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Ditch the austerity rhetoric, Britain needs growth
If, as opinion polls suggest, there is a majority in this country who accept that the Coalition Government’s austerity drive is necessary, then this would be one of the worst developments in the UK for...
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Are we all co-operative now?
The co-operative movement has been around in one form or another for centuries, both in the UK and elsewhere. Its heyday was in the late 19th and early twentieth century and it now plays only a...
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Austerity blues or going for growth?
The discussion dominating public debate about how far and how fast we should be cutting the fiscal deficit is a giant displacement activity, which has dangerous consequences. The real problem facing...
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Why those working in the financial sector need to tell the truth about the...
When Vince Cable recently attacked the ‘spivs and gamblers who did harm to the British economy while paying themselves outrageous bonuses’ he summed up what many think is the problem with the finance...
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Our aim should be a growth economy not a balanced one
* This is a seconding speech I made alongside Richard Lambert from the CBI against the following motion at this debate organised by the Royal Academy of Engineering, This House believes that a...
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Ten key aspects of developed economies, post recession
There are times when the ideas of the world’s rulers and the institutions through which they govern are adequate to the needs of the era, and there are times–like the present–when they are not....
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Happiness is (about to be) overrated
I have to be careful here. A few years ago I spoke at a discussion on happiness and passed the flippant comment that I had not been happy since 1963 (a reference to Philip Larkin as I am sure you all...
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Why breaking up the banks is not the solution to the UK’s economic woes
*This is a seconding speech to be made at this event alongside Kitty Ussher of Demos against Phillip Blond, the so called ‘Red Tory’ The truth is that poor profitability in productive...
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What is the role of business in society today
(speech given at PWC in debate with Stefan Stern,Vicky Pryce, Michael Green and David Phillips) Keynes famously said that practical men are usually the slaves of defunct economists. I am going to prove...
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Why unpaid internship is not slave labour
MY COMPANY is currently looking for an intern (don’t all apply at once). The reason is simple. We have a job that needs doing that we cannot get our clients to pay us for and, in the current climate,...
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Iraq-a primer for your children
Gather around children and I will explain what is happening in Iraq today. It all began a long time ago when the goodies (us, we are always the goodies, unlike others who sometimes are good and...
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Selfish Whining Monkeys
Selfish Whining Monkeys by journalist Rod Liddle has had a good duffing-up by reviewers and commentators. Some of his harshest critics are, unsurprisingly, the sort of people Liddle blames in his book...
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The Sharing Economy-Poverty of Ambition
It is understandable but surely, at the same time, nonsensical for everybody in a town or city to own their own power tools that are barely used. many of us have far too many books on our shelves,...
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The Sharing Economy Debate
Below is a link to a debate I did on the Sharing Economy at the 2015 Battle of Ideas. Thanks to WORLDwrite for filming the event and to the Battle of Ideas for giving me the platform. The Sharing...
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Reflections on Philip Roth’s American Pastoral
On re-reading American Pastoral I was struck by how much more important it is even than when it was first published nearly twenty years ago. It is a, if not the, great American novel. It is a profound...
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After the referendum, fight for Brexit
The Brexit referendum has disoriented the political elite and demonstrated its distance from and contempt for vast swathes of the population, particularly the white working class. For years the elite...
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Democracy Now-Invoke Article 50 immediately
The post referendum campaign to remain in the EU is now fully under way. Those who never wanted us to Remain have now been joined by some of the people who voted Leave, but who are genuinely and...
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MPs against democracy
I wrote to my MP asking for her support for triggering Article 50 immediately. This was her response. We should make it clear to her and others that we are not prepared to allow this attempt to...
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A reminder to MPs who want to Remain.
Dear Ms Hayes I wrote to you asking for your support in triggering Article 50 and carrying out the democratic will of the people (as promised in the leaflet that the government sent out prior to the...
View ArticleA Legacy Of Spies
Our new national sport. Today’s blameless generation versus your guilty one. Who will atone for our fathers’ sins? Even if they weren’t sins at the time.’ There are symbols of the past being torn down...
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