In any Country Risk analyst’s tool kit, opinion polls play a very important role. Finding a large enough data series for serious analysis though is often a problem. However, for the UK there is hardly a better treasure trove of information than Anthony Wells’ excellent website UK Polling Report, where he has collated polling data [Read more...]

Every time a British prime minister meets their new American counterpart for the first time (and vice versa), there is a flurry of commentary in the UK media asking whether the ‘special relationship’ between the two countries is secure. With Gordon Brown meeting Barack Obama in Washington today, all eyes will be on the rapport [Read more...]

Last week, Business Monitor International (BMI) published a special report, ‘Britain On The Brink: UK Economy Sliding Out Of The Global Premier League’ outlining our bleak prognosis of the country’s economy.

Among its key findings, the report forecast that Britain will suffer a far deeper recession than either the UK Treasury or IMF predicts, with [Read more...]

Together with my colleagues at Business Monitor International, I have just put the finishing touches to a report titled Britain On The Brink: UK Economy Sliding Out Of The Global Premier League. Our forecasts are amongst the most bearish yet published:

• Britain will suffer a far deeper recession than either the UK Treasury or IMF predicts. [Read more...]

Britain’s population is projected to be the biggest in the European Union by 2060, according to a new report by Eurostat published on August 26. The UK’s population will rise by 25% from 61.3mn to 76.7mn, while Germany’s will shrink from 82.2mn to 70.8mn. France’s population will also overtake Germany’s, rising from 61.9mn to 71.8mn. [Read more...]