Nigel Stanley

Phillip Inman has had a brave go at exploding public sector pensions myths in Saturday’s Guardian.

…there remain many often contradictory “facts” swirling around in the now heated debate about public sector pensions. Here, we examine the main ones. What are the true costs, and are politicians right to worry about soaring costs tomorrow?”

I am not entirely sure that he has got the top myths, though there are so many that may be a hard task. But here is my take on some of his points. I’ve ignored those where there is nothing much to add.

Continue Reading →

Adam Lent

Ireland has chosen a very different solution to its public finance problems than the UK.  It has effectively done what many on the right have been urging on the Chancellor: massive spending cuts to bring the public deficit down.  The resulting bitterness building up in Ireland is described very well in this Guardian report.  I was struck particularly by this paragraph which shows why the very different political discourse today from that of the early 1980s means this is not the point for a triumphant return of Thatcherite economics:

Continue Reading →

Philip Pearson

At yesterday’s march for climate justice in Copenhagen. We’ve had the first day of sunshine for a week. Entering Parliament Square, the crowd is massive. We find our group pretty quickly, the marchers with the green builders hats stand out. A speaker on the platform punches out her lines, each one broken by a roar of agreement:

“Nature does not negotiate.”
“You should not play politics with our plant.”
“We want a real deal in Copenhagen.”

Continue Reading →

• BBC – Newsnight: Paul Mason: PBR and Tobin: Labour’s "core vote" economics?
  Paul Mason has an interesting – and convincing – take on the politics of the PBR

Continue Reading →

Philip Pearson

Last night, perhaps for the first time ever at the UN, governments discussed the relevance, or not, of references to workers’ issues in an international agreement. We have urged governments to put the issues of Just Transition and Decent Work on the table. And last night, albeit in closed session, we hear from various reports that governments gave explicit support for a just transition to a low carbon future!

Many nations contributed to the discussion. It’s impossible not to report here the sense of jubilation at this morning’s meeting, as we received this news. We’re at a key stage in the UN negotiations. The text – see below – received the full support of the G77, the EU, the US and many others.

Continue Reading →

Philip Pearson

A day of closed sessions, with few details leaking out into the corridors as governments discuss a new and as yet unpublished text. Observers are waiting impatiently by the documents counter for the product of the last night’s dawn breaking talks, both in plenary and informal “crunch” sessions. A mega meeting with Observers and the UN Chair was cancelled. Things are beginning to move. But where?

Continue Reading →

Owen Tudor

Some people have been campaigning for a global financial transactions tax for most of my life. For years they seemed to be in the wilderness, but now their time may have come. As one commentator said – it’s now such a realistic option, its opponents feel they have to speak up. Some of the people who will eventually make the decisions are hedging their bets a bit.

Continue Reading →

Nigel Stanley

There are some new interesting official stats about the distribution of wealth – even if they were collected before the recession bit. The top line is that the least wealthy half of the population earn just 9% of the nation’s wealth, while the top 20% own 62% of privately held wealth. The bottom ten per cent own negative wealth – i.e. they owe more than they own.

The top 10% of households were 2.4 times wealthier than the next richest 10%, and 4.8 times wealthier than the bottom 50%.

Perhaps the most surprising finding is that 5% of households own personalised number plates – perhaps the stand-out definition of having more money than sense. The report says “only five”. I’m surprised it’s that high, but perhaps they are big among statisticians (and I am sure there are some good jokes about what would make a good number plate for a stats geek).

Continue Reading →

Brendan Barber

Continue Reading →

Adam Lent

The Times has a hostile (but weak) leader today on what looks certain to be a point of major controversy in 2010 – the calls for a global tax on financial transactions.  The article makes a number of points.

Continue Reading →