Jon Chadwick

Businessman and entrepreneur. Founder of Durham Distillery. Before I made Gin I worked for the Government, and the NHS, mostly in senior jobs. I love music, yoga, food and drink and I hate paperwork and bureaucracy and all that goes with it. Which is probably why I don’t work for the Government any more.

Are Pharmaceutical Companies really the baddies? How bad? And what should we do about it?

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Big Pharmaceutical companies aren’t very popular. You may have spotted this. Right now the firm in the spotlight is Vertex, who are announcing a tidy increase in profits, while the NHS squabbles to afford their new Cystic Fibrosis drug Orkambi. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/10/vertex-revenue-hike-orkambi-drug-nhs Before I start giving the pharmaceutical industry a kicking lets start with a few … Read more

Student Loans Swindle 2: Cash from chaos

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A month ago I wrote about the weird world of Student Loans and how they are accounted for by the Government. /https://jon-chadwick.com/2018/11/17/the-great-student-loans-swindle-its-a-swindle-a-swindle/ Today the Office of National Statistics published their review of Student Loans accounting, which makes some big changes to how the Government calculates the deficit (but not national debt) https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2018/12/17/accounting-for-student-loans-how-we-are-improving-the-recording-of-student-loans-in-government-accounts/ In short an … Read more

Interserve Overdrive

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A few months ago I wrote about the collapse of Carillion, and drew comparisons between their collapse and the Government outsourcing industry in general. https://jon-chadwick.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=946&action=edit This week Interserve have announced they are negotiating a financial recovery package.  This news led their shares to slump to 24p each, down from 660p 3 years ago.   Interserve turn … Read more

North East Nazis and Anti-Fascist doo-wop

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A few weeks ago I wrote about the way that the 1930s has become a ubiquitous metaphor for people who want to make a point about modern politics.  Not just any 1930s but the Hitler/Mussolini version.   Simon Sharma, who knows better, referred to Trump as a “Yankee Duce” in this weekends FT. Tonight we’re going … Read more

Kids in America

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I love America. It’s one of my favourite places in the world. I have lost count of the number of times I have visited, and I still love it just as much. Admittedly I only really go to the East and West Coast, and hardly ever to the bits in the middle, but I am … Read more

Labour Anti-Semitism | The parting on the left. Is now parting on the right. And the beards have all grown longer overnight

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Over the last few years I have had a few arguments with people on social media.  You might have spotted this.  I might even have politely explained to you why I am right, and you are foolish. Over and over again I have had the same, odd experience. Someone has angrily told me that they … Read more

Tonight we’re going to party like it’s 1939?

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This blog was inspired by a tweet from Jack Monroe, written in the context of the rise of hate speech on twitter, particularly anti-semitism.   This is really a neat restatement of Marx’s great opening to the 18th Brumaire: Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot … Read more

Evil Tories are Privatising the NHS and only these plucky Memes can stop them! A History of NHS Privatisation

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Firstly – an apology, I had this drafted for the 70th anniversary of the NHS a few weeks back, but didn’t get a chance to finish it.  Part of the delay was because I distracted by things like holidays, but also because it turned out to be a bigger task than I thought. Much bigger. … Read more