Monthly Archives: January 2012

Following on from yesterday’s post on inequality, I discovered this OECD country report on inequality in the UK. Assortative Mating (see yesterday’s post) has played a more significant role in increasing the earnings gap in the UK, says the report: … Continue reading →

The arguments about high executive pay rumble on. I have been reading around the subject, which is complex, and I will post something on it in due course. In the meantime, though, here is an interesting discussion I came across … Continue reading →

The Commons Health Committee has confirmed what many of us predicted over a year ago; that the turmoil of the NHS restructure will kill off all hope of achieving the 4 percent annual efficiency savings demanded by the Nicholson Challenge. … Continue reading →

A good friend of mine, like many people from Northern Ireland, has both a UK and an Irish passport. In the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, she chose to travel on her Irish passport for a while. Given the bad … Continue reading →

The people who want to get rid of employment protection will try anything. Unfair dismissal legislation has been blamed for stifling economic growth and preventing efficiency improvements in the public sector. All baloney, of course. Now, though, City AM’s Allister Heath … Continue reading →

The chaps and chapesses at WordPress have sent me the final stats on this blog’s visits for 2011. The most popular posts were: Murdoch’s Frankenstein – The day I posted this, the blog traffic broke all previous records, as Mr Murdoch … Continue reading →

The Guardian’s Aditya Chakrabortty thinks we are. While we may have more power as consumers, he says, at work we are more regimented and controlled than ever before. In shops, the layout is dictated by head office, while the produce arrives … Continue reading →

Corporate psychopaths are still occupying positions of power, says Brian Basham. Not only that, but at least one investment bank was actively recruiting them, he claims. Should we be surprised? Not really. After all, as Joel Bakan said, if corporations … Continue reading →

I arrived in Ekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth largest city, at 5am. Something about the place didn’t look right. As I rode through the streets in a taxi, through my bleary-eyed stupor I realised why. It was pitch dark. Not pale-orange city dark but … Continue reading →