Our new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is a big advocate of positive thinking. Indeed its power is at the heart of his plan to deliver Brexit, unite the country, defeat Jeremy Corbyn and energise the UK. The New Scientist claims that there may be downsides to relying so heavily on emotion and so lightly on […]
Business guru Peter Fisk has posted this article about 99% on his Genius Works website. It is a very good summary of what we are all about, so a great first piece of coverage. The median wage earner is poorer today than they were in 2007. This is mass impoverishment. Mark Thomas, a friend and […]
The government is delighted with recent figures for employment. Employment Minister Alok Sharma commented, “Our pro-business policies have helped boost private sector employment by 3.8 million since 2010, and as the Resolution Foundation’s latest report shows, the ‘jobs-boom has helped some of the most disadvantaged groups find employment’, providing opportunities across society.” And the official […]
The Guardian reports on former Unilever CEO, Paul Polman’s call for CEOs to become more heroic in their efforts to combat climate change and mass impoverishment. He is clearly right: while politicians clearly need to step up to do a lot of the heavy lifting, there is a lot that CEOs can be doing, too. […]
This Summer could be the busiest ever for UK food-banks, according to the Trussell Trust , the largest provider. Between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019, the Trussell Trust’s food bank network distributed 1.6 million three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis, a 19% increase on the previous year. More than half a […]
The publication date for 99%, which was originally 29 August with pre-ordering from 8th, has been brought forward to 8 August. So the book should be in the shops in just under three weeks’ time. I have just received my first advance copies, and it is looking very good. All authors know the feeling: after […]
The problem of millennials struggling to become home owners has been widely documented. But the long-term implications of this have not often been explored. A report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on housing and care for older people suggests that, in the words of Richard Best, the group’s chairman, “The number of households in the […]
99% argues that, to avoid mass impoverishment, we need not only to grow the economic pie but also to share it fairly. And it is clear that, with a shrinking pie, ending mass impoverishment will not be possible – redistribution could only provide a short-term relief. If the pie shrinks, we shall have no choice […]
A new report in The Guardian suggests that the freeze (real terms cut) in housing benefit is having the effect of making large parts of London and Manchester out of bounds. Britain’s housing crisis has hit a new low with not one of the single rooms available for private rent in large parts of London […]
Not for the first time, we can see that concern about mass impoverishment reaches all strata of society, including the wealthiest. In an open letter to the 2020 presidential candidates they make the important point that, “The next dollar of new tax revenue should come from the most financially fortunate, not from middle-income and lower-income […]
