I wrote to a number of clothing companies last week as part of the Love Fashion, Hate Sweatshops campaign. As usual, the replies claim that all is above board, but it’s strange how different people find different things when they go looking for abuses of foreign workers. Here are a couple of excerpts from the [...]
Archive | October, 2009
The ad-free city
I’ve lamented London’s advertising a few times before, as the industry thinks up ever more intrusive tricks – bus stop posters with sound effects, illuminated bus panels, the tube’s many screens. What would the city look like without all the advertising? The citizens of Sao Paulo know the answer to that question. In 2006 the [...]
The Story of Stuff debate
I’ve mentioned the Story of Stuff before, as a quirky little video that introduces many of the problems with consumerism. It’s come in for a bit of an attack recently, and Mark has been engaging with the debate over at Breathe. Definitely worth a read, although you might want to watch the video, and its [...]
‘Significant risk’ of peak oil before 2020, says new report
A new report from the UK Energy Research Centre pours cold water on government assumptions that fossil fuels supplies will see us through to 2030. The report is the first independent review of the data, drawing on over 500 previous studies, and concludes that a peak before 2030 is ‘likely’, and there is ‘significant risk’ [...]
Naming and shaming the clothing industry
Fifteen clothing companies who have said nothing and done nothing about sweatshops: Alexon BHS Ethel Austin House of Fraser Peacock Group Asda/George Clarks Debenhams French Connection John Lewis Laura Ashley Levi Strauss & Co Matalan River Island Sainsbury’s The companies were named today in the latest installment (pdf) of Labour Behind the Label’s investigations. It [...]
creating wealth is not the same as ending poverty
I tuned in to the Conservative Party conference today to hear their session on development. Andrew Mitchell is the shadow secretary for international development, and his speech was very disappointing. The best way to solve poverty, in his mind, is to encourage trade and “galvanize the private sector” to produce growth. He is partly correct [...]
The Moneymaker, by Janet Gleeson
This week I’ve been continuing my reading on money, but from a slightly different angle. The Moneymaker is a biography of John Law, the gambler, financier and economist who bankrupted France in the early 1700s. It’s a remarkable tale. Law was born in Fife, the son of a goldsmith. He had a remarkable mind for [...]
Compassionate spending cuts
The Conservative party conference is underway this week, and in keeping with their minimal government ideology, the talk is all about the spending cuts they’re planning if when they win the next general election. David Cameron yesterday announced plans to cut incapacity benefits, and use the savings to fund back-to-work schemes. It’s meant to be [...]
too much
Every day we humans gleefully churn out yet more books and films and TV shows and videogames and websites and magazine articles and blog posts and emails and text messages, all of it hanging around, competing for attention. Without leaving my seat I can access virtually any piece of music ever recorded, download any film [...]
the All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil
Someone from transition St Albans drew my attention to this today. I hadn’t realised there was a Parliamentary working group on peak oil. It’s great to see it exists. Not so good to see how it seems to be the same usual suspects raising the issue, and being repeatedly dismissed or ignored by some familiar [...]
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