Engaging social housing tenants

On Tuesday 7th December I chaired “The Social Housing Tenants Engagement Event 2021” for Government Events. That entailed making some preliminary remarks and some closing reflections. I have amalgamated these comments into this blogpost. How best to engage social housing residents in the management and governance of their […]

Mind-expanding educational encounters

I have always avoided blogging about current issues in higher education. There are various reasons for that, including that it would make blogging a bit of a busman’s holiday. But current developments at Leicester University caught my eye. The business school is making redundant academic staff whose work […]

Reviving the Liberal Democrats

On Friday Vince Cable is due to give a set piece speech. Given that a week is a long time in politics the speech could, presumably, go through several revisions between now and then. But that hasn’t stopped people speculating, and unnamed individuals briefing, that Uncle Vince is going […]

The End of the Brexit Rainbow

The Brexit saga continues. Look beyond the sound and fury of the domestic political soap opera and focus on the agreed actions. The working hypothesis that the end point of the process will be whatever the EU wants it to be continues to do a serviceable job. If […]

Policy for an alternative future

Failure to agree a way forward on the border question. It might turn out to have been nothing more than a bit of a wobble. Understandable in a high stakes negotiation. It might be an indication that the whole Brexit process is going to unravel. We are promised […]

Johnson pops up again

The Telegraph yesterday pulled out all the stops in support of Boris Johnson’s most recent Brexit mind-burp. Not only did they allow him a double page inside spread for his article, but it was accompanied by a chorus of op-ed and editorial comment about Johnson’s vision and the […]

On Leavers, informed or otherwise

The Brexit debate, on social media at least, shows few signs of abating. It shows every sign of continuing to be vociferously unpleasant on the occasions people venture outside their echo chambers and encounter an incorrigible who disagrees on the wisdom of Brexit. In some respects, therefore, little […]

Comment in the aftermath of Grenfell

The Grenfell Tower inferno is a tragedy on a scale that is difficult to process. It has already generated acres of comment in the mainstream media and on the blogs. While much sense is being talked, there is some nonsense out there. Some of the comment from the […]

Wise words

View All ›

“Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult”
(Samuel Johnson, 1709-94)

“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable”
(JK Galbraith, 1908-2006)

“No section of the people has ever been excluded from political power without suffering legislative injustice”
(Millicent Garrett Fawcett, 1847-1929)