“Dinner was announced soon after our arrival, which consisted of the following things,” writes the Rev James Woodforde describing his meal on 20 April 1796, in a diary which – in a very English way – lists the food in great detail but barely mentions God at all. Then...
Our blogs
The Threat from the Disabled
This week the Independent Living Fund was closed by the Government. This fund has, since 1988, supported profoundly disabled people to live at home in the way they want to. It has been a totally brilliant scheme -giving its participants the power to employ the carers...
People-powered prosperity: what’s possible?
Sunny outlook with a chance of local banking. That is the title of our New Weather event at the Hay Festival tomorrow (May 29, 11.30am). Andrew Simms and I will be talking to Green MP Caroline Lucas about many things, including local banking and including the New...
Come and talk about the circular economy
Maybe the first management consultant was James Oscar McKinsey, a US army logistics officer who became a professor of accounting at Chicago University after the First World War. A lone and exhausting copy of his text book on accountancy is still available in the...
Where are the real bread-and-butter issues?
I had to phone the HMRC’s tax credits helpline last week. I had to report that my household income had risen this month. I’m obliged to do so for fear of the most appalling consequences if I don’t. I can’t apparently do so online, at least until my annual information...
The Problem of Responsibility
Catchy title, I know. But a little cache of letters I found recently, dating from 1965, raised the question of political responsibility. And it was a jolt to realise how far we have come- gone- in terms of direct engagement between the governed and the government. My...
The three biggest distortions of the election
Spare a thought for a moment for the hapless policy wonk. I don’t really speak as a representative of the guild, so to speak – I am far too opinionated. But I have enough policy wonk in my genes to know what they are going through, and two weeks from a general...
Briefing the election candidates
On giving away social housing
I wrote earlier this week about selling social housing to tenants, and the circumstances where it could be a radical idea again, as perhaps it was in 1980. Of course, what we didn't know then was that local authorities would be forced to hold onto the money they made...
The Costs of Eviction
Last Monday the Sweets Way occupiers and protesters got another week from a pleasant County Court judge in which further to prepare their arguments as to why they should not be evicted from their homes on Sweets Way in the London borough of Barnet. The judge heard...