‘Re-inventing’ London: Planning for the Future
London is changing. But then, it always is. The theme of my new book, ‘Reinventing London’ is that change is the lifeblood of a great city. Over the past thirty years it has replaced around 1 million jobs in manufacturing, largely around the edge of the city and along the radial routes, with more than […]
Have Bankers Been Practising Socialism? The Debate About the Top 1 Per Cent
Boris Johnson has got into trouble for his statement that it is “surely relevant to a conversation about equality” that just 2 per cent of “our species” has an IQ over 130. Over the past couple of years, the Occupy movement has made headlines by attacking the top 1 per cent. The summer 2013 edition […]
Bridget talks about the future for Cities
Senior Partner Bridget Rosewell recently took part in the Festival of Economics (part of Bristol’s Festival of New Ideas) where her new book ‘Reinventing London’ was launched as part of Diane Coyle’s ‘Perspectives’ Series. Here she is in conversation with Romesh Vaitilingham at the festival, discussing the ideas within her book. Image: Autumn Dusk in […]
Britain’s New Industrial Policy: Can We Learn from the Mistakes of the Past?
The phrase ‘industrial policy’ seems to take us decades back in time. In 1964, a powerful catchphrase of the new Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, was the need for Britain to embrace the ‘white heat of the technological revolution’. Sadly, by the 1970s this vision had deteriorated into a list of institutions, stuffed with dull […]
Rising Residential Segregation, but Less Racial Prejudice: How Can This Be?
Britain is becoming more sharply divided on ethnic lines, according to a study just published by the think-tank Demos. During the past decade, more than 600,000 white people have moved out of London to areas which are more than 90 per cent white. The effect is strongest amongst white Britons with children, with a fall […]
Chess and Decision Making
The World Chess Championship is underway, and the current champion – the Indian Viswanathan Anand – is trailing his young rival Magnus Carlsen by three to five. In the opinion of many, Carlsen is set fair to become the strongest ever human player. The match is an absorbing spectacle, but the game of chess is […]
Bridget’s new book looks at ‘Reinventing London’
Volterra’s senior partner Bridget Rosewell’s new book Reinventing London will be launched this month at the Festival of Economics in Bristol. The book is part of the Perspectives series of books edited by Diane Coyle: essays on big ideas by leading writers given free rein to reframe an issue of great contemporary interest. Bridget asks […]
Air Transport and the Economy
Ellie Evans spoke at the GARS Workshop on “The Effects of Air Transport on the Economy – How can we Evaluate Them?” The workshop was held at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Geneva and Ellie spoke on the topic of lessons learnt from High Speed Rail in the UK and their application to […]
Britannia Airport in the Press
Bridget Rosewell and the TESTRAD Consortium recently presented their designs for a proposed hub airport in the Thames Estuary to the press. The plans detail the six-runway Britannia airport that would replace Heathrow. The estuary airport would avoid the need to demolish housing or remove green sites, and minimise the potential for noise pollution. The […]
Learn Maths, Young Person! The Secret of Success in the 21st Century
A currently fashionable pessimistic topic is the lifetime prospects of children born into the middle class. Graduate debt, lack of finance to buy homes and job insecurity after they graduate, the list goes on. Alan Milburn, the government’s ‘social mobility tsar’, put the seal of approval on this prevailing angst last month. His Social Mobility […]
