Defence spending is increasing. Do we get bang for our buck?
B uckle up: the British state is about to commit a lot of money it does not really have to restore defence spending to levels last seen in the 2000s. Indeed it may have to go further: at the Nato summit this week the organisation's secretary general, Mark Rutte, will push member states to commit themselves to spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence.
For years the fall in defence spending was used to pay for a rise in healthcare and welfare costs — the peace dividend — but defence has come calling again, and that transfer cannot be reversed. Instead, by squeezing a few years of the foreign aid budget, the prime minister has managed to raise defence spending to 2.6 per cent of GDP by 2027-28. We will learn a bit more about where that money will be spent in a national security strategy to be published this week. But will 2.6 per cent make much of a difference? Will a 0.3 percentage point rise in spending over the next few years really result in a meaningful expansion of our armed forces?
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BBC News
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- BBC News
What can Northamptonshire expect from Reform UK's Doge teams?
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A preliminary meeting with the Doge team happened this week at West Northamptonshire Council, and it will be descending on North Northamptonshire in the near future following the huge swing from the Conservatives to Reform UK in the May local Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, who received a hero's welcome when he met his councillors in Corby on Tuesday, explained how it would work."The Doge team comes in and it talks to the officers and says 'we want to look at the books, we want to see what money's been spent on this, what money's been spent on that, we want to see the credit card statements, we want to see the contracts'," he took repairing potholes as an example and said Doge would ask "Who've you assigned to do this job? How long is the contract for? What's the cost? Is it based on results?"He insisted that "not everything about Doge is critical, not everything about Doge is slagging off what's gone before. I'm really hoping that Doge can help everybody".Reform UK said its team in West Northamptonshire would consist of "software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors". How much is Doge costing taxpayers? 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An unlikely winner so far from the Doge initiative has been the public sector workers' union to data released to Sky News, weekly new memberships increased by an average of 272% in the week after the May election results were a weekly average of 12 new members at North Northamptonshire the union saw the figure shoot up to 27 in the week following the has admitted that efficiencies may be more difficult to find in Northamptonshire's two unitary councils, which came into being in 2021, than in some older politicians have pointed out that councils already face regular audits so Doge teams would simply duplicate that the available evidence, though, two things look certain: Northamptonshire will go through the Doge process, and it will still be controversial. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Finextra
an hour ago
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Deep Dive: How Shift4 Is Building a Global Commerce Platform: By Sam Boboev
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By 2022, founder Jared Isaacman proudly noted that Shift4 had moved 'upmarket,' powering the entire POS and payments systems of massive resort properties and stadiums – customers that bring larger payment volumes and more stability than small businesses. Today, Shift4 bills itself as an 'integrated commerce' provider, combining payments with software solutions in a one-stop platform. The company claims to serve roughly one-third of all U.S. restaurants through its various POS brands, and has expanded into hospitality, retail, entertainment, and specialty markets. Headquarters remain in Pennsylvania, but Shift4's footprint is increasingly global – a result of its recent expansion strategy (detailed below). Notably, as of early 2025, Jared Isaacman announced plans to step down as CEO (while remaining a major shareholder and Executive Chairman) after being nominated to lead NASA – handing the CEO role to company president Taylor Lauber. This leadership transition caps a remarkable evolution: from a basement startup to a publicly traded, multi-billion dollar fintech with international ambitions. Disclaimer: Fintech Wrap Up aggregates publicly available information for informational purposes only. Portions of the content may be reproduced verbatim from the original source, and full credit is provided with a "Source: [Name]" attribution. All copyrights and trademarks remain the property of their respective owners. Fintech Wrap Up does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the aggregated content; these are the responsibility of the original source providers. Links to the original sources may not always be included. For questions or concerns, please contact us at
BBC News
an hour ago
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Essex community minibuses to hit road after £195k grant
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