Rethinking Economics: The story so far

12^th February 2015

In 2011 and 2012 small numbers of disgruntled economics students started cropping up in universities across the UK.  In Cambridge, Manchester, then UCL groups formed of those who were unhappy with the state of economics.

Reclaiming Temperance – Establishing a responsible and sociable drinking culture

6^th February 2015

Britain has for centuries repeatedly faced the problem of binge drinking. As this article from January 1903 demonstrates, our current travails in tackling problem drinking are hardly new. What is required but is rarely addressed is culture change.

Taking responsibility for local economic recovery

2^nd February 2015

The trouble with economic recovery is that someone else always has to do it – the bankers, investors, industrialists or mandarins.  What about the rest of us – and what about the places we live in? 

Labour needs simple answers to complicated questions

22^nd January 2015

What do a rock concert and a leftie conference have in common? Not much, except for ageing men nostalgic for their younger years and a chronic inability to keep to schedule.

Decentralisation + Devolution + Ed Miliband + Labour Party + Media + Tax + The Fabian Society

Why employee ownership is the ideal business succession solution for you, your business and your employees

14^th January 2015

Sell your company to its employees. This could be the best idea you ever read.  An employee-buyout (EBO) ticks all the boxes including tax efficiency – and it is Government approved.

The unstoppable rise of employee ownership

13^th January 2015

At this time of year we think of the two faces of Janus, the Roman God after whom January is named, pointing in opposite directions, one that looks back to the year just gone and the other forward to the brand new year ahead.

Inspire EO: Informing thinking around employee ownership

12^th January 2015

Interest in employee ownership is, in my experience, most often motivated by a desire for a fairer and more responsible form of capitalism and a drive to encourage personal responsibility among employees.

Nothing in life is free – not even the NHS

9^th January 2015

It’s that time of year, when rising demand meets NHS spending limits. Why has this become such an annual – and unwelcome – winter event? The NHS raises passions like no other state organisation in the world.

NHS

Is Social Conservatism Conservative?

5^th January 2015

This article originally appeared in December 2014 in Comment Magazine, published by CARDUS: www.cardus.ca. At first sight and on primordial prejudice, social conservatism is coded as a right-wing, sectarian position focused obsessively on marriage, the nuclear family, and abortion.

The emerging intergenerational pay gap

21^st December 2014

After last week’s Autumn Budget Statement a number of news articles reported on the growing evidence that pensioners are actually fairly well-off these days. This is a bit of shock to someone my age (just turned 60): all my life I’ve been accustomed to viewing the elderly as generally impoverished and precariously vulnerable to the slings and arrows of financial fortune.