Here is an approximate transcript of the presentation Mark E Thomas made to the London Quakers’ Build Back Better Event on 24 October, 2020. We hope to have a video here soon. Introduction to Whole Group Good morning, everybody. It wasn’t my plan to be doing this. Eight years ago, when I was running […]
The notion of unaffordability has been an extremely potent weapon for market fundamentalists. If we can’t afford to do something, it doesn’t matter how desirable it would be to do it, we can’t. It’s not a choice, it’s just reality. A decade of needless austerity was justified with precisely this argument, based on the false […]
We recently wrote about the existence of threats to democracy and the rule of law in the UK, drawing particular attention to the Internal Market Bill. Many members wrote to their MPs, but the Bill nevertheless passed through the Commons and is now with the House of Lords. Does this mean that its passage is […]
The government’s rhetoric in relation to its handling of COVID has been superlative – in the literal sense: they have used superlatives to describe their performance. Johnson described the UK test and trace system, for example, as “world-beating.” The statistics tell a more dismal story: the UK has both one of the worst COVID records […]
The conventional picture of how the economy works as shown in economics textbooks depicts a beautiful self-regulating system of supply and demand, which constantly seeks an equilibrium that ensures optimal distribution of resources. But observation of the real world – especially now – makes it very hard to believe that this rosy picture is an […]
This is a transcript of the presentation Mark E Thomas gave to the Imperial College MBA students and Alumni on Thursday 8 October 2020. We hope to have a video available on our YouTube channel soon. Good afternoon everybody. Since we are on Zoom today, we decided to split the session into two parts, […]
In a speech to the House last week, Rishi Sunak explained his thinking on how to protect businesses, jobs and the economy as a whole: “Our economy is now likely to undergo a more permanent adjustment. [Because of COVID] The sources of our economic growth and the kinds of jobs we create, will adapt and […]
This article was orginally written to draw attention to the range of ways in which government is seeking to disable any and all checks and balances on its action, in particular to the dangers of the Internal Market Bill. Now the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill aims to take away our ability to undertake […]
This post has now been updated (29/10/2020). Even though the total value now exceeds £1 billion, it still does not give the complete picture. The Good Law Project recently identified a number of ‘curious’ procurement transactions involving large amounts of taxpayers’ money being transferred to businesses with no apparently relevant qualifications for providing personal protective […]
This is a difficult time for any Government. They have all been hit by COVID-19 and have had to work out a complex response, not only protecting the lives of their citizens but also avoiding lasting economic damage. It would be natural to expect that perceptions of each government – and therefore voting intentions – […]
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