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
We are living through a golden age of near full employment according to the Department of Work and Pensions and the Office of National Statistics. Despite a slow growing economy and low levels of business investment unemployment is back to levels not seen since the 1970s. I have mixed views about this. I do think … Read more
The Institute of Fiscal Studies has commissioned Sir Angus Deaton to lead a review of growing inequality in the UK https://www.ifs.org.uk/inequality/ The press have got very excited about this, and rightly so – what could be more exciting than a 2 year study mixing economics with epidemiology? Just think of the graphs! https://news.sky.com/story/suicide-drug-abuse-and-alcoholism-linked-to-more-middle-aged-deaths-than-heart-disease-11719426 https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2019/may/14/britain-risks-heading-to-us-levels-of-inequality-warns-top-economist?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other For … Read more
The public sector outsourcing market died another death this week with the news that the UK’s Probation Services (or Offender Management as they are now called by wacky bureaucrats) will all come back in house: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/may/16/part-privatisation-probation-sevices-to-be-reversed-offender-management-nationalised-chris-grayling This isn’t entirely news as the problems with Criminal Justice outsourcing have been know about for several years: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/15/probation-reforms-put-public-at-higher-risk … Read more
One of the greatest ever papers published in a history journal was written by Jan Vansina for the Journal of African History Vansina makes the very simple argument that the abolition of slavery increased labour costs. These increased labour costs in turn made it more attractive to invest in mechanisation and industrialisation. And the increased … Read more
Yet another outsourcing company gets into trouble. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/16/unions-condemn-chris-grayling-disastrous-part-privatisation-of-probation-working-links I don’t think that many people will be sad to see the back of Working Links as they lose their probation services contract. It looks like they might not be the only ones to lose their contract in the weeks to come – of the 21 Community … Read more
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