Category: Government
-
The consequences of climate change are hitting us squarely in the face. Temperatures are soaring, drought conditions are spreading, and wildfires are raging across the UK and other countries around the globe. The world is quite literally burning. Meanwhile millions of workers are forced to live and work in sweltering heat, in the knowledge that…
-
The 2026 World Cup finished just over a week ago. As I have noted before on this blog, it was a World Cup that was mired in controversy from long before a ball was even kicked, and this controversy continued throughout the tournament. One particular cloud that hung over the latter stages of tournament was…
-
We are currently around halfway through the 2026 World Cup. It is estimated that this event will generate almost $41 billion in revenue for the economies of the host nations: the US, Mexico, and Canada. It will also generate billions in revenue for economies across the world. But it is the big companies that will…
-
Last week saw local elections take place across the UK against a backdrop of a stagnating economy with youth unemployment at 900,000, soaring food prices, rising homelessness, and crumbling infrastructure. Little wonder then that the incumbent Labour party got an absolute kicking, losing 1,498 councillors in total. The Tories also tanked disastrously, losing 563 councillors.…
-
In a previous blog post I set out the case for reforming English spelling and sketched out a proposal for such a reform. As that post received more likes than any other post on this blog (four likes!) I thought I should set out a more detailed reform proposal. The basic idea was to start…
-
There is no doubt that anecdotally at least, it feels as though public services are in a dire state across the UK and have been for some time. But what do the data say? It’s not immediately obvious how to go about measuring the state of public services. Perhaps we should start by defining exactly…
-
The western world is currently facing what is commonly referred to as a ‘housing crisis’: a situation where many people can’t find safe, decent, and affordable homes. This crisis is particularly acute where I live in south-eastern England. The usual explanation for this is that there isn’t enough housing to go around. However, according to…
-
Things are not going well for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the pedophile formerly known as ‘Prince’. Every time you think his reputation couldn’t possibly sink any lower, yet another revelation about his past comes to light. The latest batch of documents from the Epstein files includes emails that will damage his reputation even further – assuming that…
-
It is generally agreed that English spelling is a mess. There is less agreement about whether anything should be done about it. To be sure, we can all agree that there are good reasons to reform English spelling. It would make English easier to learn to read, write, and pronounce, as well as making it…
-
The 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly known as COP30, will be held in Brazil from 10 to 21 November. In this context, COP stands for Conference of the Parties, and refers to the annual meeting of the nearly 200 countries that have signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. At…
-
It is often said that the United Kingdom has one of the most regionally unequal economies in the western world. This statement certainly sounds plausible, and it is backed up by the data. According to figures published by the Office for National Statistics, in 2022 the Gross Value Added (GVA) per capita in the richest…
-
Almost everyone agrees that (a) bureaucracy is a bad thing, and (b) there is too much of it. But what exactly do we mean by ‘bureaucracy’? A good working definition is a system comprised of people who are more interested in maintaining their position than they are in the effectiveness of their work. How do…
-
The energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, has just announced that it will raise the energy price cap by 2% from October. But what exactly is the energy price cap? Actually there are four energy price caps: one in pence per kWh and one in pence per day, for both gas and electricity. These represent…
-
Two recent articles in the Socialist newspaper once again highlight the callous stupidity of neoliberal capitalism. The first tells an all-to-familiar story of public services being cut to save money: in this case, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire Service is facing £1.6 million of cuts, which will result in 30 firefighter jobs being…
Groucho Marxism 