Retired Professor of Political Economy
(Lancaster University, UK - retired 2021)
(also #ProfDJ across the Lune Valley)
Contributor: North West Bylines #NoBridge
It is unlikely that advancing women's equality can be achieved without major legal reform(s) in many countries... gender equality will not be achieved via organic social measures/trends (although they can be reinforced by legal measures).
If you have the time this week, this report from UN Women offers some compelling evidence why the law needs to reinforce & respond to demands for gender equality.
If the impending drop in energy prices does bring inflation down to near the BoE's target, the continuing rumble from the sado-monetarists that inflation is driven by workers wage demands will be further compromised.
We can expect some tortured arguments about how really energy prices only impact inflation by easing of pressure on workers' demands for higher wages, while (as always) ignoring that workers wages in real terms are still languishing after a decade or more.
What is the point of auditors when, according to the Audit Reform Lab (based at U Sheffield) the Big Four only managed to spot problems prior to one in four major corporate collapses/bankruptcies since 2010.
(If the choice was will/won't collapse random conclusions might indicate a 50% success rate, so 25% in spotting the difference between success or failure really is pretty poor; yes I know I'm simplifying).
The only solace for the Big Four is other auditors were even worse
While we often appreciate the economic forces & structures that cause & reinforce poverty, this report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation focusses on how stigma is keeping the poor, poor.
Among its recommendations is to stop designating the disabled & unpaid carers as 'economically inactive' while also rejecting the characterisation of low-paid work as 'unskilled'.
We should/must reject the narrative of the wealthy about the rest of us!
Now its confirmed that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has been killed in a Helicopter crash which initial reports indicate was a powered flight into a mountain side in adverse weather conditions.... we can expect a range of coverage & conspiracy theories that will identify one or other state actors as the real agents of the 'accident'.
How this then plays out could become (even more) dangerous for regional security... its unlikely to be left to remain as an 'accident' (even if it was).
Chris Grey, brilliant on why the Tories cannot/will not mention Brexit this year:
The Tory leadership 'can’t claim Brexit to be a success, because those who do not have a foundational belief in its rightness can clearly see it has failed, whilst those for whom its rightness is a foundational belief also believe that it has been betrayed. But it can’t denounce Brexit as a failure or a betrayal, since it is the Brexit the Tory leadership actually delivered'!
Child poverty is not an intractable problem; policy has been key in both its expansion & is how we can tackle it.
Again, the last fifteen years may not have been the only cause of a social problem but have compounded it & in many cases have seen policy choices intended to make things worse for the vulnerable.
After the election we need to see a sea change in socio-political attitudes & actions... whether we will is another issue altogether!
Next year, if you have leave remain in the UK the only way you will be able to prove to anyone that you 'enjoy' that status is by accessing you e-Visa account via your UK Visa & Immigration digital account with the Home Office.
Its a new IT 'solution'
Its the Home Office
Its directly impacting migrants
Of course its going to work seamlessly...
All the elements look in pace for a new set of victims to have their lives ruined
'There's no such thing as a bad job; there are bad managers'!
While I might differ with her on the absolute statement - I think there are plenty of 'bad jobs' - her focus on managers as being the driving force behind workers dissatisfaction with their jobs & the need/desire to quite them, I think is right on the button.
So here's her guide to the reasons that 72% of people quitting leave due to a toxic work environment
Take a few minutes to read the heart-wrenching story of Becky, a 14 year old child chewed up by a social career system that is by turns cruel, ineffective & run for the profit of investors.
The callousness of the state has become ever more obvious recently (although the problem is not new, of course).
How has it come to this?
In a word: austerity.
There are other factors but in the end the corrosion of system has been wrought by Tory defunding!
Culture is a mono-culture of the white middle-class & who can be surprised after the cuts in arts education, the prevalence of early career unpaid internships & the normal operations of day-to-day prejudice of commissioning from people who look like you.
In the 1960s, there was a glorious moment when the culture industries seemed to be opening up to the working class... but over recent decades that door has been forced close by policy wrought by the rich(er)!
... The complete disregard for how an institution's actions & inactions impact on those at the bottom of the 'pyramid' & the subsequent attempt to evade responsibility for the harm caused when publicised.
(you'll have other you'd like to add to the list, I'm sure)
A damning picture of misused power & disregard for others.
It increasingly clear, as the media furore around Iain Duncan Smith's proposed law on cyclists causing injury & death grows, that this has been intended a s divide & roll measure in favour of car drivers.
Its clear from the data that both pedestrians & cyclists are more at denser from cars than from each other on the roads.... so Smith's attempt to shift the narrative to see pedestrians fume about cyclists, looks like a political help to dangerous drivers, not endangered pedestrians!
George Monbiot on the role of profit in (children's) social care:
'two Northamptonshire councils revealed they are paying an average of £281,000 a year for each residential placement, or £5,400 a week. A direct comparison cannot be made, because many children in care have complex needs, but just by way of reference Eton’s eye-watering fees are £46,000 a year'!
So, much of tax payers money is supporting investors not those needing care!
I sometimes thought my father thought he could't die while he still had books on his pending pile (a stab at immortality I seem to be replicating)... so, it was strangely touching to see Tom Gauld has had similar thoughts.
Ha ha, well access is good, but what we/you really need is infinite time for reading to digest & enjoy them all... or the (large?) portion that you might actually want to read
Each of Emma Newman's Planetfall quartet explores a different aspect of the same overarching story of religious driven intergalactic migration. In Atlas Alone (2019), the fourth story centres on an elite gamer & their attempt to uncover & then take revenge for a crime against humanity. To say much more would ruin the plot for you, but as with the others, this is great, fascinating sci-fi, which has a great payoff at the end.
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!
