Hello from The National and welcome to the View from London – your weekly guide to the big stories from our London bureau
Inside the trade tour
Rachel Reeves is back in Britain today after two days in Saudi Arabia drumming up investment.
The Chancellor was holding talks to make progress on a trade deal with the Gulf Co-operation Council and was confident a deal would be “over the line” soon.
Joining her on the trip to Riyadh was businessman Andrew Roughan, who gave The National his inside view on what it’s like to be part of a government delegation to the Middle East, and how he thinks Britain is viewed.
Mr Roughan believes a trade deal could bring investment in the critical infrastructure needed to transform the regions between Oxford and Cambridge universities into a tech centre.
There had been a “series of conversations” about the corridor, the chief executive of co-working space and accelerator Plexal said.
State-owned investment funds in the region were particularly interested in investing in the infrastructure.
“It's quite clear from some of the conversations with particularly the sovereign wealth communities within the Middle East, that actually the role of infrastructure growth in all countries, but also in the UK, is very attractive for them to invest behind,” Mr Roughan said.
“That's led to a series of conversations about the Oxford-Cambridge arc, which is … a target for investment of those sovereign wealth communities." This includes “the opportunities around housing, around rail and road infrastructure".
Ms Reeves spoke of the corridor at an event at the Future Investment Initiative summit on Tuesday.
“We're developing that corridor between those two universities to create … greater links and greater opportunities to expand those cities and their research capabilities, and the businesses that come out of them,” she said.
University partnerships are also being pursued and expanded.
Ed Bussey, chief executive of the fund Oxford Science Enterprises, which has a portfolio of companies from the University of Oxford, told audiences at the FII how these companies are having an effect in the GCC through scientific breakthroughs in the energy market.
Mr Bussey was part of Ms Reeves’s delegation, as was Andrew Williamson, managing partner of the multibillion-pound fund Cambridge Innovation Capital, who has just been appointed to the board of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
Mr Roughan said he was impressed by the “sense of positivity” about the UK since arriving in Riyadh on Monday – despite domestic pressure on the UK government to improve the economy.
“The sense of positivity is quite palpable here, which is a nice break from some of the normal UK feeling. It feels like the world of opportunities certainly opening up,” he said. “The UK is both valued and can have a material future impact.”
Mind the grab
Walking through Mayfair’s Berkeley Square last week, I took my phone from my pocket to check for directions and kept it in my hand as I walked. Then came a sense of foreboding. Was it safe?
I stuffed my device away swiftly, to make sure I did not become the latest victim of the phone snatchers who have been preying on tourists and locals alike, swooping past on e-bikes and grabbing what they can.
The mayor, Sadiq Khan, has been on a PR offensive, pointing out that murders and knife crimes are falling. While that is to be welcomed, petty crime has unfortunately remained high.
Last year the Met Police said about 80,000 mobile phones were stolen and so far this year the figure is 45,000. Two fifths of all phone theft in Europe happens in London.
The phone snatchers have done more than ruin the city’s crime statistics. They have seriously harmed London’s reputation for safety, so much so that one campaigner told us of an instance where passengers on an inbound flight were warned to be wary of using their phones in public as they made their way to hotels.
Lawrence Newport, who campaigns to highlight what he sees as the inaction of the authorities in tackling crime in London, told us of the airport warnings, and also the reality of what tourists witness in the West End.
“Another one of the ways in which London is currently taking a hit is when people arrive here, if they're in a shop, there's a very good chance that they might literally just see people enter, fill bags up with stuff and run out the door,” said Mr Newport.
“They see no one do anything about it and no one calls the police, because no one sees a point to calling the police. Obviously, in a world of social media, that very easily can become very large news.”
William Walter, the managing director of Bridgehead Communications, is unimpressed by a campaign on Oxford Street warning shoppers to "Mind the Grab", with the slogan painted on the pavement. It would do nothing to persuade people that London is safe, he said.
Mr Walter said that even if the police in London are making some headway, “shifting the public narrative is a bit like turning a supertanker around”.
He believes London needs to adopt a more visible approach to crime, after the zero tolerance approach of 1990s New York.
There’s no doubt the perception that London is crime-ridden is overdone, but unless the mayor finds a way to make the streets safer, more people like me will be concerned about getting out their phone in public.
Dutch vote
Polls have opened in the Netherlands in a knife-edge vote with Geert Wilders seeking a second straight victory for his far-right Party for Freedom.
The election for all 150 seats in the lower Second Chamber of parliament is forecast to be a close race between the shock winner of the last election, Mr Wilders's populist, anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV), and the centre left bloc of the Labour Party and Green Left.
After the vote, parties will begin talks to form a coalition and secure a majority in parliament. With 15 parties set to be represented in the legislature, a majority may need at least four parties. The PVV leads in the polls, but most parties have ruled out joining it in government.
The housing market, health care and immigration top the list of concerns among Dutch voters.
Polls suggest that Mr Wilders' PVV party remains on track to be the largest bloc, but other more moderate parties are closing the gap.
Building bridges
A Cardiff-based publisher hopes his translations of Welsh poetry into Arabic will have an audience in the Middle East.
Ali Anwar, a retired computer engineer and business owner from Baghdad, has lived in Wales since he arrived there as a student in 1977.
He was inspired to set up his publishing company H’mm Foundation 12 years ago to promote Welsh culture in the Middle East and the Arabic language in Wales.
One of his concerns was that young people from Arabic-speaking communities in Wales were losing their native language. He also wanted to expose Welsh culture to the Arab world, where it is little known.
Among diaspora communities, the children and grandchildren of Arabic-speaking immigrants are rapidly losing the language – which alarms Mr Anwar most. “The first generation keep their language, but by the second or third generation it disappears,” he said.
“I’m keen on building bridges between the two cultures. Welsh is a very old language that goes back a very long time.
“And I’m so proud of my own language, my culture,” he told The National.
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