Author Archives: Rick

The Great Decoupling and the end of the Golden Arches

Posted on 17 May, 2022 by Rick

There’s a lot of ‘End of an Era’, Turning Point’ and ‘Watershed Moment’ stuff around at the moment. The decision by Mc Donald’s to pull out of Russia after thirty years is another significant event. The three decades since the collapse of … Continue reading →

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Levelling Up: the role payed by disappearing occupational pensions

Posted on 26 January, 2022 by Rick

How is the government’s levelling up agenda going to work when so many forces are pushing in the opposite direction? The economic developments over the next year or so look set to hit hardest the parts of the country the … Continue reading →

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The 2020s: Disruption? You ain’t seen nothing yet!

Posted on 26 May, 2021 by Rick

The Resolution Foundation launched its Economy 2030 Inquiry last week. The 2020s, it says, will be a decisive decade for the UK in a way that no other decade has been since the 1980s. It listed five ‘seismic’ changes that will hit … Continue reading →

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Labour’s problem is not the Red Wall – it’s the Grey Wall

Posted on 21 May, 2021 by Rick

The Labour Party is in danger of losing its nerve again. Ten years ago, the story that Labour spent all the money and caused the country’s massive debt was allowed to go unchallenged. The Labour Party, paralysed by the shock … Continue reading →

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Jenrick’s conjuring trick

Posted on 29 January, 2021 by Rick

Robert Jenrick made a big fuss about statues a couple of weeks ago. In a Sunday Telegraph article, he promised to save statues and street names from “town hall militants and woke worthies”. So great is the danger, he is … Continue reading →

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Corporate purpose: a new dawn or a defensive ruse?

Posted on 15 January, 2021 by Rick

Is the corporate zeitgeist changing? After 30 years of shareholder primacy and focus on shareholder value, the language seems to have shifted. In what may be a sign of the times, the FT has started a Moral Money Forum, focusing … Continue reading →

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Brexit bureaucracy – it’s not a bug, it’s a feature

Posted on 12 January, 2021 by Rick

After four years during which Brexit dominated UK news, it still seems to have taken British businesses by surprise. As evidence of the disruption mounts, business groups are calling on the government to ‘do something’ to sort out the mess. … Continue reading →

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The outcry over LTNs is not a culture war – it’s more serious than that

Posted on 17 December, 2020 by Rick

We knew the latter half of 2020 would see arguments about Brexit, lockdown restrictions, masks and the US election. What we didn’t foresee was that, in many places, the row of the summer and autumn would be about Low Traffic … Continue reading →

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The almost-but-not-quite recovery

Posted on 1 December, 2020 by Rick

The latest forecast for the UK economy from the Office for Budget Responsibility shows an almost-but-not-quite recovery. It starts off v-shaped with a rapid bounceback, then becomes tick-shaped as the recovery slows. The tick has a long tail and, over … Continue reading →

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The end of the furlough and the new social divide

Posted on 18 September, 2020 by Rick

“It’s begun,” said Resolution Foundation chief executive Torsten Bell, as the increase in unemployment fed through into the labour market statistics for the first time. He also reminded employers that there were 45 days to go until the end of … Continue reading →

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