Retired Professor of Political Economy
(Lancaster University, UK - retired 2021)
(also #ProfDJ across the Lune Valley)
Contributor: North West Bylines #NoBridge
The model of 'flexible' labour markets with few(er) protections for workers & curtailed unions was (mainstream economists predicted) going to delver innovation, spur entrepreneurship & lead to better-paid jobs... but we actually have got from it is an economy patterned by low-wage labour, inequality, falling real wages & labour exploitation (via precarious working).
As Larry Elliot suggests, its time to follow unions urging to try a different way!
Having learnt nothing from the previous disasters around PFI projects in the health service, OFWAT is pushing the model for getting investment in water infrastructure restarted....
So, the model to shift us from being exploited by renter firms who have taken our money & used it pay dividends rather than maintain the system, is to replicate that model in special purpose vehicles, running infrastructure projects on contract...
It will not go well, as history has already shown!
Britain's record on homelessness is world beating, just not in a good way.
We've the highest recorded levels of homelessness in the developed world; while other counties have seen (albeit slow) declines in homelessness, since 2010 the UK's rate has been accelerating away.
The housing crisis has many dimensions, but here there's a direct correlation between the arrival of the current Tory govt. & massive increases!
The party of landlords is working for them & doing nothing for us!
The world is undergoing a major health pivot as the majority of premature deaths swing from being caused by disease to being the result of 'metabolism-related risk factors' (high blood sugar & fat levels) which cause illnesses like heart disease, diabetes & cancer.
As health systems are already dealing with the results of ageing populations, this re-emphasises the urgent need for investment in public health & preventative policies.
#health
data: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation/FT
Not only are the DWP causing pain & crisis in the lives of unpaid carers, three years ago they were told the approach they had adopted was doing this....
So even if it had been accidental (I 'm not sure it was) in 2020, for the last three years they have known the distress & problems their actions were causing but carried on blithely.
We should be cherishing & rewarding carers at home, not penalising them for minor infractions of unjust rules!
Despite Trudi Warner's case for contempt of court (for holding a placard reminding a jury of its ability to acquit on moral grounds in a climate protest case) being thrown out by the UK High Court because it was 'fanciful', the Tory Solicitor General Robert Courts has decided to appeal the decision.
And so its starts (continues).... after the hints that the BoE might ease interest rates over the summer, Megan Greene (a member of the MPC that sets rates) is telling anyone who listens that:
'In considering for how long we must retain our restrictive stance before policy should be eased, I think the burden of proof therefore needs to lie in inflation persistence continuing to wane'.
As predicted the evidential hurdle is rising to keep workers under pressure a bit longer!
