The news that Google is going to ‘derank’ news stories from Russian Television (RT) set me considering how we have become so dependent on one search engine so that Google’s act of deranking could be a considerable threat. I’m presuming this is in fact only going to happen in the US in spite of the… Read more
Category:
Neoliberalism
Weeping for Kensington
The report by the MP for Kensington and former Kensington & Chelsea councillor, Emma Dent Coad, “After Grenfell: Housing and Inequality in Kensington and Chelsea” makes for horrific reading. Is this really Britain’s richest borough? Is this really Britain’s richest borough in 2017? The reasons why Dickensian diseases are reappearing two centuries later is obvious… Read more
Modern banking – telling it like it is
This arrived in my twitter feed – I wish I’d had it when I last went to see the bank manager. I pass it on so that subsequent supplicants can at least know which side their bread is buttered……. Read more
Universal Basic Services – the soup kitchen and others
After free information and free transport, which I considered here the remaining two recommendations of the recent report on Universal Basic Services are free Food and Shelter. At a time of record low interest rates the report’s proposal to issue bonds to finance lots more social housing is uncontroversial. Thereafter there are some very big… Read more
Rail Delivery Commitments
An organisation called the Rail Delivery Group suggested today (according to the Today Programme ) that there has never been more rail investment – with £50billion over the next 18 months. They have taken on four commitments: “Strengthening rail’s contribution to the economy” (- whatever that means?) “Improving customer satisfaction” “Boosting local communities” (- whatever… Read more
Universal Basic Services – Transports of delight?
Information and transport were two of the four flagship services proposed by the recent University College London UBS report. Having reread the report I looked at here the concept of free information through a phone or internet connection should be pretty striaghtforward to implement. Indeed when the government is providing an assured income for providers… Read more
Who’s for Universal Basic Services?
It is encouraging to see innovative proposals for change and the recent report on the Universal Basic Services made for interesting reading. Universal Basic Services are seen as a more economical alternative to the more expensive Universal Basic Income. Firstly I like the originality of the idea – although the first Universal Basic Service was… Read more
Houses, wealth and income
One of my favourite books on economics is Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the twenty first century, partly because it is brilliant (although long) and partly because it is packed full of enormous quantities of data. One of key points of Piketty is that the ratio of wealth to income is very important. You can think… Read more
Ideology not money is why affordable NHS healthcare is not a proposition
A few days ago Charles Adams and David Laws wrote a lengthy blog for Progressive Pulse in which they demonstrated why any UK government is quite capable of funding a world-leading NHS healthcare system. In so doing Charles and David did what many people do when confronted with the task of dealing with an important… Read more
Litter Strategy or Statute Law as a Wish List
The Litter Strategy for England is hardly remarkable: “We want to reduce the amount of litter that gets into our rivers and seas. That means we need to work together to stop people dropping litter.” As the historian, AJP Taylor used to say: “Most men can do better than this whilst shaving.” Under “Sending a clear… Read more