delves into what's behind our growing fragmentation. Simply put - it finds the old dividing lines of left and right no longer cut it. New political fault lines are emerging. These include whether we can fix a country many feel is broken by improving our institutions or, as 38 per cent think, we need to 'burn them all down'; whether the answers to our problems are common sense or complex; whether diversity strengthens or erodes British identity; and crucially whether we trust mainstream news or prefer independent voices online. Just as our politics is fragmenting, so too is where we get our information with a knock on effect on politics, reducing the stranglehold the big two parties have in communicating with the public. 3 None of these divides map neatly onto our existing political landscape and our First Past the Post system is struggling to cope as these new fault lines scatter Britons votes across multiple parties. More in Common's latest MRP - a model for projecting what the next Parliament might look like, helps to show how this might all play out: it suggests an election tomorrow could deliver a political map we've never seen before. Reform UK would come first on 290 seats, Labour trailing on 126, Tories barely third on 81, the Liberal Democrats snapping at their heels on 73. With 325 seats needed for a majority, the likeliest outcome would be a Reform UK–Tory coalition. But how comfortable would the Conservatives be as junior partners to Farage's Party, given the bad blood between them? Even those headline numbers hide more turbulence beneath the surface. Nearly 100 seats could be won on under 30 per cent of the vote and small shifts could flip many of them. Sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds, voting for the first time at the next election, will make up just two to three per cent of the electorate, but in tight races, that could make all the difference. With only a modest Labour recovery from midterm blues and a Reform dip, we could end up with the only viable option being a five-party coalition: Labour, Lib Dems, SNP, Greens and Plaid Cymru. How's that for a stable Government? And that's before factoring in Jeremy Corbyn's newly announced party, which our polling suggests could take 10 per cent of the vote, further muddying our electoral waters. At this stage it's fair to ask will the next Parliament be ungovernable? Maybe, but we've been here before. In 2019, the Brexit Party was topping the polls, the Lib Dems surged, and the two main parties were barely registering a third of the vote. Come election day, Boris Johnson won a stonking majority. In the early 1980s, the SDP–Liberal Alliance looked set to reshape politics, only to fall back. Still, as Britain drifts into uncharted political waters and the two main parties continue to struggle, it might be wise to use our summer holidays on the Continent to pick up a few tips on coalition-building from our European neighbours. THE UK used to be known worldwide for its stable, two party political system. The choice was binary: Tory or Labour. Elections nearly always delivered a majority government. But all that could be about to change. Old party allegiances have shattered. Our political system has become fragmented. Nigel Farage and his Reform Party have redrawn the political map and decimated the Tory vote. On the Left, Labour are being challenged by the rise of the Greens and creation of Jeremy Corbyn's far-left party. But that begs the question: is Britain about to become ungovernable? We are not used to Coalition governments - but all the evidence suggests we are about to get one. Pollsters say the most likely outcome is a Reform Tory Coalition. But can we really imagine Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch in bed together - after they have spent five years at each other's throats? The alternative is a rainbow coalition of Labour, the Lib Dems, SNP, Greens, and Plaid Cymru. That's a dizzying mix. I doubt a government stuffed with so many different political personalities and policies would last five minutes - let alone five years. The result would surely be another snap election and yet more political turmoil? The next general election is still four years away and much can happen in that time. One thing is clear - voters are desperate for Britain to break out of its current quagmire. They want politicians who can actually get things done and aren't held to hostage by their backbenchers. It's why they gave Boris Johnson a majority to get Brexit done - and took it off him again when the Tories sank into civil war. It's why they handed Keir Starmer a landslide - then sent his poll ratings tumbling when he failed to come up with a big package of reforms. If the polls stay the same then it looks like Britain is heading for more political turbulence and a coalition. But who knows? Voters may decide to gamble big and hand Nigel Farage a majority next time. I wouldn't bet against it.
Business Insider
23-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Africa to be hit hard as UK slashes foreign aid
The UK government has unveiled details of its planned 40% reduction in foreign aid, with bilateral support for children's education and women's health in Africa among the hardest hit. The UK government announced a 40% reduction in its foreign aid budget, significantly affecting African education and health initiatives. Allocations for corruption, media freedom, trade, and economic security programs faced notable cutbacks, along with the removal of several climate-focused projects. Foreign aid spending cuts are largely targeted toward Africa and the Middle East, with Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe impacted the most. The UK government has unveiled details of its planned 40% reduction in foreign aid, with bilateral support for children's education and women's health in Africa among the hardest hit. The new funding allocations revealed significant cuts to programs targeting corruption, media freedom, trade, and economic security, while several climate-related initiatives were eliminated. According to the government's assessment, this year's education spending reductions are expected to impact Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. Overall, the cuts will hit Africa and the Middle East the hardest. The cuts are part of a broader strategy to boost defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product, following pressure from the United States. Foreign Secretary David Cameron previously announced the aid budget would fall from 0.5% to 0.3% of national income. Multilateral bodies spared for now While multilateral aid to bodies like the World Bank and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, will be protected, direct funding to individual countries, especially in Africa, will see major reductions. The Foreign Office said underperforming multilateral organisations could face future cuts and acknowledged that aid to certain unnamed countries would drop. However, funding for the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's fund for low-income countries, will remain intact, with the UK committing £1.98 billion over three years.
The Independent
21-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Labour minister Liz Kendall announces review of state pension age
Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall has announced a review of the state pension age. It comes in a major speech where the senior cabinet minister warned that the cost of the triple lock guarantee on the state pension is £31bn a year. The triple lock, which was introduced by David Cameron's government in 2010, means that the state pension either rises by 2.5 per cent or the highest rate of inflation whichever is higher to keep up with the cost of living. Speaking in central London this morning where she was relaunching the Pensions Commission, Ms Kendall warned of a growing threat of pensioner poverty unless there was major reform to the system.
Observer
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Observer
Shabab Oman II receives Lord Provost of Aberdeen
EDINBURGH: The Royal Navy of Oman vessel (RNOV) "Shabab Oman II," while docked at the port of Aberdeen, Scotland, on Sunday, received Councillor Dr David Cameron, the Lord Provost of Aberdeen. This took place as part of the vessel's participation in the Aberdeen maritime festival. During his visit, the Lord Provost toured the ship and viewed a photo exhibition showcasing the cultural depth and diversity of the Sultanate of Oman, highlighting its unique tourism potential and attractive investment environment. He also learned about Oman's significant achievements and the noble message the ship carries on its voyages around the world. — ONA
