“The UK is one of the developed world’s most unequal societies – how do we address that absolute inequality into the next decade? One means is the classical way via the taxation system (a redistribution from rich to poor) and
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Category: UK Politics
Why “dealing with inequality” and “class war” are not to be used interchangeably
“Harriet Harman puts class at heart of election battle” screamed the headline of The Guardian’s online version this morning. The sub header was a more measured “Labour deputy leader to make inequality a key dividing line with the Conservatives“. One
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Brown: back him or sack him, but definitely do not dither
OK, here we go again. I’ve lost track of the number of times that there have been weak and weedy attempts to ditch Gordon Brown over the last 9 months or so. This time things are perhaps a little bit
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When new public management meets security – security star ratings for airports?
The British are used to star ratings for all kinds of stuff, and I don’t mean just on Amazon or TripAdvisor. Local councils are awarded star ratings for their performance, stats are given about doctors’ surgeries, and schools are rated
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The ideal airport
There has been masses of discussion in the last few days in the UK media about airport security in light of a failed attempt to blow up a transatlantic airliner. The UK and US have been jumping to come up
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2010: some changes around here
I like new years. It’s a time to look forward. The days even start to get longer in January, and winter sports are always fun. But I digress. 2010 is going to be a year of some major changes for
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Maybe Eurostar needed divine intervention?
In some weird transport / religion crossover an online magazine called Communicate Jesus has done a write-up on the Eurostar mess and has linked to my post about the issue. Seems they did not notice the Atheist Bus banner in
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Muslim tries to blow something up, so must be Al-Qaeda
The British media has been getting itself into a lather about the latest attempt by some nutter to blow up an airliner, this time on a flight between Amsterdam and Detroit. The alleged culprit is a Nigerian Muslim, so hence
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Does HMRC really need to send me 13 copies of the same letter, all delayed in the Christmas post?
I’m in the middle of finalising all of the business arrangements for techPolitics LLP, the new company for my website work. One aspect of that is VAT registration, and my accountants need an authorisation code from HM Revenue and Customs.
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From Lilongwe to Copenhagen
So the news from the COP15 talks this morning is rather inevitable. The USA and a few other countries have cobbled together some sort of deal, and developing countries (and even – weedily – the European Union) are complaining it’s
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The UK, the country that uses its brightest minds to solve problems other developed nations don’t even have
The upgrade of the West Coast Main Line cost between £8 and £10 billion and trains have a maximum speed of 200km/h, and it’s a fiendishly complex mixed traffic railway. France’s LGV Est cost €4 billion and the service speed
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Sick of “EU doesn’t sign off books, therefore corrupt / evil / useless / nasty” (delete as applicable)
Ho, ho, here we go again. A question posed in the House of Commons by Philip Davies (Con) as cited by the Open Europe blog: Given that the accounts of the EU have not been signed off by the auditors
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