A Personal Note I have written this manifesto as a response to the insanity of our political and economic systems, which have locked us into behaviour that threatens our very existence on the planet. I know that the chances of the ideas within the manifesto gaining any traction are infinitesimally slender. Flag-waving, grievance-mongering, conflict-loving tribes…
For the best part of 50 years I have listened to politicians who are outside of government telling us that the politicians inside government are misguided/incompetent/useless/corrupt/driving the country to wrack and ruin (select as many options as are applicable). And the politicians who are in government never tire of telling us how the country will…
The reality of climate change is now firmly embedded in our public discourse. News media are awash with horror stories of fire and flood, and hopeful ones about giant offshore wind turbines, massive solar farms, electric vehicles, and heat pumps. The implication from these is that technology is pushing us in the right direction…
Opinion polls tell us that the appetite for a second referendum on Scottish independence has grown during the Covid pandemic. The SNP government in Holyrood, which is widely expected to win the upcoming general election, is under pressure to deliver. The Scottish National Party has recently published an 11 point plan which sets out how…
Democracy. A Greek word (demos + kratos) that means “people power”. The idea of government by the people for the people has taken hold around the world because it sounds like a fair and peaceful way to organise our collective effort. But so far we’ve made a pretty poor fist of turning the idea into…
There is, understandably, a lot of chatter about energy costs and what can be done to prevent them from causing serious hardship this winter. Unfortunately most of what’s being suggested, not least by politicians (in power and opposition), won’t be much help because of the way that the wholesale energy markets work. The primary aim…
Access to affordable housing has been a problem in the Highlands & Islands of Scotland for as long as I can remember. Forty years of hand-wringing and political hot air has done little to help. As this open letter from a group of young people who would like to live and work on Skye demonstrates,…
Following the financial crisis of 2007/08 the UK government needed to inject huge amounts of money into the financial system to prevent it from collapsing. They did this by selling gilts (fancy IOUs) to the Bank of England and using the money to buy back gilts that it had previously sold to financial institutions like…
We need to stop pretending that our pathetic attempt at democracy is in any way fit for purpose. The spectacle of the next Prime Minister of the UK being elected via television gameshow is merely the most ridiculous manifestation of a system of government that has long since given up any pretence of representing the…
“My vote never makes any difference,” is the universal complaint, and one that’s hard to argue with given the crude way that we currently do democracy. But instead of complaining we need to do something about it. We will never reach our destination of Universal Sustainable Prosperity until we devise a better way of making…
Nero’s performance on the roof of his palace while Rome burned around him was not recorded for posterity. We have no idea what tunes he played or if he had any talent as a musician. The current leaders of the world will not be so fortunate if our species, two thousand years hence, is blessed…
The 2019 Institute for Public Policy Research Economics Prize posed the question: “What would be your radical plan to force a step change in the quality and quantity of the UK’s economic growth?” This was my response. Growth For Growth’s Sake? I like your question. The quality of economic activity is habitually ignored by those…
Brexit is an object lesson on the folly of blind enthusiasm. We had the gung-ho Brexiteers (Farage, et al) who could see no further than the demonisation of Johnny Foreigner and his dastardly European project. No word of what breaking free from the EU might actually entail. Then we had the shiny-faced boys at the…
Ian Goldin is Professor of Globalisation and Development at the University of Oxford. He recently wrote an article in the Financial Times in which he gives a brief description of how technology is replacing human labour, making it harder for people to earn a living from paid employment. He then goes on to list five…
… THE GOVERNMENT DOESN’T NEED TO TAX OR BORROW TO PAY FOR THE NHS, OR FOR ANYTHING ELSE, EVER! (sorry for shouting but some people really haven’t been paying attention and this is very, very important). Once again, this is how it works. When the government spends, it spends new money. This new money is…
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