UK democracy in 2022

TI published their review of the world in 2022, and the UK falls seven places to join not so salubrious company of Qatar (-5), Myanmar (-5), Azerbaijan (-7) and Oman (-8).. This is followed by the Economist’s publication of their Democracy Index, where the UK maintains its place in the rankings which I find strange.

Read more

Devolution

After the publication of the Brown Commission report, I was surprised to discover that a Scottish comrade was underwhelmed by its proposals for Scotland, I don’t know why that way it should be, as I was underwhelmed by the English proposals for devolution; the whole thing is unambitious and the unimaginative hands of LOTO cover…

Read more

The economics of the ERDF

In considering the recommendations of the CoFoE on digitsation, I came to consider how economies innovate and how competitive the EU is in the technology industries. The key programme may be the EU Regional Development Fund. See also their factsheet. This of course has relevance due to the announcement of the UK’s levelling up grants…

Read more

Making a searchbox

I made this in January as I sought to make a search page for my Hugo site. I have made a search page for this site, using a jetpack widget, although with the new theme, a search bar is now offered on every post and index page. I found another use case to make a…

Read more

Shane

I just seen the film again, and must reread the book. I am surprised at some reviews, as I consider the sexual/romantic tension between Marion and Shane underplayed, I feel because of its time, I feel that Shane’s past and his desire to leave it behind is also underplayed. Not that I need to see…

Read more

A living wage

It’s conference time for the GMB, and prompted by some members I looked at the state of policy development on low pay and the living wage. The GMB Policy is stated in its policy guide albeit dated 2021. I look at Labour’s “A new deal for working people” and note that the GMB’s minimum wage…

Read more

A bonfire of worker’s rights

Not content with making it impossible to “go and live there” if we don’t like Brexit, the Tories are planning to repeal all the EU derived legislation. The Bill is called the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022-23. It is understood to threaten most already inadequate worker’s rights including holiday pay, working hours…

Read more