It might seem unpopular to say it now but I once had hopes for Bitcoin.
Anarchists and libertarians may predictably have been excited about the potential of a currency that was neither linked to government or bank manipulation, but I liked the idea of it because P2P (peer to peer) has the prospect of making finance fairer from the bottom up.
Claims by the coalition government that the UK’s beleaguered manufacturing sector is beginning to show signs of recovery were dealt another blow this week by the reliable Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index (PMI), which showed that manufacturing contracted in the first quarter of 2013.
Sticking Cameron’s cabinet on £53 a week would in itself be a stunt. But in the age of rich public school boys being parachuted into safe seats without having any experience of life outside Westminster – the struggle for jobs and daily budgets far more demanding than anything Osborne has had to get his head around – it might just be a necessary wakeup call.
This policy will only work in the land where the Magic Job Tree grows alongside the Magic Money Tree that ensures all such jobs are well paid. And that only exists in the head of some policy wonks in Tory think tanks.
At a time when the mainstream political discourse seems preoccupied with boosting low pay, living wages and a citizens income it seems odd that the Conservatives would float the idea of reducing the National Minimum Wage. As many have rushed to point out, most evidence suggests that it boosts growth, putting money in the pockets of those most likely to spend
The chancellor George Osborne will make a speech today in which he will say the government is “making work pay” through tax and benefit changes. Making work pay is an admirable goal and something that everyone on the left supports. The problem, however, is that the government’s idea of making work pay is radically different to that of most progressives, as a quick glance at today’s Daily Telegraph makes clear.
The picture emerging is one where social tenants are bearing the brunt of welfare reform and worsening austerity. This doesn’t quite gel with the chancellor Osborne’s claim that ‘we’re all in it together’.
Families will be an average of £891 worse off from next week because of tax rises and cuts to tax credits and benefits introduced since 2010, according to new figures.
The Welsh government has taken the unprecedented step of buying Cardiff Airport amidst on-going concerns about its performance and ability to compete with nearby Bristol.
There was an increase in the level of CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions in 2012, with UK net emissions of carbon dioxide 4.5 per cent higher than 2011, figures out today reveal.
