Monthly Archives: June 2011

John Redwood, Robert Halfon and now Norman Tebbit have advised their fellow Tories against an attack on the unions. As Lord Tebbit told the BBC’s Nick Robinson: My first reaction is caution. We’ve had an employment law structure which has worked for the last … Continue reading →

I often come across good stuff on the interweb while I’m looking for something else. Last week, I found a paper entitled Assessing a Government’s Exposure to Fiscal Risk by Peter S. Heller, formerly of the IMF and now Professor of … Continue reading →

Journalist and commentator Johann Hari was in trouble yesterday after he admitted to adding quotes from the writings of people he had interviewed and passing them off as comments made during the interview. The piss-taking which followed was very funny, if … Continue reading →

Thursday’s strikes by public sector workers are due to go ahead after negotiations broke down yesterday. Civil servants and teachers will walk out in protest at the government’s proposal to reform their pensions. This one-day stoppage is being billed by public … Continue reading →

The recent OECD survey of Iceland’s economy suggests that the country is doing rather well. It has done so by ignoring both fashion and etiquette. For at least the past decade or so, open economies have been where it’s at. Get … Continue reading →

Why is Greece in such a mess? Well it’s because they are typical lazy southern Europeans isn’t it? They knock off work at mid-day, have long lunch breaks then never really go back. They spend the rest of the day … Continue reading →

The Greek prime minister won a confidence vote last night, the first stage in pushing through the austerity measures demanded by the EU as a condition for another bailout. As Nosemonkey says, there is plenty of expert opinion available about … Continue reading →

XpertHR asked the question, “How much time does HR spend dealing with workplace conflict?” Michael Carty reports the findings: More than half of those surveyed say that managing workplace conflict takes up to 10% of HR’s time. Rrrright….so what do they … Continue reading →

Any threat of strikes is inevitably accompanied by government sabre-rattling about changing the law on industrial action. Reading much of the commentary about industrial disputes, you could be forgiven for thinking that we were still in the 1970s. Maybe that’s because some … Continue reading →

This poem was inspired by Bendy Girl’s post on Tuesday. With thanks to David Cameron, Ed Miliband and a thousand comment threads. I Met a Man; or Hell in a Handcart I met a man who met a man who met a … Continue reading →