The extensive commentary in the press on the sorry tale of MPs expenses sadly focuses on MPs’ probity, which is to completely misunderstand the nature of this issue. What it is really about is the incompetence shown by MPs in … Continue reading
Following the UK government reshuffle, there has been a resumption in the argument for removing employment protections as part of the campaign against red tape on business. One of the more extreme suggestions is for the abolition of protections against … Continue reading
A trail of corporate scandals over the last few years has lead to a rather despised and unbelieved comment from the CEOs of large organizations: “I didn’t know”, leading to the conclusion by many that they are either lying or … Continue reading
I always find it interesting about how, when a scandal erupts, that there is so much focus on “Who did/knew what when?” as we seek to apportion blame and so put the whole story into a tale of human woe … Continue reading
With government spending, deficits and national debt again being in the headlines, I thought I would do a bit of digging and find out what the actual numbers are. Unfortunately, it took a little time to work my way through … Continue reading
I just responded to a post on the “A Very British Dude” website, a conservative supporting blog. The post advocated removing employment protections in order to promote more hiring – the quite rational proposition being that employers are resistant to … Continue reading
I enjoyed immensely the $1,000,000,000,000 headline in the Guardian yesterday, being ‘an estimate’ of the negative impact of a Greek exit from the Euro leading to a collapse of the single currency. What made it so attractive was the delight … Continue reading
Reflecting on the recent controversies over executive pay, it is clear that many of us find it difficult to understand why executives seem to get paid huge bonuses even when the companies they work for aren’t performing very well. Although … Continue reading
Watching the media flurry following the British local elections, the main focus has been on the collapse of the Conservative vote, the continued poor performance of the Liberal Democrats and the recovery of Labour. However, for me the much more … Continue reading
What has been most interesting about the recent publicity about the impact of bank holidays on the UK economy has been the general acceptance of the underlying premise that has been advanced by the Centre for Economics and Business Research … Continue reading