Reforming the Lords: Could the best step forward be to take a step back?

1^st September 2015

The Government’s most recent look at reforming the House of Lords has focused on creating an elected second chamber, but such a course might well cause as many problems as it solves.

Does reputation matter in financial services?

25^th August 2015

To date, reputation has not been a significant factor influencing consumer behaviour in financial services. In other words, despite the real growth of fines and stream of bad press, consumers aren’t voting with their feet, and reputation has not significantly impacted the bottom line of leading financial organisations.

Financial Services + money + virtue

A Spotlight on Homelessness

21^st August 2015

Perhaps the headline figure of my postgraduate research at Richmond University in London, is 51% of Londoners do not help the homeless on the streets or through a charity. This is somewhat understandable given those who wish to live and work in the capital might feel they have their own financial hurdles.

homelessness

Beauty and influence in the new local paradigm

19^th August 2015

It is brave to speak of beauty. It is doubly brave to do so in a public policy context, where there is suspicion of abstract notions, and where austerity can push aside almost all impulses other than immediate utility.

Beauty

Investing with an Ethical Sense

11^th August 2015

During the last few years, we have seen an unprecedented number of scandals involving the most prominent institutions, across the World and all the industrial sectors. These scandals have contributed to global crises affecting millions.

Reflections on the Magna Carta: A constitutional angle on seeking the common good

24^th July 2015

The recent anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta provides a helpful space in which to pause and take stock of the popular legitimacy of our political structures and institutions. As many have pointed out, the retrospective writing of history is evident in the Magna Carta’s mythic status.

common good + magna carta + society

Can the BBC survive after 2022?

16^th July 2015

Woes, like a biblical plague: the BBC’s continue to multiply. The image is not inapposite; Reith would have approved. Hard on the appointment of John Whittingdale, as culture secretary, not a Corporation supporter, comes news that the BBC will not get the exclusive rights to covering the Olympic Games, after 2022.

BBC + Media

Summer Budget 2015: Unpacking the National Living Wage

9^th July 2015

Yesterday’s budget speech was notable for a number of reasons — not least that it was the first Tory budget for 19 years. Content wise, there were key announcements on welfare, apprenticeships, housing, and devolution.

Budget 2015

Enabling rural communities to thrive: Powering the rural economy

6^th July 2015

Britain, along with much of the rest of the world, is facing the infamous energy “trilemma” of rising energy costs, climate change and strains on security of supply. With about 20% of our population living in rural areas, it’s vital that we find clean, sustainable ways to address this trilemma within the rural economy.

Community energy + Energy + Rural economy

The revival of professional integrity

2^nd July 2015

  In the late 1990s, Solomon commented:  ‘”Integrity” is a word like “honor” – its close kin – that sometimes seems all but archaic in the modern business world’ (Solomon, 1997, p.