Cicero Analysis
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Pre-Budget Report: Cicero analysis
 Gordon
Brown's final Pre-Budget Report was dominated by the mantra
which opened New Labour's term in office - Education, Education,
Education.
In a speech utterly dominated by planned spending on education,
the Chancellor has set out his philosophical and personal
political agenda for the forthcoming Labour leadership election
- if indeed he is challenged by anyone in his party after
such a towering performance at the despatch box...
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The Queen’s Speech: Cicero review
 In
October we looked ahead to the Queen’s Speech and predicted
what we thought might be in store for the 2006/2007 session.
This was to be Tony Blair’s tenth, and final, Gracious
Speech and his last chance to secure the legacy that he is
said to crave. But when it was revealed on the morning of
the 15 November that the theme of ‘security in a changing
world’ was to lead the speech, it said as much about
Gordon Brown’s ambitions as it did about Blair’s...
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The Insurance Mediation review:
Grasping the nettle of travel insurance sales
 The
announcement was no doubt lost on many, but during the summer
silly season the Treasury launched its review of the EU Insurance
Mediation Directive (2002/93/EC), or IMD. Hardly a headline
grabber, the review will look at how the UK implemented the
Directive and whether there are any ‘problem areas’ which
need to be addressed...
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Ready, steady…but not quite go:
Older home owners and equity release
 This
headline was the title of a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report
published back in 2003, and many would agree that it seems
as apt now as it was then. It is still a bold person who
places a date on when the equity release market will expand
to become a common option for home-owning pensioners. But
there is no lack of potential customers...
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Banking the Unbanked:
the Treasury Select Committee and financial inclusion
 The
Treasury Select Committee’s financial inclusion inquiry
finally ended in November with the publication of three reports,
and few organisations involved came away unscathed...
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The Pensions Report:
Consumers are disengaged from conventional pensions
 This
shouldn’t come as any surprise to me, after all the
years I’ve spent in the pensions business—but
we have some mountains to climb to re-engage the public with
retirement planning, as some new qualitative and quantitative
research into pensions which I have recently completed reveals...
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The Bank that stole Christmas (allegedly):
a tale of the importance of public affairs
 Many
times, I have been asked: “What do you do for a living?” The
questioner is usually taken on a voyage of discovery where
I, like Superman, single-handedly save the corporate world
from the worst excess of reputation damage...
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Getting Tough:
The FSA and new ways of tackling financial crime
 Financial
crime remains a thorny issue for financial institutions,
authorities and consumers—and not one of insignificant
scale, either. While it is difficult to quantify exactly
how much happens as much goes undetected, there is little
doubt that perpetrators are becoming increasingly sophisticated...
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