This by ⁦Chris Giles⁩ is the clearest articulation I’ve read of what should happen with Thames Water. Very important for the model of privatised utilities in general that the owners go bust and do not receive a bailout.
on.ft.com/3JhGI5c

Spending a bigger share of GDP on the military means spending a smaller share on something else. What does Starmer think this something else should be? And if it's private consumption, how can he achieve this given his commitment to not raising income taxes?

Brian Clough and Jack Charlton were two working-class legends who stood up to the fascists in the 1970s and were in solidarity with mining communities under attack in the 1980s.

A thread 🧵

#Defiance #MinersStrike

Chris Dillow True. There’s value in supporting the arts qua arts. And inevitably it has positive externalities. Also London Symphony Orchestra does have a fantastic educational program.

lso.co.uk/about-us/lso-d…

Pappano's point here echoes economists' view of the tax/benefit system: thetimes.co.uk/article/orches… What matters is the fairness of the system as a whole; individual parts of the state should focus not on fairness but other objectives.

It's not worth engaging with this trash. But it does highlight the fact that the media is no help at all in addressing our economic problems; the trouble is that politicians cannot see this.

This misses the question: how, at a time of near-full employment, do we find the staff to provide kids' breakfasts, NHS dentists, etc? It's real resources we need, not money. (There are answers, but taxing the rich aren't them): bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…

If I thought a reformed NHS would be a genuinely better service I'd refuse all donations from private healthcare investors, because they'd make me look as if I were being bought rather someone with sincere beliefs.

Happy birthday to Albert Hirschman, who would be 109 today.

Hirschman—anti-fascist, resistance hero, later a development economist—may be the most interesting person to ever take up the profession.

🧵 and blog post on his remarkable life and work.

There are limits to how much politicians must respect the will of the people.

'Social democracy has always been powerfully constrained by capitalism, as the historical record of the Labour Party clearly shows. But it is quite another thing to be limited by the politics of the Tory Party, especially the current one.' My latest ...
redpepper.org.uk/political-part…

Fair point. But you can't always achieve change through moral purity alone: you need alliances, sometimes with undesirables. (This is a general issue for the left of course: Israel is merely one example.)

Put this alongside the declining quality of (eg) the Post Office, public intellectuals & county cricket & we have evidence of a country in decline. (Counter-evidence is the calibre of many young people).

Having a handful of cranks & fanatics select MPs according to ideological purity rather than competence might not be a good way to improve the rock-bottom quality of our political class.

On hearing of Napoleon's execution of the Duke of Enghien, Joseph Fouche said (reputedly): 'it is worse than a crime; it is a mistake'. It's a wise distinction.

Fascinating paper by Sam Bowles and Wendy Carlin: ‘Shrinking capitalism: components of a new political economy paradigm’ | Oxford Review of Economic Policy | academic.oup.com/oxrep/article/…

'Black Americans whose ancestors were enslaved until the Civil War still have far lower economic status than Black Americans whose ancestors were free earlier.' cepr.org/voxeu/columns/…

Unlike the argument offered by Russ Jones, 'good government' is not dependent on the Tories being returned with a decent number of MPs. It is better for politics in general if they are crushed utterly.

Here's why.

averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/04/routin…

Blogged: There are perspectives on classical music which are neither white liberal guilt nor facile snobbery stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_…

jacobin.com/2024/03/christ…