Richard Turnbull

The longest reign of any British monarch came to an end on the afternoon of Thursday, September 8, 2022. Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully at Balmoral Castle, her favorite residence, in the northeast of Scotland. She occupied a unique place in the hearts of the British people and countless millions beyond the shores of the United Kingdom. We give thanks to God for her life and faith. May she rest in peace and rise in glory. The implications of Her Majesty’s passing, for both the nation and the Church of…

The P&O debacle has become a touchstone for business ethics. Few would like to be in the shoes of Peter Hebblethwaite, the Chief Executive, who admitted in oral evidence to a joint sessions of the Transport and the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committees, that he had broken the law on consultation with trade unions. He argued that without this decision there was no future for the company and 3,000 rather than 800 job losses would result. The crews would be replaced with an agency model, with levels of pay…

Terry Smith, chief executive of investment management company, Fundsmith, began his January 2022 letter to investors, ‘This is the twelfth annual letter to owners of the Fundsmith Equity Fund.’ Pretty routine stuff one might think. Except. Unilever was the second worse performing stock in the Fund. Smith did not hold back: "Unilever seems to be labouring under the weight of a management which is obsessed with publicly displaying sustainability credentials at the expense of focusing on the fundamentals of the business. The most obvious manifestation of this is the public…

60 per cent of business leaders and, indeed, 75 per cent of leaders in larger businesses, think profit is incompatible with a society in which people are happy. Incompatible. The figure for the general public is just 37 per cent. Similar percentages of business leaders think business should be taxed more and executives are paid too much. According to British Religion in Numbers around 2.5 million were attending church in 2015, a considerable number. A mere 30 per cent of church leaders think that employers care about their employees, 75…

Committed churchgoers – defined as those who attend weekly – have a considerably more positive view of business and the market economy than those who lead them and teach them. This is the result of polling conducted for the Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics. Savanta ComRes polled six audiences between 10th May 2021 and 5th August 2021 to secure their findings: the general public, regular churchgoers, business leaders, Muslim and Jewish people, and Church leaders. They also conducted in-depth interviews between 10th May 2021 and 5th August 2021 with…

Putting Purpose into Practice (published 2021) is the product of an extensive research programme undertaken between Mars Catalyst, which is the internal think-tank of the Mars company, and the Saïd Business School. It seeks to achieve far too much and would have been more coherent if it had contained and been shaped by a clear definition of what it calls the “economics of mutuality”. However, it contains some significant insights, offering areas for further research and useful debates on important topics.”

Full Text Link: Local and Personal: The Principles and Practice of Saving in Victorian England - Revd Dr Richard Turnbull   About the Publication: Richard Turnbull explores the principles and practices of saving in Victorian England, highlighting the significance of local financial institutions and their impact on society.   About the Author: Richard Turnbull is the Director of CEME. He brings to the Centre a wide range of experience in business, the church and public life. He holds a degree in Economics and Accounting and spent over eight years as…

  The Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics (CEME) is pleased to announce the publication of The Social & Economic Teaching of the Hebrew Scriptures, edited by Richard Turnbull. A PDF copy can be found here. The publication can also be purchased in paperback by contacting CEME’s offices via email at: office@theceme.org            

One of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic is a shift in attitudes and practices of remote working at least some of which are likely to be permanent. A survey undertaken by the Institute of Directors of around 1,000 firms found that 74% plan on maintaining or increasing the amount of home working and more than 50% intended to put into effect a long-term reduction of office space. These moves have a number of implications from an ethical point of view, both from the perspective of the individual and also…

This was first published for Tectona on August 27, 2020. For decades UK governments have sought to impose a fixed employment status on as many in the workforce as possible. If Rishi Sunak (UK Chancellor of the Exchequer) wants to be remembered as a great, reforming Chancellor he should abolish the concept of employment and make all workers independent contractors. Too radical? Let’s dig a bit deeper… The history of IR35, which originated as a Revenue press release in 1999 before becoming law in 2000, is a case in point.…

Graeme Leach, formerly the chief economist at the Institute of Directors, has done us a great service with his expositions on ‘Thoughts on a biblical economic worldview or Godonomics.’ Graeme is clear. The free market economy is ordained by God for our economic prosperity. This is a point of view of some importance and which is rarely given the ‘airtime’ it deserves. One consequence of this is what one can only call an extreme laziness in economic pronouncements from denominational leaders. It is worth reflecting further on the debate. -…