There are all kinds of things in Schumacher’s writings that are ripe for rediscovery. Here are just two that caught my eye in my recent re-readings as being particularly relevant: The energy connection As a young man, Schumacher studied the problems of his country’s reconstruction efforts after the First World War. Germany’s coal production was [...]
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Debtocracy
Debtocracy is a new documentary about Greece’s debt crisis. It’s by Greek filmmakers Katerina Kitidi and Aris Hatzistefanou, and they have posted it on the internet as a Creative Commons film so that anyone who wants to see it can watch it for free (like Yann Arthus Bertrand’s Home). I haven’t watched it all the [...]
Who owes what to whom
There’s a rather nifty little interactive piece on the BBC’s business pages at the moment, showing European networks external debt. Click on each country and you can see how much they owe, and who they owe it to. Here’s Britain’s external debt: Now that you’ve seen Britain’s click across and view Greece. I was [...]
Good news or bad news?
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been struck by a series of good news stories that have accidentally been reported as bad news stories. Here they are: Fewer new cars were registered on Britain’s roads this year. The supermarket chain Tesco has posted its lowest growth figures for 20 years. The British arms company [...]
Has Britain undergone a moral collapse?
Last month Britain was shocked by a wave of looting sprees across the country, starting in London and spreading around our other major cities. For three nights shops were broken into, properties were set ablaze, and innocent citizens were terrorised. The events have prompted a rash of new policy ideas, and theories abound on what’s [...]
The insolvent phantom of today
In January 1961, president Eisenhower made his farewell address to the nation. The speech is famous for warning the US about the “military-industrial complex” that had taken shape since the Second World War, and that an economic and political landscape overshadowed by defense would be bad for democracy and bad for peace. But it was [...]
Round one: David Cameron on how to fix Britain
Over the last few days every politician, commentator and campaigner has had their say on the recent riots. It’s prompted a fair degree of national soul searching. Where did this come from? Why do people behave like this? What do we do about it? Like any crisis, this outbreak of violence is an opportunity to [...]
Round two: Ed Miliband on how to fix Britain
In round one of this post, I looked at David Cameron’s response to the recent rioting in Britain. His speech this week calls for a new focus on family and community, in an effort to halt a decades-long moral slide. Leader of the opposition Ed Miliband also gave a speech yesterday, and it’s also worth [...]
Looting of more than one kind
There have been two different outbreaks of looting on this week, both unjustified but not entirely surprising, both centred in London and both fueled by greed and irresponsible behaviour. In one of them, up to £100 million of damage was done to shops and businesses, along with unquantifiable damage to communities, families made homeless, and [...]
Don’t let the rioters destroy the independent music industry
One of the unintended consequences of the recent rioting in London is a crisis in Britain’s independent music and film industries. Hooligans burned down a warehouse earlier this week, the contents of which were the CD and DVD stockpiles for dozens of small independent record labels and film distributors. The loss of stock is expensive [...]
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