Crypto News: UK loses arm wrestle

In the great wrestle over Arm, the UK has finally lost out. Bloomberg's team — including my Readout buddy Ruth David — exclusively revealed overnight the decision by the homegrown technology giant to list in the US later this year. They are shunning a London listing on account of persistent political instability and too shallow an investor base.

"Arm is a jewel of the UK tech industry" Ruth and Amy Thomson write. "Its technology is found in most of the world's smartphones and is pervasive across the electronics industry … [the] decision to bypass Arm's home exchange is raising questions among tech veterans about the government's approach to tech companies and IPOs, which have historically lagged behind the US."

Integrated circuit microchips, designed by Arm Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Bloomberg Radio spoke to Arm's co-founder Jamie Urquhart who was blunt: "There's been very little continuity, very little strategy. Even now we're waiting for the government to come up with a semiconductor strategy. It doesn't take that much to start looking forward and thinking about what you're going to do... But you've got to do it."

He said that the UK's long-term technology strategy "couldn't be any worse than it is at the moment...There's very little here in the UK and on the things we are worried about, the Chinese already own them."

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The stories you need to know about this evening

Boris Johnson has said that voting for the revised deal between the EU and the UK will be difficult.
Sue Gray, the civil servant who led the investigation into breaches of lockdown rules, has resigned amid reports the Labour Party plans to hire her.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt will offer voters a dollop of optimism alongside spending restraint in his spring Budget.
The Labour Party raised £7.2 million in donations between October and December last year, £2.4 million more than the Conservative Party.
Companies that have more women at board level tend to have higher credit worthiness, according to new findings.

I've been thinking recently that David Cameron's brilliant "too many tweets might make a tw*t" needs a refresh for the era of WhatsApp. And that was before this week. Alliteratively there are lots of options, but I'll let you finish the sentence: Too many WhatsApps make a... ?

WhatsApp can catch people out. Not just the various former cabinet ministerial characters who appear among Matt Hancock's messages, but all sorts. It allows fluidity and agility in a conversation yes… But it also indulges impulse, informality and I suspect even in the WhatsApp groups of angels (I'm going out on a limb here): occasional ill-judged phrasing.

So, here we are on only day two of the press poring over Hancock's WhatsApp messages — the messages he voluntarily shared with journalist and vehement anti-lockdown-er, Isabel Oakeshott. Hancock today called this a "massive betrayal and breach of trust." He also said that there "is absolutely no public interest case for this huge breach. All the materials for the book have already been made available to the Inquiry."

Matt Hancock, former cabinet minster Photographer: Hollie Adams/Getty Images Europe

Today, the subject is school closures during Covid. Cast your mind back to those days and they were fraught with last-minute policy announcements (at one stage schools opened for a number of hours before swiftly shutting again.) But behind what was clearly an extremely difficult trade-off between public health and children's education, the Hancock messages reveal the often teenage-like squabbling between Cabinet ministers.

The way in which they battled to get the then PM's ear is also laid bare — texting the Downing Street chief of staff after decisions had been taken collectively to keep pressing their argument, as these messages show. At one stage, Matt Hancock says of then Education Secretary Gavin Williamson: "He needs a haircut and a holiday somewhere other than Scarborough!" At another stage, Gavin Williamson says of the teaching unions — "they really, really do just hate work."

It all casts light on the way that certain discussions could be conducted in government, and the way in which some policy positions were reached. The Telegraph messages suggest that mandating masks in English schools was driven by politics rather than public health which, if true, requires reflection.

Isabel Oakeshott has said: "Anyone who thinks I did this for money must be utterly insane. This is about the millions of people — every one of us in this country — that were adversely affected by the catastrophic decisions to lockdown repeatedly, often on the flimsiest of evidence, for political reasons."

The Conservative parliamentary party is on a "team-building" away day today and tomorrow. Perhaps an important item on the agenda should be dos and don'ts when messaging on your mobile.

Three quarters of women paying for childcare in the UK say it doesn't make financial sense for them to work, according to a new report that could spark concerns about a labor market already under strain.

For around a fifth of parents, childcare costs account for more than half their household income, a report released on Thursday by charity Pregnant Then Screwed showed.

Get ahead of the curve

Football bidding. The battle for Manchester United has focused attention on the prices attached to certain clubs. Bloomberg's In The City podcast takes a look behind the bidding. Listen on Apple podcasts or on Spotify.

Food security. The tomato shortage in the UK is just a taste of what's to come, writes Lara Williams.

Fight for communications. Sam Bankman-Fried has been arguing for his use of the internet and mobile apps while he is out on bail.

Retail abuse. Violence against shop staff in the UK has almost doubled on pre-pandemic levels according to the British Retail Consortium.

Strategic review. London's Southend Airport is seeking a new owner after struggling to establish itself as a hub serving the UK capital.

Battling inflation. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said that rate hikes may continue past March.

$69 billion

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard met with the UK's antitrust watchdog to heal the rift over their deal.

One key story, every weekday

The Fugees at Sony Records NYC 28 January 1994 (l-r) Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, Pras Michel. Source: Photo: David Corio

You might know Pras Michél as a founding member of the legendary 90s hip-hop group The Fugees. Today, he stands accused of 10 federal offenses ranging from conspiracy to acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. This is the story of how Michél got entangled in one of the century's great financial scandals (1MDB), mediated a high-stakes negotiation between global superpowers (the US and China) and was accused of major crimes because of it.

Read The Big Take.

Allegra Stratton worked for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor and runs an environmental consultancy, Zeroism.

Please send thoughts, tips and feedback to readout@bloomberg.net. You can follow Allegra on Twitter.