At last Labour is concerned with food. It has plans to improve hospital food. “Hospital food” always reminds me of those occasions in pubs, which thankfully, I’ve moved on from, when someone would look at me menacingly in the eyes whilst enquiring whether I liked hospital food. I didn’t know then – and I’m delighted… Read more
Category:
Politics
Nasty, brutish and shorter
Thomas Hobbes’ (only slightly amended) quote seems to be the way our government thinks either that we want – or probably more likely, it wants us, to live our lives. The recent figures from the Resolution Foundation on rented housing are a case in point. Outlined in the chart below, they show that the number… Read more
BBC Shame
I’ve previously highlighted the blog of the Oxford academic, Simon Wren Lewis. Although I don’t agree with everything he writes, I have to say it is always impeccably argued… This time, there is certainly no contest: Theresa May shows a disregard for people… that I cannot remember in previous Prime Ministers. The current excesses of… Read more
The Home Office, eyes wide shut
The Independent has published an interesting statistic: NHS figures show the number of stab victims in England aged 10 to 16 rose by 63 per cent between 2011-12 and 2016-17 – four times the rate of increase in the population as a whole. So this seems to leave London as an area that receives most… Read more
Money is created for the common good
Isn’t it? The New Economics Foundation has brought out a report ‘Framing the Economy’, which I confess I have downloaded but not yet fully read. I’m sure it is important, but what I’ve seen so far seems to be reflecting what people currently think and how their thinking can be ‘turned’ towards a correct understanding… Read more
Why didn’t the Skripals die on the spot?
I thought this conundrum worth highlighting as ‘Aunt Theresa’s’ Strong and Stable Military Grade Novichok’ now starts to raise a painful smile. It then actually turns out that a ‘military grade deadly nerve agent’ is, as we are now beginning to learn, not necessarily especially military or deadly after all. The ‘recall’ is probably thanks,… Read more
If only you could buy happiness?
What should politicians do? Make us happier of course. UK politicians are not doing great at this – we are only 18th in the happiness league table of OECD countries.* Maybe politicians have got their priorities wrong? As I show below, as happiness and equality are related, maybe they should be doing more about inequality… Read more
Why a Universal Basic Income might shore up Neoliberalism
I occasionally read what the ex New York Times journalist, Chris Hedges, writes as it is always well written and usually hard hitting. This piece is no exception and I was drawn to it because he is railing against the idea of a Universal Basic Income – something which, although I’d prefer it were called… Read more
The only bit of Neoliberalism that isn’t Fascism is the ‘Neo’ bit
It really does seem that the only remaining difference between Neoliberalism and Fascism is a slightly more liberal social policy outlook – although even that might be debatable in some cases. I now discover that whereas Hitler started the privatisation lark, his Fascist colleague, Benito Mussolini, started the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Admittedly, it wasn’t… Read more
‘The End of Banking’ – is it as appealing as it sounds?
I attended a talk based around an interesting book, ‘The End of Banking’ by Jonathan McMillan (in fact a made up name from two authors – one of whom works in finance so wanted to remain anonymous). The book defines banking as “the creation of money out of credit,” which nails the unspoken truth in… Read more