If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Of course no one from McDonald's lives in our village, nor do the lawyers doing the dirty work on their behalf. None of them will have to live with the consequences should their application succeed and neither will any of them provide any redress. And this is why I've come to loathe this company.
Even in the depths of global economic despair in 2009 when we needed really aggressive monetary policy, the measures used and the quantum of money printed as Quantitative Easing was much too timid, and anyway it got stuck in the bowels of banks' balance sheets as excess reserves as they were all too terrified of lending money on to real people or businesses, as the policy intended.
Awareness of the need for new ways of investing is growing, and there are some tentative signs that it is having some impact on investor behaviour.
The cash-strapped Coalition announced on the 10th April they would be pumping £6.5million into projects aimed at helping separated parents "put their differences aside for the sake of their children". The announcement has put mediation in the spotlight as divorcees seek to minimise the impact of their split on their children.
All this 'women are really great' stuff used to be said just by women in women's groups. But not any more. Now it's in the political mainstream and even the CBI and the Government have got the point and have seen the business case for promoting women to top jobs.
Margaret Thatcher was a political leader who divided opinion in a way that has never been seen before and, possibly, may never occur again; a 'Marmite' politician.
Thatcher still manages to divide opinion in a way that no other British leader has achieved. Even Tony Blair's false wars don't create the same kind of hatred.
So we must learn the lessons from her time, not just eulogize or damn her. There are right ways and wrong ways of conducting affairs which can only be discovered through discipline, rigorous thought, honest competition and hard work.
True, she was an extraordinary woman but she was extraordinary for mostly the wrong reasons. So many of her policies were flawed and often heartless. Nevertheless, I don't rejoice in her death. I commiserate, as I do with the death of any person. I send condolences to her family and friends.
I refuse to accept for a second that her death should be mourned or that her impact on British society and the world was anything other than a baneful one. The countless lives ruined, shortened, and blighted by this woman in the war she unleashed on the working class in this country is unquantifiable.
Last week's news that stricken high street giant HMV has been rescued will be a relief to many, not least those whose jobs will be saved by the deal. But the fundamental challenges facin
Where to go on holiday this year? It's tempting to simply reply: anywhere hot. But one of the key factors in your decision should be exchange rates. That's because Sterling has taken a kicking in the international currency markets over the past 12 months, and is down by 4% against the Euro and 5% against the US dollar.
This week accusations flew, rhetoric abounded and, with the Philpott case, one newspaper made a particularly grotesque leap to try and paint this convicted criminal as a poster-boy for what they decried as the welfare "lifestyle". Meanwhile, on the ground, huge changes are taking place to benefits that will affect millions of ordinary - and, dare we say it - hard-working families.
Neither left, nor right, talks about the economic elephant in the room. Our present economic system is organised solely around the idea of consumption, not production. The left doesn't get this, and the right doesn't care so long as those in command of the economy remain untroubled.
In last week's blog I confidently asserted that today we would be treated to another masterful performance from M.Draghi at the ECB's post-meeting new...
With home ownership fast becoming a distant dream for many young people entering the workplace, what I envisioned my life to be in my twenties is not what it turned out to be. Now at the age of 33, I find myself thinking of dishes, and how many I would need to wash in order to keep up with the rent on my in South London flat.
