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Jacobins, the Berlin Wall and zero-hours contracts 26 Aug 2013 | 02:32 pm
One of the most thought-provoking pieces on the zero-hours contracts debate (see previous post) was from Ursula Huws, writing in Times Higher Education. She points out that, in much of the world and f...
The rise and rise of health spending 23 Aug 2013 | 10:39 am
Before I wrote my post on the NHS last week, I should have read this King’s Fund report on long-term health spending from earlier this year. It covers the subject in some depth. For those who don’t ha...
Can the NHS survive? 12 Aug 2013 | 09:42 am
Last week, Chris Hopson, chief executive of the Foundation Trust Network, became the latest NHS grandee to warn of the service’s imminent collapse. (See previous post.) Hopson’s view is that, because...
Cold comfort in the OBR’s forecasts 25 Jul 2013 | 09:59 am
Media reactions to the OBR’s Fiscal Sustainability Report were ‘gibberish’ says Ben Chu. Yes, he says, we would need spending cuts or tax rises of £19bn after 2018 to get the public debt down to 40 pe...
It’s not just Britain – the rest of the world is ageing too 19 Jul 2013 | 10:14 am
Britain’s ageing population made the headlines earlier this week when the Office for Budget Responsibility published its Fiscal Sustainability Report. The combined effects of increased healthcare need...
Child-catching won’t solve our demographic challenge 17 Jul 2013 | 09:50 am
Britain needs more babies, said Charles Moore, after reading Stephen D. King’s When The Money Runs Out. By failing to reproduce themselves in adequate numbers, the baby boomers have laid enormous bur...
Bank bailouts – How does the UK compare? 16 Jul 2013 | 10:35 am
Here’s an interesting table I came across the other day while I was looking for something else. Buried in the IMF’s recent report Fiscal Adjustment in an Uncertain World is a comparison of the size an...
Fiddling while the NHS burns 12 Jul 2013 | 12:23 pm
This time last year, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that the NHS would need an extra £20bn a year by 2020. A year later and NHS England is warning that the service will need an extra £30bn a ...
Should zero hours contracts be banned? 9 Jul 2013 | 02:29 pm
After I posted my ditty last week (composed while on the cross-trainer thingy in the gym), Stephen Tovey pointed out that zero hours contracts can work well for both employer and employee. He’s right...
Shares for Rights? Sorry, George, we’re all washing our hair! 5 Jul 2013 | 11:02 am
When I was a lad, back in the last century, I once found myself at a party where hardly anyone turned up. I don’t know if it was because the bloke who organised it had over-estimated his charismatic a...
