The story of two London residential towers sums up the changing face of the British economy after a tumultuous year in politics.
One is the Aykon London One tower just south of the Thames at the edge of the Nine Elms development in Vauxhall. Glimpse into the site today and there is not much to see. The previous edifice, a decaying bond house, has been cleared away. Blue shipping containers have been stacked to use as site offices when construction gets underway.
Conceived as the building boom was emerging, London One was the glitziest of the sparkling new developments that stretch all the way to the high-profile Battersea Power Station revamp. London One's selling point was that it was the first-ever apartment block conceived and kitted out by Versace. Every room would be tailored in the Milan fashion house style.
Even when it was launched, the building appeared to stand apart from the Conservative government’s austerity drive and the dominant political catchphrase: “We’re all in it together".
The second building is Grenfell Tower, an hour away in north-west London. In the month since it was consumed in the flames that fed on flammable cladding, much has been made of the cheek-by-jowl nature of deprivation and prosperity in Kensington.
There was fury last week when the new leader of the Kensington and Chelsea council admitted that she had never been in a publicly owned high-rise building.
Until Grenfell, the prospect of serving as a councillor in Kensington and Chelsea was not a challenging undertaking. The council was proud of its role as an exemplar of efficient local government. It participated in the post-financial crisis budget cuts and returned surplus money via a rebate to its taxpayers.
The fire has seen a revolt against the hands-off style of government that made the council a trailblazer. The subcontracting of building regulations is widely blamed - possibly wrongly - for the vulnerable condition of Grenfell Tower and hundreds of other council-owned buildings around the country.
A mood of revolt is festering. It is one that the now weakened government of Theresa May is ill-equipped to address.
The tower fire has brought the angry resentment of Britain’s economic and social contract into the open. In truth, the Brexit vote and the general election that cost the Conservatives their majority last month were products of the same trend.
At the time of Brexit, Britain had the fastest growing economy in the G7 and was zipping ahead of its European rivals. It could build Versace towers and the world flocked to bid up the prices.
It has since slipped into slower growth and rising inflation. There is a fierce debate over how much the uncertainty of Brexit and the accompanying political turmoil will handicap the country’s prospects. The squeeze on real wages in the last year means that the money going into a worker's pocket every month has fallen to a level last seen 12 years ago.
Looking at the forecasts the stakes are huge. According to a report last week from the government’s own official watchdog, the office for budget responsibility, a fall-off of 0.1 per cent in annual productivity would reduce the size of the economy by 4.8 per cent every 50 years.
The Brexit-backing Spectator magazine took on the gloom mongers last week with an essay condemning the "declinism" that had seized the commentariat.
It said Brits were being browbeaten with talk that a post-imperial delusion was leading a small offshore island off the economic cliff edge. “We will be comparable, the declinists scoff, to Albania or North Korea,” it said.
Far better, the author wrote, to take into account soft-power and political influence and embrace the Cambridge academic Brendan Simms assessment that Britain is the third great power in the world after America and China. As Europe’s only true independent state after Brexit, the British will have the resilience to prosper, it concluded.
The hard realities of negotiating trade deals and maintaining investor confidence are likely to trump such mystical musing.
Reconciling the existential debate over Britain’s future with the very raw anger over the shrinkage of government is an almost impossible task. Wrangling over spending and the budget will intensify.
Politicians were already flailing for new means to grapple with the task of extracting revenue from the digital economy. It is hard to escape the thought that it will take a revolutionary new approach to properly tax changing activity.
These trends are being felt beyond Britain. Donald Trump seized the White House on the back of an American cry of anger. Emmanuel Macron is leading a new push by the so-called southern European states against the German straight-jacket of Eurozone austerity.
But it is London that has witnessed the clearest breakdown and where the trajectory is least certain. Much will have changed when the £600 million Versace-themed tower is built in 2020.
The bio
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite travel destination: Maldives and south of France
Favourite pastime: Family and friends, meditation, discovering new cuisines
Favourite Movie: Joker (2019). I didn’t like it while I was watching it but then afterwards I loved it. I loved the psychology behind it.
Favourite Author: My father for sure
Favourite Artist: Damien Hurst
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Chinese Grand Prix schedule (in UAE time)
Friday: First practice - 6am; Second practice - 10am
Saturday: Final practice - 7am; Qualifying - 10am
Sunday: Chinese Grand Prix - 10.10am
Abu Dhabi GP schedule
Friday: First practice - 1pm; Second practice - 5pm
Saturday: Final practice - 2pm; Qualifying - 5pm
Sunday: Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (55 laps) - 5.10pm
Expert advice
“Join in with a group like Cycle Safe Dubai or TrainYAS, where you’ll meet like-minded people and always have support on hand.”
Stewart Howison, co-founder of Cycle Safe Dubai and owner of Revolution Cycles
“When you sweat a lot, you lose a lot of salt and other electrolytes from your body. If your electrolytes drop enough, you will be at risk of cramping. To prevent salt deficiency, simply add an electrolyte mix to your water.”
Cornelia Gloor, head of RAK Hospital’s Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy Centre
“Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can ride as fast or as far during the summer as you do in cooler weather. The heat will make you expend more energy to maintain a speed that might normally be comfortable, so pace yourself when riding during the hotter parts of the day.”
Chandrashekar Nandi, physiotherapist at Burjeel Hospital in Dubai
Results
5.30pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Turf) 1,600m; Winner: Al Battar, Mickael Barzalona (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer).
6.05pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,200m; Winner: Good Fighter, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
6.40pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Way Of Wisdom, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
7.15pm: Handicap Dh170,000 (D) 2,200m; Winner: Immortalised, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
7.50pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 2,000m; Winner: Franz Kafka, James Doyle, Simon Crisford.
8.25pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Mayadeen, Connor Beasley, Doug Watson.
9pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Chiefdom, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
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MATCH INFO
AC Milan v Inter, Sunday, 6pm (UAE), match live on BeIN Sports
Opening Premier League fixtures, August 14
- Brentford v Arsenal
- Burnley v Brighton
- Chelsea v Crystal Palace
- Everton v Southampton
- Leicester City v Wolves
- Manchester United v Leeds United
- Newcastle United v West Ham United
- Norwich City v Liverpool
- Tottenham v Manchester City
- Watford v Aston Villa
One in four Americans don't plan to retire
Nearly a quarter of Americans say they never plan to retire, according to a poll that suggests a disconnection between individuals' retirement plans and the realities of ageing in the workforce.
Experts say illness, injury, layoffs and caregiving responsibilities often force older workers to leave their jobs sooner than they'd like.
According to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research, 23 per cent of workers, including nearly two in 10 of those over 50, don't expect to stop working. Roughly another quarter of Americans say they will continue working beyond their 65th birthday.
According to government data, about one in five people 65 and older was working or actively looking for a job in June. The study surveyed 1,423 adults in February this year.
For many, money has a lot to do with the decision to keep working.
"The average retirement age that we see in the data has gone up a little bit, but it hasn't gone up that much," says Anqi Chen, assistant director of savings research at the Centre for Retirement Research at Boston College. "So people have to live in retirement much longer, and they may not have enough assets to support themselves in retirement."
When asked how financially comfortable they feel about retirement, 14 per cent of Americans under the age of 50 and 29 per cent over 50 say they feel extremely or very prepared, according to the poll. About another four in 10 older adults say they do feel somewhat prepared, while just about one-third feel unprepared.
"One of the things about thinking about never retiring is that you didn't save a whole lot of money," says Ronni Bennett, 78, who was pushed out of her job as a New York City-based website editor at 63.
She searched for work in the immediate aftermath of her layoff, a process she describes as akin to "banging my head against a wall." Finding Manhattan too expensive without a steady stream of income, she eventually moved to Portland, Maine. A few years later, she moved again, to Lake Oswego, Oregon. "Sometimes I fantasise that if I win the lottery, I'd go back to New York," says Ms Bennett.
Brief scores:
Juventus 3
Dybala 6', Bonucci 17', Ronaldo 63'
Frosinone 0
Suggested picnic spots
Abu Dhabi
Umm Al Emarat Park
Yas Gateway Park
Delma Park
Al Bateen beach
Saadiyaat beach
The Corniche
Zayed Sports City
Dubai
Kite Beach
Zabeel Park
Al Nahda Pond Park
Mushrif Park
Safa Park
Al Mamzar Beach Park
Al Qudrah Lakes
