Monthly Archives: May 2015

It’s difficult to find much on the DAB radio dial that doesn’t make you want to chew the carpet with boredom. Apart from Amazing Radio and the occasional track on Radio 1, 6Music or XFM, I don’t hear much I haven’t … Continue reading →

The Northern Powerhouse made it into the Queen’s Speech, giving George Osborne a good laugh when Her Majesty mentioned it. The government is pushing ahead with its plans to devolve extensive powers to city regions, starting with Manchester. Devolution to local government, an idea which … Continue reading →

Is inequality increasing in the UK? According to last week’s report on pay distribution by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), the UK has the most unequal wages in the EU. Furthermore, the level of inequality has risen … Continue reading →

2014 looks set to be a record-breaking year for immigration, according to the ONS estimates published yesterday. After a brief post recession dip, net immigration from the EU began to rise again in 2010 and last year, non-EU migration increased too. The gross migration figures … Continue reading →

Scotland is another country, according to the Evening Standard, the New York Times, the Guardian and half my Twitter stream. It is different from the rest of the UK and certainly different from England. When you look at the electoral … Continue reading →

Pundits will be picking over the results of this election for years and there are many reasons why things turned out as they did. For Labour though, in one respect, this election was lost in the aftermath of the last … Continue reading →

A friend asked me, earlier this week, “If you’re saying David Cameron and George Osborne are not dedicated state shrinkers, and they’re not stupid either, why would they commit themselves to such a big reduction in public service spending?” Because, when … Continue reading →

Are David Cameron and George Osborne small government ideologues hell-bent on shrinking the state? Simon Wren-Lewis thinks so: The goal is to reduce the size of the state, and because (with his encouragement) mediamacro believes reducing the deficit is the … Continue reading →

This week, the IFS finished their painstaking task of trying to understand the parties’ tax and spending plans, based on what little they’ve said. There are gaps and inconsistencies in all of them. At first sight, I couldn’t understand why the Conservatives’ … Continue reading →