‘Science cracks code to feed world’, says the headline on page three of The Times today. Now I know the first rule of journalism is that the headline should grab the reader’s attention, but even so, this is a bold claim. Nevertheless, this article reports that a team of British scientists have, for the first time, [...]

Filed under: Financial crisis, Science | 1 Comment »

There’s an interesting nugget about German trade union strategy in today’s FT (‘German unions seek pay rises on back of recovery’). This notes that, in negotiations for 110,000 steelworkers, due to begin on August 27, IG Metall,  Germany’s biggest union, will focus on pay rises and a reduction in contract labour, rather than job security. [...]

Filed under: Earnings, Europe | 2 Comments »

We are now three days into the FT’s excellent series, ‘The austerity debate’, looking at the pros and cons of an early repayment of the fiscal deficit. The issue of deficit repayment is the main political divide of the moment and the FT has performed a valuable service, bringing together commentators from both sides of [...]

Filed under: Economics, Financial crisis | 1 Comment »

Sometimes, two separate news stories are presented in the same news bulletin and, taken together, make a wonderful statement about the world we live in. This was my experience this morning as I watched BBC Breakfast. Today’s programme contained the worrying news that, according to figures from the university admissions service, Ucas, universities have received more than 660,000 applications [...]

Filed under: Financial crisis, Politics, Skills | 3 Comments »

Pat McFadden, the Shadow Business Minister, made a thoughtful speech to the Fabian Society this morning. He resolutely defended the last Labour Government’s economic record, questioned the Con-Lib decision to “cut faster and deeper than we (i.e. Labour) would”, rubbished the idea that the UK was in a similar economic position to Greece and made the [...]

Filed under: Economics, Politics | 1 Comment »

I had never heard this anecdote before this morning, but apparently when plans for the Large Hadron Collider, the biggest science project in the world, were first mooted, along with the costs, UK Ministers baulked. They were, however, wrong-footed by the scientist who also happened to be Prime Minister at the time, Margaret Thatcher, who [...]

Filed under: Economics, Science | 1 Comment »

Graham Honeyman, the Chief Executive of Sheffield Forgemasters, put a brave face on today’s decision to axe an £80m government loan, which would have created 180 jobs at the company. Describing this as a “huge disappointment”, he said it is important now to focus on other elements of the company’s development. Good for him. But the TUC can’t be [...]

Filed under: Energy, Manufacturing | 4 Comments »

It couldn’t have been clearer. The Conservative Party election manifesto – their invitation to us to join the government of Britain – set out the situation in plain language: “we will take immediate action to cut a net £6 billion of wasteful departmental spending in the financial year 2010/11, with further savings in future years [...]

Filed under: Public spending | 1 Comment »

I very much respect the detailed analysis prepared by the OECD on international economic issues. However, I’m afraid the Paris-based think-tank has got it so very wrong in its call for UK interest rates to rise by the final quarter of this year, as reported on the Guardian website today. Incredibly, the OECD is calling [...]

Filed under: Economics, Financial crisis | 1 Comment »

One major Bill included in this morning’s Queen’s Speech was the Office of Budget Responsibility Bill. The principle behind this is simple enough. An Office of Budget Responsibility will become the official forecaster for growth and borrowing. After assessing government liabilities, the OBR will make recommendations for fiscal loosening or tightening in order to have [...]

Filed under: Economics, Financial crisis, Politics | 1 Comment »

Today is the day that we find out where the first tranche of spending cuts will hit. No doubt the TUC will have more to say on this as the day progresses. For the moment, I was struck by a story in this morning’s FT, entitled ‘Berlin prepares for 10bn euro yearly cuts’. The meat of the [...]

Filed under: Economics, Europe, Financial crisis, Public spending | 2 Comments »

The Con Lib Coalition has published its full agreement this morning. The agreement runs to 36 pages, which makes it impossible to cover in any great depth here. There are, however, a few points that deserve an immediate mention.

Filed under: Economics, Politics | 2 Comments »