Retired Professor of Political Economy
(Lancaster University, UK - retired 2021)
(also #ProfDJ across the Lune Valley)
Contributor: North West Bylines #NoBridge
Nadhim Zahawi's lawyer has been referred to Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal by the Solicitors Regulation Authority over the use of legal means (the SLAPP) to try to silence Dan Neidle who was looking into Zahawi's tax affairs - Neildle you recall resisted the pressure & was vindicated when Zahawi was sacked.
While the SRA has investigated a number of SLAPPs, this is the first case which has then resulted in referral to the SDT.
Here's a piece from BMJ, looking at social determinants of heath suggesting the crisis in health is not one of perception, but a wider problem with how our health is impacted by the social structures we encounter.
The authors conclude: 'A common response is that we cannot afford such action [on inequality & health] —we argue, we cannot afford inaction'!
Health inequality compounds social inequality which makes health worse
There's lots of interest in the latest release of well-being & other quality of life data from the ONS, but I was struck by the continuing decline in self-reported good health.
The underlying Q. is: is this an issue of ripples from the NHS crisis making people more anxious about their health (the 'worried well') or is it caused by the crisis in capacity & treatment of actual illness in the NHS (which I pick up in post 2)?
Using the threat of criminal damage, Lord Walney's review of protesting seems about to recommend energy & defence sites should have protest exclusion zones around them - of course these being two key areas of politics that attract significant dissent.
Each (further) restriction on protest is another erosion of democracy; what criminal damage that is caused by protestors is a small price to pay for a right to protest.
Democracy is in danger whatever pious reassurances we hear! #politics
h/t FT
Pressure is building on the DWP to (at least) pause it persecution of carers receiving carers' allowance (who have tipped over the weekly income limit)... of course, we all know what is needed: a TV drama.
The DWP will not reform voluntarily & its unlikely any Govt. will now act unless there is a clear public outcry (which is building), so we need Jimmy McGovern, or another screenwriter to pen a drama that spells out the injustice in human/personal narrative terms!
Ha ha... once again like Lucy & Charlie Brown, the BoE holds interest rates steady, but offers the prospect of a cut in the future... just whisk that ball away Mr. Bailey (each time).
I'm sure they'll eventually cut the rate but the sado-monetarists need more 'evidence' before they do;
but not evidence that inflation is easing, whatever they say; rather they want evidence that workers have been properly tamed/beaten down, that they/we have been disciplined!
If you're looking for a new (but short) series to watch, I can thoroughly recommend Netflix's A Man in Full (based on a Tom Wolf book);
Jeff Daniels (who I was pretty impressed by here) plays a Trump like character in business meltdown, while a subplot deals with racism & incarceration in Atlanta.
Better still at only six episodes it avoids the mid-series sogginess that blights some streaming offerings.
@sjwrenlewis explores relations between the Public debt/GDP ratio & 'tax smoothing' to manage higher levels of debt when particular expenditure seems both necessary & prudent, but when taxes should be more stable.
If you have a Direct Debit to pay for their energy bills, 'tax smoothing' is like the DD while public debt changes are like your shifting energy use.
I don't like the household metaphor but here it does makes sense even if SWL doesn't use it.
The National Institute for Economic & Social Research has joined a growing clamour for the UK fiscal rules to be reformed as they are no longe fit for purpose;
the fiscal straightjacket that policy makers have imposed and/or accepted is aimed at an audience in financial services, whose interests are in no way in line with what the country now needs.
Its not just the availability of staff, or of beds/equipment that lies behind the NHS crisis, its a shortage of drugs too....
The Tories wrecking strategy has been multi-dimensional & has come together compounding each element to put us in the position where the political clients of private healthcare can ensure they can profit from the chaos (see earlier post on agency nurses)
The NHS is in real & present danger... and (now) not just from the right!
Thanks, I'll give it a whirl later; I stopped reading the Economist some time ago... the journalism seemed to me to have deteriorated somewhat, but maybe it was my tolerance for their position was eroded?
'AI can do wonderful things. But civil rights can’t exist in a world of hidden calculations. Just as with a lawyer or doctor, we must have AI that acts in our self-interest. AI needs a constitution — or more accurately, we need a constitution that defines access to artificial intelligence acting solely on our behalf as a civil right'!
We need an constitution for AI not an AI manifesto!
The triangular relationship between workers, employers & the Labour Party is getting more fraught as power looms in the mid-distance...
Business want to influence Labour not to 'over' regulate their business, unions want to ensure their members (and other workers) have rights restored & extended.... and the Labour Party, what does it want?
Well, in the age of declining mass-membership, it needs wealthy donors; the unions can wield their contributions but may be outgunned by business interests?
Another aspect to the staffing crisis in the NHS; the excessive billing for nurses (check out the surplus kept by the agency) providing flexible, emergency shift cover.
The mismanagement of the health service is draining cash out of the system & putting it in private firms' pockets....
And no, its not a bug in the system, its a feature; its classic Tory wrecking.
And any claims by the Tories they're going to end such 'profiteering' should be ignored!
I think Robert Shrimsley (FT) is right, for the Right of the Tory party, rather than now seek a leadership election, they have a job for Rishi Sunak - be the fall guy, so after the election, they can say (even though this makes no sense to anyone but themselves), that it was Rishi being too timid in his moves rightwards that lost them the election....
Indeed, after the election fantasy/deluded politics will be the game of choice for the Tories... which might turn very dangerous
When I read 'Little Bobby Jenrick' I (in my mind) immediately adopted a Southern US drawl.... and thought of him throwing something off the Tallahassee Bridge....
Rishi Sunak has suggested the prospect of a hung Parliament, while others are talking up a Labour landslide.
Paul Whitely (U Essex) suggests Labour might win but with quite a small majority (in his analysis, 10 seats).
For many who have expressed opinions in discussion in my timeline this would seem to be a good result; a majority to get tings done, but small enough to be a brake on (more) dilution of left policy?
Yup, but the low-turnout & different media landscape(s) in general elections have in the past made building on such results difficult for small(er) parties - that's not saying it won't happen, just that in the past its been hard to jump into second place via national FPTP... but we have less than a year to wait to find out
Andy Burnham (still Mayor of Manchester) on social housing:
'One of the main reasons why the country has not built enough social homes for decades is because of the right-to-buy policy. Councils do not have an incentive to fund the building of new homes if they can be sold off cheaply & quickly. In the face of a desperate housing crisis, the existence of right to buy means we are in effect trying to refill a bath without being allowed to put the plug back in'!
Yes, when I was writing about intellectual property as an academic researcher, I used to take that line on IP too... one clear resolution to some of the problems with IPs was to limit their 'enjoyment' to natural persons....
