Take the NHS for example. The political narrative is always about the dearth of resources available – and of course this is bound to be a problem. But it is odd, nonetheless, given that so much of what needs doing requires no obvious training – visiting,...
Our blogs
The underlying causes of an unbalanced economy
We don't live in a very literate age when it comes to economics. There are still people in Whitehall, even the Treasury, who believe that somehow – if cities decline or fall, if one place succumbs to grinding poverty – that is it the ‘market’ that did it. However...
Delivering What Exactly?
I had just finished reading the wonderful second volume of Alan Johnson's autobiography, Please Mr Postman, when an advert popped up on the computer for a company called Doddle. Doddle joins Yodel and Whistl, other delivery companies with babyish names, which are...
Telling Truth to Power
Sometimes a good idea turns round and bites you on the ankle. The Chancellor might be thinking this about the Office for Budget Responsibility which he set up in 2010 to provide an independent overview of the public finances . After the 2008 financial disaster these...
The psychology behind economic collapse
I can't now find the interview I heard today on the BBC about the prospects of deflation in the euro-zone. I have a feeling it was Gillian Tett. But whoever it was talked about the underlying psychology of deflation. She put it down to apathy. People have to break...
Pattern for the people
Does pattern have to be superficial and imitative or can it capture a fleeting moment, the fingerprint of a place or even the spirit of a person? This is the idea behind my latest collection of prints by Dora, made with friends on my local allotments on Spa Hill in...
NHS.The Global Finance Company will see you now.
The NHS and the Government. Could the NHS end up in a few years time being a franchise,’inadequately overseeing a fragmented and largely privatised service’? Rather in the style of a chain of chicken shops or cosmetic companies? A new report –The Wrong Medicine. A...
We Knew It. Royal Mail and the Disaster of Privatisation
Is anyone surprised by the news that Royal Mail profits have fallen by 21 percent in the first half of this year? Before we start to dissect the scandal of RM recent history we have to remember that it is still a very profitable company and its shares are still...
The imminent policy shift we know is coming
Something is in the air. Change doesn't happen very often, but now it is hard to find anyone who doesn't subscribe to the following premises: 1. The UK is too centralised and power needs to be handed back to cities. 2. The mainstream economy appears to be devoted to...
The true story of the sandwich makers
Here’s a sandwich story with a very messy filling… On Monday The Daily Mail, which as we know can't see a bacon buttie without spotting the politics within, devoted its front page to the fact that no one in the UK wanted to make sandwiches any more. Greencore ...