Subcontracting is the curse of the modern economy The UK economy is now a mess built on the foundations of everyone sub-contracting everything they can whenever they think that possible. The result is that we have an economy made up of middlemen, all of them raking off their own bit of profit.
Finding a better song to sing
Funding the Future
Finding a better song to sing
Introduction to this post I thought I should share the following on this blog because I have done so with a number of my colleagues over the las...
 It’s time to move on. The second chapter of my career - as a campaigner and as an academic is, I think, drawing to a close. It’s time to dedicate myself to chapter three.
Neoliberalism rules, even in football
Funding the Future
Neoliberalism rules, even in football
As the FT notes this morning: The UK has dropped a requirement for a new men’s football regulator to consider “foreign and trade policy” whe...
 Apparently footballing authorities think that governments should do everything they demand to make football possible - but that governments do not have any right to regulate foorball as a result. This is neoliberal politics gone mad.
Reeves has fudged the make-believe rules that Chancellors hope we will believe in
Funding the Future
Reeves has fudged the make-believe rules that Chancellors hope we will believe in
As the Guardian reports this morning: Rachel Reeves will announce at the International Monetary Fund a plan to change Britain’s debt rules tha...
 To no-one’s surprise Rachel Reeves has said she is going to change the fiscal rules that supposedly guide her behaviour. No-one should, however, believe a word she says, because there are no fiscal rules. There are, instead, simply Chancellors who make these rules up and want us to believe in them. Don’t be fooled.
Will Rachel Reeves' NI hike crush UK economic growth? Rachel Reeves wants growth, and it’s thought she’s going to seriously increase employers’ national insurance contributions, which is most likely to stop that happening. Why is she adopting such an absurd approach to the economy?
Labour’s solution to the water industry crisis is to do anything but what’s needed
Funding the Future
Labour’s solution to the water industry crisis is to do anything but what’s needed
The FT carries a report this morning that notes that: Water regulator Ofwat could be overhauled or even replaced under the most far-reaching revie...
 When it comes to the water industry, Labour will do anything but nationalise it to make sure that we get the clean water that we need. That literally defines them as an existential threat to our well-being.
Trump, the fascist, threatens us all
Funding the Future
Trump, the fascist, threatens us all
The FT carries an article this morning that begins by noting that: Donald Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff has said the former...
 If you’re not terrified by the prospect of Trump winning the US Presidential election, what is wrong with you?
Don’t trust Wes Streeting’s NHS consultation
Funding the Future
Don’t trust Wes Streeting’s NHS consultation
Do I have to talk about Wes Streeting this morning? It seems that I do because the government’s resident smug boy is out and about talking about ...
 Wes Streeting’s plans for the NHS are all about making profit for big business. Nothing he’s talking about will improve healthcare outcomes, because that’s not their purpose.
There’s no electricity or water for Keir Starmer’s planned investments Keir Starmer wants high-tech investment in the UK that will demand massive new electricity supply and water supplies we simply have not got, and all for not many new jobs. Why doesn’t he grow UK small business instead?
Keir Starmer says he wants a bonfire of red tape? Keir Starmer has said he wants a bonfire of red tape. That is the same goal that ended at Grenfell when David Cameron promoted it. What it actually means is that consumers take the risk in society and those who create the risks don’t and there’s not an iota of sense in that.