Paul Mason’s new book Postcapitalism: a guide to our future is a serious book with an ambitious agenda. But you wouldn’t necessarily have picked that up from some of the early reviews. Political commentators from the centre and right were pretty quick to the pages of the Times […]
At the end of last week there was a bit of a furore generated by a blogpost published by the Adam Smith Institute. A young man called Theo Clifford argued that the solution to the British housing crisis lies in deregulation. That in itself is not, perhaps, an earth-shattering observation to […]
Last week I went to a meeting in London to talk housing and the ageing society. I was invited to do a quick three minute introduction to the financial aspects of the topic of housing and an ageing population. I thought I’d write up my remarks and amplify […]
I find it hard not to feel a little sorry for Labour. It is being offered plenty of advice, much of it conflicting. Move left to recapture ground lost to the SNP in Scotland. Move right to combat the threat from UKIP in white working-class areas in England. […]
[Originally posted on The Policy Press blog, 24/07/15, under a different title. Reposted here under the original title.] George Osborne’s recent “emergency” budget proposed many changes to state support to lower income households in a bid to fulfil the Conservatives’ manifesto pledge to cut £12bn from welfare spending. […]
The community of housing bloggers has already offered plenty of comment on the implications of the Chancellor’s “emergency” budget for housing. Comment from almost all quarters – be it Jules, Ken, Joe, Steve, Tom or Gavin – highlights, in more or less lurid terms, the challenges the budget measures […]
Here are the five posts on this blog that recorded the most hits between April and June 2015: Why is Owen Jones so annoying? (4th July 2013) Selling off social housing (14th Apr) Labour, leadership and the catastrophic benefit cap (11th Jun) Social liberalism and the Liberal Democrats (26 May) Liberalism redux […]
The Political Quarterly announced the winner of The Bernard Crick prize for the best piece 2014 a couple of weeks ago. It was awarded to Alan Finlayson’s article Proving, pleasing and persuading? Rhetoric in contemporary British Politics (free to read at the moment). Finlayson contrasts political rhetoric at the […]
In this podcast I contrast some the current Conservative government’s policy proposals with alternatives offered by a couple of recently published reports, and then reflect on the current state of the debate, particularly the role of evidence. (Running time: 28′ 07″) Mentioned in this podcast: Shout/Capital Economics Report […]
There is much that is troubling about George Osborne’s proposal to oblige future governments to run a budget surplus in normal times. There is the small matter of identifying “normal” times. It implies something important about how one is thinking about the macreconomy. What does “normal” look like? […]
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