Rick

Sleepwalking into tomorrow’s state

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:22:59 GMT

IFS director Paul Johnson reckons the June spending review is going to be bloody. George Osborne will have to tell us where the next round of spending cuts will fall. That’s the cuts on top of the cuts he’s already … Continue reading...(read more)

Fixing A&E

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Fri, 10 May 2013 09:17:39 GMT

Scene: A plush riverside office. [Sound of irritating iPhone ring.] “Hello. Joseph Bloggs.” “Hi Joe. It’s Jeremy.” “….Minister! Good to hear from you. Er…how’s things?” “Bit fraught actually...(read more)

How to reduce your gender pay gap

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Thu, 09 May 2013 09:10:47 GMT

Sometimes you come across counterintuitive facts that makes you step back and wonder if everything you thought you knew was wrong, like America spending more per capita on healthcare than Britain or Stephanie Flanders not being head girl at school …...(read more)

Thatcherite zeal? Or just a re-enactment?

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Fri, 03 May 2013 05:45:58 GMT

Boris Johnson and some Conservative backbenchers called for ‘Thatcherite zeal’ against the trade unions, as they renewed demands for tougher strike laws. I’ve already had a go at Boris about this in a previous post but let’s just...(read more)

Who lost the 20th century?

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Thu, 02 May 2013 08:54:56 GMT

In the end, after a lively debate, the New Statesman’s audience decided that the left won the 20th century. That still seems slightly odd to me, given that the left has suffered considerable reverses on the economic front since the … Continue...(read more)

Lambic and geuze – a success story with a sour taste!

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 11:43:33 GMT

Last weekend, I was over in Belgium for the biennial Toer De Geuze, when the brewers of geuze and lambic beers open their doors to the public to show off their beers. Geuze and lambic beers are, to say the … Continue reading → Read More.....(read more)

Shares For Rights – Government quietly revives one of its stupidest ideas

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:37:06 GMT

Remember the government’s ‘shares for employment rights’ idea? It was rejected by almost every business surveyed during the consultation, many coming to the same conclusions as I did when it was first announced. The House of Lords thought...(read more)

Did the left win the 20th century?

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 07:14:37 GMT

This is the question posed in the New Statesman’s centenary issue and in a debate this Thursday. I’m disappointed that I can’t go. Fortunately my good friends Mervyn Dinnen and Niki Rosenbaum will be there so I trust I will get …...(read more)

Did Thatcher break the trade unions?

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:02:28 GMT

Unless there is a world-changing event somewhere, nothing that isn’t about Margaret Thatcher will get read today or probably for the rest of the week. There is a lot to say about her so I will restrict this piece to … Continue reading →...(read more)

Workplace rights for druids and pagans – if you supported Eweida, this is what you asked for!

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:25:44 GMT

The Daily Mail’s front page today surpasses even its usual standard of cynical and calculated ignorance. It calls the advice given to employers by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, in response to the Eweida judgement in January, “an...(read more)

Scroungers, scumbags and soaring welfare costs

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:51:27 GMT

In the same week as welfare reforms come into effect, spread all over the front pages of the newspapers is the archetypal ‘scrounging scumbag’. Of course, government ministers would not be crass enough link the murder of six children to the...(read more)

In The Shadow Of The Sword

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:02:39 GMT

For a period that had such important consequences, very little has been written about the wars between the Roman, Persian and Arab empires in the sixth and seventh centuries. I’m sure there have been lots of academic papers but not … Continue...(read more)

Public spending maths – or why the state has peaked

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 06:50:26 GMT

As usual, the IFS briefing on the budget was more informative than anything the government put out. Among the graphs were some that clearly show the peaking of public service provision and help to explain why it is almost certainly … Continue reading...(read more)

Life after Peak Employment

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 06:32:33 GMT

When I were a lad, people were saying that the challenge of future decades would be what to do with all our leisure time. Working weeks in the advanced economies had fallen and continued to fall. New technology, automation and robots, it … Continue...(read more)

Cyprus – depositors have got off lightly

Flip Chart Fairy Tales — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:11:18 GMT

When a big news story breaks, it is interesting to look at what newspapers and columnists were saying about the same subject years or even months earlier. Here, for example, is what the Telegraph advised its readers two years ago: … Continue reading...(read more)