Why we need more workers in the boardroom
Tying to put the pieces of the economy and our financial system back together again, it is clear that one of the underlying problems has been the vulnerability of many institutions to lop-sided incentives.
We’ve seen it as its most obvious with dealers – who can run big risks, retire very rich very young – and not have to worry about the long-term consequences, because they’ve long since left the scene. Another example has been in the boardroom – huge bonuses in the good times, and if it goes wrong? A nice little pay off and pension pot.
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For a policy of non-interference in Iran
I don’t even know why this is worth stating, but there seem to be far too many uninformed people out there saying something must be done about Iran. What? Invasion? Lots of public support for Moussavi? What is with this idiotic right-wing view that they have the right to interfere in every part of the world?
Let me be clear about my position. Ahmedinijad is being exposed as an undemocratic tyrant, willing to use illegal militias that kill protesters to assert his authority. The election was a fraud. The country’s clerics are now splitting amongst the unrest. Street battles carried on over the weekend (see video below), and I support the people on the streets fully.
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It’s time to get the recession back on the agenda
post by Josh Ryan-Collins of the New Economics Foundation
The expenses scandal may not have cost Gordon Brown his job, but it has done a good job of helping everyone forget about the fact that the world is facing the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression.
The recent talk of ‘Green shoots’ is now looking distinctly optimistic. A recent analysis by economists Barry Eichengreen and Kevin O’Rourke suggests that the world economy is following a worryingly similar pattern to the Great Depression. One year in, global output is declining at roughly the same rate as it was in the 1929-30 downturn (Chart 1).
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Paskini’s laws of elections (part 1 and 2)
Reading the vastly entertaining whinge by Rupert Read last week over the European elections reminded me that many people are not aware of Paskini’s laws of elections:
1. If you want to win an election, you have to be prepared to work harder and do more disagreeable things than your opposition. “Disagreeable things” for this purpose includes spending time doing things like delivering leaflets, knocking on people’s doors, phoning them up etc etc, but also includes concentrating on telling people about what they are interested in (even if you find it tedious), not what you personally are interested in. And it means working together with people who are on the same side as you, even if you don’t like them or find them annoying.
Whichever party has more people who follow rule 1 will win an election. If, however, despite your best efforts you do happen to lose, then rule 2 comes into play.
2. If you lose an election, you should not spend your time whinging about the people who beat you, no matter how disgraceful their behaviour or how repulsive they are. Instead, you should figure out what you did wrong and put it right for next time so that you are able to beat them next time.
Union slams BA over free champagne
British Airways has been sharply criticised for offering free luxury food and drinks while at the same time asking staff to take pay cuts. Unite, the UK’s biggest union, said it was “angered” by news that BA are to provide free champagne and smoked salmon for ‘taste of London week’.
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Battle over new Speaker gets dirty
On Monday the House of Commons will choose a new Speaker. So you won’t be surprised to hear that a last-minute attempt to influence that outcome has reached fever pitch. For example, our favourite Tory MP Nadine Dorries has written for the Daily Mail accusing John Bercow MP of being an “oily opportunist”.
No mention, bizarrely, of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill last year – when Bercow was perhaps the rare sensible and rational Tory voice on the issue while Dorries herself was desperately trying to use it to restrict abortion rights for women. A case of sour grapes Ms Dorries? And it should come as absolutely no surprise to you that Nadine Dorries fanboys Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes have both been vigorously attacking Bercow for his centrism.
But you may be heartened to know that mySociety.org have been running a campaign to get potential Speakers to endorse 3 Principles around more digital openness. Most have now endorsed. Tom Watson MP in the IoS today also says he’ll be pushing for more digital openness in Parliament.
(PS – I’m back from a week long break)
Was the Euro-result a flash in the pan?
There was only one story following the recent elections to the European Parliament – the success of the parties of the far right (UKIP and the BNP). Unlike most contributors and commenters on LC, I have consistently argued that the votes for these parties should be seen as a bloc. Campaigning against the BNP – as the left and indeed the centre-right for that matter have focussed on – probably merely had the effect of shifting a few votes from the party seen as wingnuts to the one seen as (relatively) more respectable.
Some evidence for my view has now emerged in the form of a mega-poll conducted – apparently as the result of an internal commission – by the on-line pollster YouGov. I say “mega poll” because its sample size was over 32,000 – about twenty times that of an “ordinary” opinion poll. This large size was necessary to achieve enough BNP (and UKIP) respondents to make analysis of their views statistically respectable. As with almost all contemporary polls, it has been “weighted” to match the demographic characteristics of respondents to those of the population at large.
You want socialism? Come to Spain
This article is by author Jack Zhisou
They’ve just put taxes up in Spain, a curious thing to do during the recession. The Central Bank are up in arms about it. The general consensus is that the government have made some stout medium-term decisions and, according to the Mr-Bean-like Zapatero (the PM), the worst has passed.
The increase in taxes – the last this year, we’re told – is to fund the health service and energy saving measures. Spain is at the forefront of renewable energy and has a solid health service. Whilst these are jolly good causes, I’m not entirely sure they’re priority in a land of unemployment, financial crisis and productivity numbers that would make a sloth blush.
They’ve cut tax-relief on mortgages already, thus exacerbating the housing crisis, but keep the massive 7% sales tax on every single house purchase. They now put up income tax for those honest enough to declare it but make no effort to pursue the enormous slice of the economy that’s off the books.
Lindsey dispute: in defence of wildcat strikes
Perhaps the tactic known by the immortal franglais neologism of ‘le bossnapping’ has something to do with it. But fear of the legal consequences alone would surely be enough to stop Total giving the entire workforce of a plant in its home country the boot, with no notice whatsoever at that. So why is it being allowed to get away with it this side of the Channel?
Yet there is no legal obstacle whatsoever to the French oil major sacking at least 700 UK employees at Lindsey Oil Refinery, and then telling them that they have until Monday to reapply for their posts.
The difference is that where continental countries guarantee some form of employment rights, Britain celebrates the hire and fire culture the point where Labour dishes out government roles to the likes of Sir Alan Sugar, in the misguided belief that this somehow sprinkles the Brown administration with some sorely needed showbiz stardust.
Minority Status Call For Sign Language
I’ve just read on the BBC News website that, at the Voices of the West conference on Scotland’s “lesser used” languages, to be held in Inverness tomorrow (Saturday 20th June) Professor Graham Turner, of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, plans to argue that Sign Language should be given the status of an indigenous and minority language.
I have no doubt that Deaf people are very happy about this idea. (the Deaf see themselves as able-bodied speakers of a language and members of a minority community, while the deaf see themselves as disabled.)
The thing is that I can hear, and I still think this is a great idea. I hope that all of you can also hear, so I wanted to know how you feel about it.
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» The real agenda behind Telegraph’s abortion investigation
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» Why work “reforms” in Spain are a warning for workers across Europe
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» Laziness levels in Britain getting lazier, wails government
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