Latest news with #DanielTurner
The Herald Scotland
4 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Can Scotland regain its status as an innovation nation?
About a third of the slowdown in growth is coming from the aforementioned lack of investment, but the rest is linked to something called "total factor productivity". Read more: On that first point, Scotland has for decades had very low levels of private investment, as has the UK which on this measure has been at the bottom of the G7 league table for many years. According to the Productivity Institute in Manchester, UK workers are operating with a third less capital - less software, fewer machines, a lack of R&D and organisational capacity, and so forth - than their counterparts in the US, Germany, France and the Netherlands. Give people fewer tools, and they'll produce less. Those figures were highlighted last week by economist Daniel Turner, head of research and analysis at the Centre for Progressive Policy, who noted that the difference is "particularly stark" in the case of France. "A worker has about half of the stuff with which to produce their outputs if they are based in the UK than if based in France," he said at the Creating the Jobs of Tomorrow conference in Glasgow. "But just fixing that problem of low investment will be nowhere near enough to reverse Scotland's slowdown in productivity because two-thirds of that gap comes from something called total factor productivity. Usually this is what economists attribute to ideas [and] innovation, bot the basic ideas from universities and also how we can make more effective use of production processes, how we design, and how we market our goods." Read more: So, Mr Turner asserted, there is no path for Scotland to return to a high productivity growth economy, and the higher incomes that come with that, without raising the level and quality of innovation across all industries. "This is as near as we get, if you can productivity, as near as we get to a panacea in economic policy because it makes all of the other economic trade-offs that we have to grapple with harder. If we don't fix this is will be harder to raise standards of living, to fund public services, and to create good jobs everywhere." Fortunately, it's not all doom and gloom. Scotland is among the best places in the UK to establish an innovation business, with the university spin-out rate per head of population the highest of any nation or region in the UK. In addition, half of the UK's most active angel investor networks are based north of the border. But each £1 spent on innovation in Scotland via the public sector and higher education generates just £1.46 in private sector research and development, which is about half the rate of the UK as a whole, roughly a third of that of the 38 countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and less than a fifth of returns in the US. The first step towards solving this, according to the conclusions from Mr Turner's latest research, is to set out a single Scottish industrial strategy backed by both the UK and Scottish governments. This should focus on a handful of globally significant clusters in sectors such as life sciences, green manufacturing and digital exports. Read more: "The absence of co-ordination, the absence of a shared set of goals over the past few decades has led to this proliferation in Scotland of different agencies, different strategies, different documents, which is not necessarily wrong in and of itself, but in practice what we hear from the business community in Scotland is it's created a bit of a spaghetti junction that people struggle to navigate and negotiate when it comes to accessing public support," Mr Turner said. He added: "As a result Scotland is smaller than the sum of its parts, I think, so there is an opportunity to consolidate, to coordinate, and to start to deliver some of that value for money that is lacking." These consolidated funds should then be directed into "growth zones", a physical campus for innovation investment in Scotland's main urban areas. These zones should be governed by new Scottish combined authorities that would be "clearly attached and to leading that process". "This is based on something like that successful Manchester model that you will be familiar with, and it's not a substitute to cooperation with Holyrood and Westminster - all of that needs to go hand-in-hand, and that's why you need the shared strategy - but it provides a single locus of someone who can go out and champion the growth zone in greater Glasgow, broker deals with multinational companies alongside the trade minister at UK level and in the Scottish Government, in order to bring in that flagship investment," Mr Turner explained. And finally, there should be no complacency in protecting the advantages Scotland already has with its strength in university spin-outs and early-stage angel investment. "At a moment of striated public finances, now is not the time to reduce funding for universities or especially the funding for applied research and innovation and spin-outs that universities have been developing over the past decade," Mr Turner said.
Fox News
28-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Watchdog finds 'no evidence' Biden knew of crucial climate EOs, demands answers on who signed autopen
Print Close By Andrew Miller Published May 28, 2025 FIRST ON FOX: A pro-energy group is renewing its call for an investigation into over half a dozen Biden administration executive actions related to climate that it believes should be deemed null and void due to them being signed by an autopen without any public comment from former President Joe Biden confirming his knowledge of them. Power the Future, a nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs, reviewed eight Biden executive orders that it says were significant shifts in domestic energy policy and said it found no evidence of the president speaking about any of them publicly, raising concerns that the orders were signed by autopen and that he was not aware of them. "These are not obscure bureaucratic memos; these were foundational shifts in American energy policy, yet not once did Joe Biden speak about them publicly," Daniel Turner, founder and executive director of Power The Future, told Fox News Digital. The executive orders reviewed by Power the Future include an Arctic drilling ban in 2023, a 2021 executive order committing the federal government to net-zero emissions by 2050, an executive order mandating "clean energy" AI centers and an offshore drilling ban executive order shortly before leaving office in 2025. PRO-ENERGY GROUP URGES AG BONDI TO PROBE BIDEN'S AUTOPEN ON CRUCIAL DECISIONS THAT DEVASTATED INDUSTRY Finding no evidence of Biden publicly speaking about the executive orders on climate, Power the Future sent letters this week to the DOJ, EPA, DOI, DOE, along with the House and Senate Oversight Committees, calling for an investigation to determine who made the decisions, drafted the executive orders and ultimately signed them. "In light of the growing evidence that actions purportedly taken by the former president may not have been approved or signed by him, but instead promulgated by a small coterie of advisers in his name without his knowledge or over his signature using an 'autopen,' the need for congressional access to information has grown in importance with these revelations," the letter to GOP House Oversight Chair James Comer states. "Congress deserves to know how or whether these executive actions were authorized, and whether the former President was aware of such orders before they were implemented by the federal bureaucracy. Were these actions taken on behalf of the president and purporting to execute his authority undertaken with the president's knowledge and approach? It appears incumbent upon Congress to inquire, about all parties involved in these actions, who instructed them to do what, when." WHAT IS AN AUTOPEN? THE SIGNING DEVICE AT THE HEART OF TRUMP'S ATTACKS ON BIDEN PARDONS Fox News Digital reached out to Biden's office for comment but did not hear back by press time. The presidential autopen has been a topic of conversation with Republicans in recent weeks and months as questions continue about Biden's mental acuity during his presidency, particularly the last few years, which have faced increased scrutiny after the release of Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's book "Original Sin." "Power The Future remains concerned that key policies of major economic and national security significance directed by the White House during the Biden administration may have been undertaken without presidential awareness and approval, but perhaps instead by a small coterie of staff," the letter states. "Although this likelihood has become more apparent by claims made in a recent book titled Original Sin, those claims merely support information that had already emerged." An autopen is a device that physically holds a pen and is programmed to replicate a person's signature. The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel determined in 2005 that the president is permitted to use an autopen to sign bills into law, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a ruling in February that said the absence of "a writing does not equate to proof that a commutation did not occur." In March, President Donald Trump claimed that Biden's pardons of lawmakers who served on the House Select Committee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, and others, are "VOID," alleging that they had been signed via an autopen and that Biden did not even know about them. DAVID MARCUS: OLD MAN BIDEN'S AUTOPEN PARDONS SHOULD BE NULL AND VOID Despite Trump's concerns over the validity of Biden's pardons due to the alleged use of an autopen, constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital that the odds of successfully legally challenging them in court are "vanishingly low." "Presidents are allowed to use the autopen, and courts will not presume a dead-hand conspiracy," Turley said. Power the Future's letter references House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who in January shared that Biden, during a meeting, appeared to forget that he signed an order to pause LNG exports. A report published by an arm of the Heritage Foundation claimed that the majority of official documents signed by Biden were allegedly an autopen signature. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "During the Biden administration, hundreds of billions of dollars were funneled towards pet green projects, while the American fossil fuels industry was punished, and there is no evidence that Biden ordered it, directed it, or was even aware it was happening in his name," Turner told Fox News Digital, adding that the American people "deserve to know" who was signing the executive orders "behind closed doors." "This autopen scandal is evidence that these green EOs are invalid, and the instigators should be thoroughly investigated by the DOJ for violating the trust of the American people and perpetuating a great fraud on the nation." Fox News Digital's Diana Stancy contributed to this report. Print Close URL
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Council candidate handed suspended jail sentence
A candidate who had been due to stand in a council election escaped jail by the "skin of his teeth" after defrauding a charity out of £28,000. Daniel Turner, 39, who was a manager and trustee at the Meridale Youth and Community Centre in Sutton on Sea, previously admitted fraud by false representation and fraud by abuse of position. At Lincoln Crown Court on Monday, Turner, of New End, Horncastle, was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years. He must also complete 120 hours of unpaid work in the community. The court heard Turner had used his position to divert more than £16,000 from Covid-19 grants to his own account between 2020 and 2022. Turner also admitted claiming £12,000 which was meant for a dementia group based at the centre. An impact statement from the Meridale trustees described Turner's actions as "a complete betrayal" of the organisation, which was set up by the late John Monk MBE. Passing sentence, Recorder Simon King told Turner his behaviour was "reprehensible" and that he had escaped jail by the "skin of your teeth". However, the judge accepted Turner had shown "genuine remorse" and was suitable for rehabilitation, adding he was satisfied Turner's children and ex-partner would suffer if he was jailed. Turner was announced as the Reform candidate for Louth North in the Lincolnshire County Council elections on 1 May, but stood down in March after indicating his guilty pleas at Boston Magistrates' Court. Reform UK said Turner's membership of the party had been suspended. Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Reform candidate stands down over charity fraud HM Courts Service
Fox News
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Earth Day Without Existentialism
Under the Biden Administration, Earth Day was often marked by talks of climate change threats and the promise of 'green initiatives.' Though many Americans agree it wasn't environmental improvements they saw under President Biden — it was the economic implications of his actions. On this Earth Day Eve, Founder and Executive Director of Power the Future Daniel Turner analyzes the steep price Americans paid for President Biden's green agenda. He also explains how Earth Day looks very different under the Trump Administration — as the President aims to unleash American energy and ensure government funds aren't being misused by climate advocacy groups. I Wish Someone Had Told Me: Daniel explains why legislative reforms are needed to ensure the 'green groups' receiving massive funding and grants are thoroughly vetted and held accountable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
Fox News
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Daniel Turner: These Big Climate Change Summits Have Always Been About Hypocrisy
Founder and Executive Director of Power The Future Daniel Turner joins Fox Across America With Jimmy Failla to share his reaction to the absurd measures being taken in Brazil as the country gets set to host the 30th UN Climate Change Conference with the Conference of the Parties. 'This is one of those things that if it was a skit on Saturday Night Live when the show used to be funny, or if you read it in the Babylon Bee, you would think it's a joke. The next big climate summit, you know, Cop 26, Cop 27, you've heard those names. The next one is COP 30, and it's going to be in Brazil. And to really get into the spirit of a climate summit, they wanted to host it deep inside the rainforest. And to bring 40,000 people deep inside the rainforest. They are plowing a 40-yard wide, eight mile stretch of the rainforest to build a road, to bring in 40,000 people. So think of how long eight miles is. Newark Airport from Midtown Manhattan is less than eight miles. Eight miles is a long stretch of land for it, for 40 yards wide, to just plow over all of the trees and the wildlife and the flora and fauna and endangered species. Also that these climate yahoos can say, look at us inside the rain forest.' Jimmy and Daniel also discuss a few other examples of brazen climate change hypocrisy. Listen to the podcast to hear what else they discussed!
