We knew the euro was a bad idea in 1961. What went wrong?
The eurozone is emphatically not an optimal currency area.Everyone knows this action-movie story: a heroic, war-scarred veteran is promoted to a prestigious desk job, reluctantly hanging up his rifle...
View ArticleHow can you have growing employment and a shrinking economy?
Underemployment: the UK’s response to economic weaknessDespite the UK economy being in recession in the first quarter of 2012, unemployment fell by 45,000 (and youth unemployment was down by 18,000)....
View ArticleThe milk blockade is part of a far crueller story
It's just an episode in a scandalous, decades-long tale of corporate greed.Every couple of years the papers run a story about the food in your local supermarket. It goes like this: you know that...
View ArticleWill Cameron introduce new anti-strike laws?
Ministers are considering a new 50% turnout law to restrict strike action. The decision by PCS union staff to vote in favour of strike action on the eve of the Olympics has revived the debate among...
View ArticleDoes Ed Miliband think Ed Balls is expendable?
Both Miliband and Balls neither like nor trust each other. Does Ed Miliband think Ed Balls is expendable? Several months ago the question would have invited ridicule. The shadow chancellor’s prediction...
View ArticleEthics in the workplace: why bad business is bad for business
Focusing on just profit and loss makes the business environment worse for all concernedBusiness schools inculcate an attitude that there is little more imporant than keeping your profits high and your...
View ArticleThe abortions we don’t talk about
Why is there so much implicit judgment about what is never a straightforward moral issue?When I was pregnant with my children, I told people early on – way before the 12-week mark. It’s a decision I...
View ArticleThe IMF has debunked the myth of Osborne's fiscal "credibility"
Slowing the cuts would not trigger a bond market revolt. There is a huge amount of interesting material in the full IMF staff report on the UK, released today, in particular the lasting damage...
View ArticleThe Friday Arts Diary
Our cultural picks for the week ahead. Art Tate Modern, London SE1 - Tino Sehgal, 24 July – 28 October Tino Sehgal undertakes the annual commission for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall as part of The...
View ArticleMicrosoft reports first ever loss
The software company takes a hit.The world’s largest software maker reported a quarterly net loss of $492m, compared with a net income of $5.9bn in the same period last year. Revenue for the three...
View ArticleThe housing benefit bill is still rising under the coaliton
Even with the cap, in-work poverty means the bill has risen to £23bn. Housing benefit is becoming the curse of the coalition. The Prime Minister promised to cut the benefit bill and back those who work...
View ArticleOld albums are now outselling new ones. Do we need protectionism against the...
Long copyright terms may not reward the artist, but they make sure that people buy works by new musicians The NME (remember the NME?): Sales of "old albums" have overtaken sales of "new albums" for...
View ArticleMumsnet vs the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child on sex education
What is it about the SPUC that makes it more worthy of ministerial attention than the Mumsnetters?You can tell a lot about someone by the company they keep. So what does it mean when the minister of...
View ArticleCycling through London's "neo-Victorian boom"
..and realising it's time to leave.“Neo-Victorian boom.” An expression that started to appear around a year ago is becoming something of a feature in writing about the city of London. The FT have...
View ArticleWhat does it mean to be LGBT and Muslim in the UK?
"I was born a Muslim...and I will die a Muslim. But I was also born a gay man, and I will die a gay man, too."Fazal Mahmood was 14 years old and living with his Muslim family in Northern England when...
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Lightning is even cooler than you think
Just like an iceberg, the visible part of a lightning strike is just a tiny fraction of the whole.The visible part of a lightning strike is just a fraction of the total flash. The bolt seen above...
View ArticleAre free schools really widening choice?
Parents who want a new local school are offered a free school or nothing. While many in my party are opposed to free schools in principle, I am reluctant to man the barricades on every occasion one is...
View ArticleHow Labour can clean up Osborne's mess
The party must make national renewal its essential governing project.George Osborne has messed the economy up. This might be a somewhat laconic summary of the latest IMF report into the state of the UK...
View ArticleIMF: “A plague on both your houses”
Funded stimulus will take real political leadership to pull off.Yesterday’s IMF country report for the UK had something for everyone in the debate about fiscal policy and growth. There were two...
View ArticleUK government borrowing rises
UK government borrowing rose by half a billion pounds in June.According to the Office for National Statistics, public sector net borrowing, excluding interventions such as bank bailouts, was £14.4bn...
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