Touchstone blog is no longer publishing new content, as we’ve moved the TUC’s new policy blog content to our main website. You can read new blogs from the TUC at www.tuc.org.uk/blogs. Thanks for being a Touchstone blog reader over the years and we hope you will also find our new blogs as useful to you.
Today saw the publication of a report which seeks to give a snapshot of company perceptions and current responses to modern slavery. This report is the product of collaborative work between the Ethical Trading Initiative and the Ashridge Centre for Business and Sustainability at Hult International Business School. Given the new Modern Slavery Act and…
The UN’s credibility is again at risk as governments meet in Warsaw next week for the 19th UN convention on climate change. The green line in the UN’s graph, below, is the 2 degrees carbon reductions pathway. As for the yellow, orange, red and purple paths, as Lord Stern remarked yesterday “the potential implications could fall outside…
Here’s another quick outing for five of the most popular or interesting posts by Touchstone bloggers during March: More benefits nastinessRichard looks into Steve Webb’s announcement of further large cuts to Social Fund Crisis Loans. Time to tax Elgin’s CO2 leakagePhilip argues for taxing carbon leakage, in the light of Total’s North Sea gas leak.…
Another month and another gloomy set of employment results. We’ve been tracking economic indicators since the start of the recession in our Economic Reports series, but sometimes you need to take a step back from the snapshots to see the longer term trends as well, if you’re going to appreciate the depth of the hole…
If you’re following the budget today, come and join us and others at Left Foot Forward’s live budget chat from noon. Then this afternoon, we’ll be posting up more detailed reactions to George Osborne’s announcements from our policy specialists. Check back throughout the afternoon, or follow us on Twitter (@touchstoneblog) for more.
Congratulations to our very own Nicola Smith, who scooped the Work Foundation’s Workworld Media Awards “Blogger of the Year” title at last night’s ceremony. The award, which was presented by Will Hutton and Lord Puttnam is a new category for the 24 year old work, business and economic media awards, but was hotly contested, with…
I had intended to blog some further thoughts after Netroots UK, but Sunder has done such a good job at Next Left that I don’t have anything much to add. (I know that doesn’t normally stop me, but it’s Sunday.) In particular I commend his round-up of links. So here’s a few pictures instead from…
I’m at the very well-attended and buzzy Netroots UK conference which the TUC is hosting today. Somewhat to my surprise I was the opening speaker in the lively first plenary session on the cuts campaign. This is the gist of what I said. It’s a mix of my powerpoint slides – and what I said…
The British people are not yet quite sure what they think about the cuts. The government’s homespun metaphors about not spending what you don’t earn and talk of paying off the nation’s credit card bills work with many. But fewer and fewer accept that we are all in this together, and a big majority expect…