It is interesting to see the sheer number of myths that have been peddled by the British media and interesting too that the EU has a myth rebuttal website! Here are the fascinating statistics on the number of myths per year – it has been going on for a long, long time. Boris Johnson has… Read more
Posts by:
Peter May
Housing is not a market
I used to think that the law of supply and demand was the only law that nobody had ever managed to break. I was wrong. Just look at these London housing market statistics. “London’s stock of completed but unsold homes has surged by almost half this year” If the market worked the way many think… Read more
Playing chicken in lots of different ways
There is a just published article in ‘The Grocer’ stating that food suppliers are running out of space to stockpile goods. the price of storage had risen by 15% per pallet per week in recent weeks, with inflation across the third quarter as a whole of 8%, but all of the chilled space in London… Read more
Sweet failure
According to the FT the amount raised so far by the sugar tax is ‘rather disappointing’. That is understandable. Because, to do the job properly, what the tax should have been targeted at is not sugar, but sweetness. Soft drink manufacturers have been congratulating themselves on how they have managed to reduce their sugar content… Read more
From ‘Moneta Positiva’ towards Electronic Parallel Money and an Italian budget solution
It is interesting that Italy has its own Moneta Positiva where debt free money seems to be the call to arms. I generally consider that money is always debt, since all money is a ‘promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of’, which indicates an obligation – and therefore indebtedness. They are clearly… Read more
The most powerful couple in British politics – who you’ve never heard of
I’m usually in favour of cock-up rather than conspiracy but I’ve discovered that there is a power couple in British politics of whom few of us have heard. They have never been elected, but they are all too highly effective lobbyists. Matthew Elliott is fairly well-known as the founder of the TaxPayers’ Alliance and the… Read more
Charity begins with government
I’d like to start with a peon of praise as to how the Hospice de Beaune has raised as much as £12million for charity this year. I notice two things since I last attended – an embarrassingly long time ago: The auction is now run by Christies. So the auction is now properly international and as… Read more
Last chance saloon
All the recent resignations from the cabinet seem to imply there is scope for new negotiations on the UK’s break from the EU, but as the FT says, “EU leaders have shunned the idea of reopening talks” and who, frankly can blame them? They also point out that “The prospect of the EU27 agreeing to… Read more
The Precariat and Basic Income?
Professor Guy Standing – he of ‘Precariat’ fame – has written a long article suggesting that in fact the Precariat class may give hope for change. They are the “dangerous class”. It is a “dangerous class” partly of course to itself – suicide, self harm and drug taking are, unsurprisingly, prevalent. Also a section of… Read more
Universal Basic Income is Basic Security
Professor Daniel Nettle of Newcastle University has a really excellent article on a Universal Basic Income (UBI) here. In it he outlines in original and coherent fashion just how good UBI would be from the outset, when I had reluctantly concluded – till now – that we might only get there via starting off with… Read more