March of the Living in Hungary to remember Holocaust victims

Holocaust victims were commemorated during the March of the Living in the Hungarian capital on Sunday. Participants of the annual March of the Living in downtown Budapest paid tribute to the hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews lost their lives at the hands of the Nazis.

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Yahoo

an hour ago

• Yahoo

Labour policy ‘actively working against job creation', says Currys boss

The boss of one of Britain's biggest electricals retailers has criticised government policy for 'actively working against job creation' amid a raft of tax increases and looming worker rights reforms. Writing in The Telegraph, Alex Baldock, the chief executive of Currys, said Labour risked making it 'harder, riskier and more expensive to hire people' as Angela Rayner prepares to implement the Employment Rights Bill, which is making its way through the House of Lords. Mr Baldock said the retailer had already faced a 13pc overnight increase in the cost of employing part-time workers from Rachel Reeves's £25bn National Insurance raid, while its property tax bill also rose. He said Currys was now facing 'new and counter-productive red tape in the shape of employment law changes'. Mr Baldock added: 'Smart people know that changing your mind in the face of compelling evidence is a sign of strength, not weakness. 'It's not too late for the Government to change its mind on employment law changes that would lead to less employment.' It comes amid growing warnings from bosses that the Government risks derailing its growth ambitions by piling higher taxes and more red tape on businesses. In a recent poll by the Institute of Directors, a quarter of business leaders said the Employment Rights Bill made it likely that they would make redundancies. Under the planned reforms, workers will be entitled to contracts with a minimum number of weekly hours baked in, giving them the same number of hours as they have worked in the recent past. However, retail and hospitality chiefs have called for a rethink of the plans amid concerns that the changes risk stopping them from hiring extra people during crucial trading periods such as Christmas. Bosses have said they cannot afford to offer everyone more shifts all year round when stores are quieter. Mr Baldock said businesses including Currys were 'ready to play our part in getting Britain back to work', adding: 'Enlist us in this cause, don't hammer us.' In a House of Lords debate in April, Lord Wolfson, the boss of Next, said the employment rights reforms risked making it 'almost impossible for businesses to offer additional voluntary hours to workers' because they could then end up overstaffed at some times of the year. Lord Wolfson said: 'There is a world of difference between tackling potentially abusive zero-hours contracts and eliminating the flexibility that legitimate part-time contracts provide to those who need and want them.' The Government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. However, a spokesman previously said: 'We've consulted extensively with business on our proposals, and we will continue to work closely with employers to ensure new laws work for them while putting money back into the pockets of working people.' By Alex Baldock, the chief executive of Currys The Government talks a lot about growth and jobs, with plenty of warm words and encouragement for growth drivers such as high-tech manufacturing, life sciences and the creative industries. Next week, no doubt, these will be at the heart of theGovernment's new industrial strategy. And more power to such exciting sectors, where the UK enjoys a real competitive edge. Yet the engine room of the British economy lies elsewhere. The likes of retail, leisure and hospitality may be less glamorous. But they employ 6m people – nearly a quarter of the private sector workforce – bringing prosperity and prospects to everycorner of the country. They're no less innovative, either. Retailer productivity is growing at twice the national rate, as we deploy AI and other technology to improve customer service and empower colleagues. And boosting Britain's moribund productivity, as every economist will tell you, is essential for growth. Nor are these retail and hospitality jobs just any jobs. They're great introductions (or re-introductions) to work. Once we've given colleagues this leg up, and as they gain in confidence and experience, we often find they progress rapidly, taking on more hours, moving into management or moving on to other work with our good wishes. My first job as a spotty teenager was in a high street retailer (Waterstones in Newbury, as it happens), and I'm far from alone. Flexible and entry-level as they often are, retail jobs help people break into the world of work. They help those coming back after having children or caring for their elders – and, crucially, to those seeking a way off benefits. It's crucial because of the UK's biggest domestic challenge today: the human and economic crisis of worklessness. The UK now has almost 1m 16-24 year olds not in employment, education or training, out of fully 3m people not in work because of physical or mental ill health. This is much more than pre-pandemic, and much higher than in other countries. These 3m are exactly the people the Government wants to help off welfare and into work. This is the only way to reduce Britain's ballooning benefits bill, and so avoid further adding to an already punishing and growth-sapping tax burden. It's the only way to help millions of people find the fulfilment (and mental health benefits) of work. Research shows that the vast majority of them want to work – they just need the right opportunities and the right support. 'Everyone who can work, should work', says the prime minister. Where better for them to work than retail and hospitality? If not there, where? It's not hard to connect the dots here. The country needs more growth and millions of new jobs. Retail and hospitality are where these are to be found. So, as well as lavishing goodies on the sexy growth industries, surely Government must be looking to help such big, high-employing, high-productivity sectors as retail and hospitality? If only. In fact, government policy is actively working against job creation. Promised business rates 'relief' actually increased many bills. Punitive increases in National Insurance disproportionately hit employers who have many part-time workers. For example, the cost to Currys of employing such workers increased by 13pc overnight. Now, and despite promised deregulation, we face new and counter-productive red tape in the shape of employment law changes. Retailers are busier at some times than others, as Saturday or Christmas, as shoppers will have noticed. So retailers need to flex up and down the number of colleagues on the shopfloor accordingly. That works for colleagues looking for flexible work, for customers to get good service and for retailers to make an honest profit. But the Government's so-called 'guaranteed hours' proposals will force retailers to offer all colleagues the same number of hours as they've worked in the recent past – and pay for hours we don't need. Even successful retailers such as Currys work on fine margins – we make £1.60 profit for every £100 we sell. We simply can't afford to pay for hours we don't need, especially now those hours cost more. The result will be that retailers have to hire fewer people. It's no wonder that the Retail Jobs Alliance expects over 300,000 retail jobs to be lost in the next three years – and those job losses have already started. Thus government policy threatens the viability of the very jobs it sets out to protect, and this when the country desperately needs us to hire more people, not fewer. Where's the joining of dots here? The frustrating part? Nobody doubts the Government's good intentions. There's much to praise in its long-overdue planning reforms and investment in decaying infrastructure, both essential for growth. The Government has shown it can listen to business when presented with reasoned arguments. For example, it withdrew ill-thought-through recycling proposals inherited from the previous government which would have had the perverse impact of reducing recycling. We welcomed that warmly. Smart people know that changing your mind in the face of compelling evidence is a sign of strength, not weakness. It's not too late for the Government to change its mind on employment law changes that would lead to less employment. It's not too late to address the broken business rates system. It's not too late, instead of making it harder, riskier and more expensive to hire people, to do the reverse. We all want more growth and jobs. Businesses like Currys stand ready to play our part in getting Britain back to work. Enlist us in this cause, don't hammer us. We could be doing so much more to help. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.

Bloomberg

3 hours ago

• Bloomberg

Why Taxing the UK's Rich Less May Make Sense

The Laffer Curve does exist. You may not want it to, but it does. The UK's political class is in the process of learning this lesson. One of the first things Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves did was to make the global assets of those living in the UK but domiciled elsewhere for tax purposes (the 'non-doms') subject to UK inheritance tax. Those people have responded to that incentive exactly as one might expect. They are leaving. Exact numbers aren't available, but many financial advisers will tell you of their fast-vanishing high-net worth clients—heading for the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Malta and maybe even the US (there are some 70,000 applications for information on the new ' gold Trump card ' visa, apparently). Henley and Partners, a global relocation company, backs this up. It reports that inquiries on how to become a resident elsewhere were three times higher in the first three months of 2025 than the same period in 2024.

Yahoo

4 hours ago

• Yahoo

Samaranch Senior -- controversial diplomat who saved the Olympics

Incoming and outgoing International Olympic Committee presidents Kirsty Coventry and Thomas Bach will salute each other in the handover ceremony on Monday but the person they will thank for the movement's continued existence is Juan Antonio Samaranch Senior. Samaranch Senior -- whose son of the same name finished runner-up to Coventry in the IOC presidential election in March -- did, like Coventry, serve in a controversial regime prior to being elected in 1980. Advertisement While Coventry has been sports and arts minister in a Zimbabwean government whose election in 2023 was declared unfair and undemocratic by international observers, Samaranch served at a high level in the fascist Spanish regime of General Francisco Franco. His IOC presidency, which ran from 1980-2001, will for some be forever overshadowed by the 'votes for favours' scandal surrounding the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. However, to other more measured voices he is the saviour of the Games who transformed it from a movement at risk of extinction into a vibrant and financially healthy behemoth. "His legacy is that we have an Olympic Games to talk about," former IOC marketing executive Terrence Burns told AFP. Advertisement "He saved it from financial and political ruin." Samaranch Senior's earlier career exercised many people when he was IOC chief. After Franco's death and the restoration of the monarchy, Samaranch Senior went on to be ambassador to the Soviet Union. "I recognised that my political career in Spain was over," said Samaranch Senior, who always insisted he was not a fascist. It was in Moscow at the 1980 Games, overshadowed by a boycott because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, that he was elected president of the IOC. The IOC members' faith in him was more than repaid. Advertisement "Within the IOC I think the Samaranch legacy is fully understood: that he saved the Olympic Movement," former IOC marketing chief Michael Payne told AFP. His success was developing "the business model", which included a TV strategy and "the creation of the TOP programme, the most successful (sports) marketing programme ever," he added. Payne worked closely with him and said he was a different personality to his son in that he was "more a listener" than Samaranch Junior, who is a "great communicator." "He was very introverted, a great listener, didn't do a lot of talking, and a great strategic thinker," said Payne. Advertisement "But because he wasn't at the forefront, communicating and explaining, he was often misunderstood. "He only learned English as his third or fourth language when he was 60." - 'I cannot regret' - Payne said Samaranch's leadership shone through during the Salt Lake City scandal. Six members were to be expelled and Samaranch also oversaw a series of reforms to prevent a repeat of the situation. "He was calm under unbelievable pressure and stress," said the 66-year-old Irishman. "Honestly, you went to the office every day and you didn't know if the organisation would survive... And that was for three months. Advertisement "It was brutal. And yet, Samaranch Senior displayed absolute calm, focus." Nevertheless Samaranch, in a rare moment of letting the mask slip, revealed the effect of what Payne described as "personal attacks". "Retiring myself after the Barcelona Games (in 1992), I could have been a hero, no?" he told the Los Angeles Times in 2000. "I cannot regret. I have to write my history again." Payne said despite his diplomatic background Samaranch could play hardball. One incident occurred when Greece refused to allow the Olympic torch to be lit ahead of the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, as they objected to the commercialisation of the event. Advertisement "Samaranch sent one of his relatives to Olympia to privately film the lighting of the flame, put it in a miner's lamp, and brought it back to Lausanne," said Payne. "Then Samaranch called the Greeks and said, 'just for you to understand, I now have the Olympic flame on my desk. "'Either you will agree to let the Americans come and properly light it or there will never be another torch lighting in Olympia. Because it will be lit at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.' "So he wasn't shy of being very tough." pi/gj