America and the UK both share a long history of respectable blue collar employment. Jobs which didn’t need particular qualifications but which offered respect, a pension, and enough income to own a house and a car and raise a family. If you kept your nose clean and did the right thing you could get on, … Read more
Remploy was started by the Attlee Government to provide sheltered employment to people with disabilities. It opened it’s first factory in 1946 making violins. Only 15 years ago it operated 83 factories across the UK. The sheltered employment model became less popular as years went by and the emphasis changed to supporting disabled people into … Read more
Last month I compared rates of violent crime between my generation and my daughters. It featured lots of teenage nostalgia, and was the most popular blog I have written in ages. As a follow up I wanted to extend the comparison to the generation before me – the baby boomers. We think of the 60s … Read more
A lot of people will have seen similar “viral” content on social media attacking the hypocrisy of Greta Thunberg and young people in general. I’m sorry if you are one of the people who shared these memes, this isn’t meant to be criticism of you. I just don’t think it makes sense from an economic … Read more
Violent crime is at an all time high. Knife crime is out of control. Britain is more dangerous that it ever has been. Drug use is soaring. The headlines are familiar to everyone. It would be easy to believe that young people are more violent, more dangerous, more criminal than ever before. I’m not convinced. … Read more
Every year people complaining about Christmas starting earlier every year starts earlier. I get that people get a bit huffy when Christmas starts in mid-October. Personally I don’t mind it because if our stock is in store in October it means we will get paid for it before Christmas. For our biggest stockists if the … Read more
Some time ago I wrote about problems in the Care Home sector. Politicians have been arguing for years about who should meet the costs of residential care for older people, with no consensus. While this debate has been taking place a crisis on the supply side of the sector has been building up, with Care … Read more
The House of Commons is currently pondering whether to start impeachment procedures against Boris Johnson following his disastrous Supreme Court defeat. Ironically Boris Johnson along with George Galloway were behind an attempt to impeach Tony Blair over the Iraq War. This attempt failed, but I still get people who tell me that Tony Blair is … Read more
Up until the 1950s the Southern States of the USA were solidly Democrat. From the 1870s onwards the “Solid South” voted Democrat even when the rest of the USA voted Republican. This map shows the 1956 Presidential election. The blue states held out for the Democrat Adlai Stevenson while the rest of the US went … Read more
Two sharply contrasting policy announcements from the two major parties over the last couple of weeks, but equally frustrating. First up was BoJo, with an announcement that he will prioritise funding for health and social care: Next up was Shadow Chancellor with an announcement about ending public sector outsourcing: There is of course one policy … Read more