One of the Conservative Party’s major promises to emerge in its party conference was the promise of tax cuts to reduce the burden of government on hardworking families who do the right thing. Many critics…
A consequence of the momentous debates unfolding following the Scottish referendum is the growing call for the north of England to be given greater control over how resources are used to tackle regional…
The Great British Bake Off has been attracting its highest-ever ratings after a return to our screens. While many different explanations have been offered for the show’s success, the current popularity…
When the central bank governors and finance ministers from the G20 agreed in February to increase growth by at least two percentage points over the next five years, they fell short of delivering a common…
Germany’s strategy for export-led growth has set the Eurozone up for a fall. Plans to introduce minimum wages in 2015 might be too little too late for European countries locked in a futile game of beggar-thy-workforce…
In the UK and other parts of the Western world, the notion that we are progressing towards a better future has been a consistent, if not entirely uninterrupted, ideal. But in recent years, this idea seems…
After the sudden dissolution of his government, French president François Hollande is edging ever a bit closer to the political abyss. His prime minister, Manuel Valls, has just formed a new cabinet, which…
Mario Draghi almost single-handedly rescued the Eurozone from disaster two years ago, by pledging to do “whatever it takes to preserve the euro”, so the appeal from the European Central Bank (ECB) chief…
The Department for Education’s proposal that for-profit companies could provide child protection services and other statutory functions for families caused a major public uproar this spring – and the furore…
On July 5, the Daily Mail mounted yet another attack on the pesky human rights folk who have the temerity to question the coalition government’s welfare agenda. The article, headlined “The Brazil Nut strikes…
After all those years of flat-line economic performance in the UK economy and declining real incomes, we’ve seen quite a turn around. The growth rate is now one of the best in Europe, house prices are…
The swingeing report of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission that the Child Poverty Act 2010 targets for 2020 cannot be met is no surprise. The commission was responding to the government’s…
“We are all in this together” has been one of George Osborne’s mantras. And it worked. Substantial parts of the public remain convinced that a noble, collective belt tightening was and remains the right…
There’s something to be said for the suggestion that politicians habitually cite academic papers they have never read and thus use them as convenient props for measures they would have implemented anyway…
Governments are reining in spending on welfare, education and health care right across the western world. With the Commission of Audit recommending austerity measures that seemingly point to a tough federal…
Charitable food provision is growing, and more and more people are being fed by food banks and other initiatives. The press and TV have debated the legitimacy of such provision and highlighted the number…
What does the now sustained recovery in the UK and the still tentative signs of recovery in the eurozone tell us? According to some on the right, it says all is good in the world, austerity has been successful…
Once considered the key issue in industrial relations, strikes appeared to be in a permanent state of decline in western Europe in the two decades before 2008. But the financial crisis and the austerity…
Spring in UK universities sees the funding letter drop on the mat of the vice chancellor’s lodge and like an English April, no two years are the same. Coalition ministers are keen to tell us that the present…
We are living through an age when increasingly harsh social policy aims to change the behaviour of those most dependent on support from the state. Funding is being cut to local authorities; this in turn…