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
Read more →Archive for the Government Spending Category
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
Read more →The recovery in the British economy is now firmly established. Output in the services sector, the largest part of the economy, is above the previous peak level prior to the crash in 2008. There is a widespread myth that the recovery is fueled by debt-financed personal spending.
Read more →Energy prices are in the news. The recent actions of some of the energy companies can plausibly be described as provocative, no matter how well founded their decisions might be. They run the risk of provoking the ire of both the Opposition and the Government. One interesting
Read more →Forget Scottish independence – in his blog for the Guardian this week Larry Elliot suggests that it is London that should devolve – a move he says that would bring an economic boost to the rest of the UK. He quotes some findings from our own Paul
Read more →Some people are never satisfied. The evidence is mounting that the UK economy is now on the path to recovery. But to those who denied the possibility of any economic revival at all under the policies of “austerity”, this is simply not good enough. It is the
Read more →High Speed Rail has no shortage of enemies. It is challenged for having rising costs, too few benefits and for being the plaything of vested interests, such as local authorities and rail companies. These are often cheap shots, based on what sometimes appears to be a wilful
Read more →The new Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said last week that interest rates will not be raised until unemployment falls below 7 per cent, a process he thinks will take three years. The battle of Austerlitz in 1805 was one of Napoleon’s greatest victories,
Read more →The GDP growth figures announced last week for the second quarter of this year have sent most people away on their holidays in a cheerier mood than last year. The recent weather has certainly helped. But gloomy clouds may hover over the exclusive settings of Tuscan villas and beach
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