A constituent has written an open letter to his MP, Anthony Mangnall (Conservative, Totnes) of which I quote the conclusion below. It is powerfully argued and well worth reading the rest. I’d urge everyone to do so. In leaving the EU, the UK has placed itself in the vanguard of the fascist revival taking place… Read more
Category:
Economics
Economics Theory
Common law looks as tho’ it is no longer sufficient for domocracy
The principle of subsidiarity is a European idea – and not just in Catholic Europe, but also in the local parish council. It is basically the idea that decisions should be made as locally as possible. Now, for Catholocism, I think the idea has long been honoured more in the breach than the observance, (though… Read more
Sovereignty and development
There is an interesting video on the Modern Monetary Developing World as it were, from Fadel Kaboub, Associate Professor at Denison University (Ohio). He straightforwardly points out that there are degrees of Monetary Sovereignty and hence the full panoply of government powers may not be available to every single country. He indicates that, if a… Read more
SuperCal….
After my previous post I tend to think that this is appropriate: Apologies if you don’t… But as a post-script Johnson’s own council in his constituency – Conservative run Hillingdon – is now offering free school holiday meals…. Read more
Beggar thy neighbour politics
The saga of English children’s free holiday meals vote demonstrates so much of what is wrong with UK politics. First we know that we have about 2.5million children in the UK in food insecurity and 4.2 million in relative poverty and almost three quarters of them are in working households. So this already indicates that… Read more
Money is what money does…
Is a quote from the sociologist Geoffrey Ingham. It is particularly appropriate for our current government. So when money is a promise – as it is – just look at this promise on this £10 note as an example… A promise has to be the future tense – by definition. In the end a promise… Read more
Showing that spend and tax has long been true..
This is a paper from 2013 by Christine A. Desan of Harvard Law School, ‘Creation Stories: Myths About the Origins of Money’ which I have just discovered and in effect confirms that spend and tax was also around in the era of tally sticks. She tells us that England after the Romans left: According to… Read more
Things go better – with water
I think there are lots of inspired ideas suggested in this forty minute conversation – here on how (amongst others) to tame the soft drink trade. The ace that struck me was that we should tax Coca Cola and Pepsi on all their soft drinks – and as both companies own water brands, we should… Read more
Britain looks like a failed state
Where to start with Manchester? The Tories seem to think their election result based on the approval of about 43 % of the voters gives them absolute power. And that they can ride roughshod over the democratic and even clearly logical wishes of Britain’s third big city. It is instructive to read a tweet from… Read more
Now they are gaslighting business
This is not just that old joke about how many Tories does it take to change a lightbulb? (Answer: none – they prefer gas lighting). This is about the private industry who, they actually tell us, that by paying their taxes create the money to pay for ‘our’ NHS. Mr Gove said on Marr: “Make… Read more