Here’s an excellent article from Gerry Hassan in which he takes our politicians and media to task for failing to address the real problems in our society. He argues that the debate on the UK government’s welfare reforms is so narrow and shallow that it completely misses the point: we have a chronic poverty/hardship/welfare/finance problem…
Interesting article by Gerry Hassan suggesting that the tedious binary bickering of SNP yes and establishment Labour is now being challenged by a wave of independent thinking on where we might go with an independent Scotland. He calls it “a third Scotland”, people who are interested in independence in order to change the way that…
A good article here from Jonathan Portes at The New Statesman about the effect of the UK government’s austerity programme on economic growth, which supports my contention that George Osborne is either an idiot or a liar.
George Osborne was on the telly today boasting that his strategy of austerity appeared to be working, the evidence being an unexpected rise in GDP in the second quarter of the year. He was wise enough to urge caution, aware that GDP is a slippery customer that can go down as easily as it goes…
Last night’s televised debate between Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP and Anas Sarwar of Labour was as predictable as it was depressing. It was hard to concentrate on the substance of what was being said because they were persistently talking over each other, but a review of some excerpts this morning reveals that there was…
Another breathe of fresh air in what has been a very superficial debate on Scottish independence. This one’s from David Greig at Bella Caledonia who tells us that the referendum has prompted lots of serious thinking about how we manage our society. But you have to know where to look and have an appetite for…
They just don’t get it, these “experts”. Here’s Adair Turner (former Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry, former Chairman of the UK Financial Services Authority, member of the Financial Policy Committee, part-time lecturer at the London School of Economics) explaining very clearly why debt is the main problem with the UK economy and then completely…
Good article from Fraser MacDonald on theguardian.com about how the possibility of Scottish independence has energised debate about policy amongst those of us who lie between the dull tub-thumping of the Yes and No campaigns. He suggests that momentum for positive change will persist regardless of which way the vote goes. I hope he’s right.
This article by Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph is disturbing on two counts. His erroneous argument is a distraction from what’s really wrong with our economy, and it has stirred up a foul nest of malcontents (see the comments below the article) who appear to blame immigrants for everything that’s wrong with our society. Jeremy…
Good article from Tom Streithorst in which he argues that the problem we now have is a lack of consumption due to a lack of money. He suggests this is because our industry has become very good at producing stuff with very little labour, which means money isn’t being distributed widely enough to allow people…
Views From The Boatshed 