Born unequal?
By Rachel Wilson, Political Reporter In a rich country such as the UK, there should be certain minimum standards below which no one should fall. In 2010, for the first time ever, the government set itself the target to end childhood poverty for good. Households Below Average Income (HBAI) is the definitive national measure of relative child poverty as set out in the Child Poverty Act 2010 and is based on an annual Family Resources Survey. According to the latest...
De-constructing a thriving work environment
by Simon Middleton of Watershed Bernard Marr, author of Enterprise Performance Expert, recently wrote quite a heated blog outlining why he believes Human Resources departments have had their day. According to Marr, HR departments no longer add value and demean human talent. While his views strongly resonate, there is a sense that he is responding to a view - often perpetuated by HR - that HR has always been the place where the challenge of organisational and personal performance is...
Can Christmas Jumper Day really ‘make the world better with a sweater’?
By Tom Lowenstein Follow @stoopnik Save the Children's annual Christmas Jumper Day aims to 'make the world better with a sweater', but could it be doing more harm than good? People up and down the country will be pulling garish knitted garments over their heads next week, with Friday 13th December the date for Save the Children's now annual 'Christmas Jumper Day'. Much like Jeans for Genes Day, the nationwide event asks people to wear a Christmas Jumper for the...
Can the UK embrace a cycling culture?
By Phil Benton Follow @paolobento The UK is not a cycling country. Well not yet, at least. In 2012, just two per cent of all journeys were made by bike according to government statistics. In August of this year, David Cameron unveiled ambitious plans to start ‘a cycling revolution’ with the government providing a cash investment of £94 million to help promote cycling in several English cities and national parks. The money is designed to help improve existing cycle routes, fund...
Ecommerce; the ticking timebomb
By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic Watch Shop is symbolic of how evolutionary pressures on the ecommerce market could manifest themselves in the future. It wasn’t until a recent musing on the London Underground that I realised the potential of specialisation on the web. An advert for Watch Shop - a specialised ecommerce store operating within a hugely diverse market - had me pondering how the ecommerce market is likely to look in the future. It seems probable...
The Hunger shames
By Joe Mellor, In house Reporter Dangerous immigrants are in this country to sponge from the state, devour royal swans and car jack pensioners.It’s a fact, deal with it.And soon an influx of Bulgarians and Romanians are coming to pester you for change outside your local Pizza Express.But that’s not until January 1st, so in the “mean” time, Home Secretary Theresa May has decided to deport a dying man on hunger strike, after his asylum application failed.What an understanding and caring...
Waiting for the Great Leap Forward
By Pieter Cranenbroek – International Politics Blogger Music has always been a stage used to criticise the political order, but in the past week Morrissey and Billy Bragg both decided to air their grievances on politics and society off stage. Both singers stressed the problem with the lack of accountability in modern society, though they portrayed different views on how such a thing might be rectified. It is refreshing to have entertainers speak out about politics, partly because they can speak...
The Throne of Games
By Adam Walker, Economic Correspondent Is the Video games industry our Christmas Saviour? As the Christmas season begins to move into its busiest period the commercial world’s focus has been firmly fixed on the videogames industry. With a multitude of Triple A game titles being released across 2013 and one of the most highly anticipated console wars heating up, the holiday period is sure to see soaring demand from consumers. However, the importance of this games war goes beyond...
White British; the Madeleine McCann story
By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic The Madeleine McCann story offers the most potent example of what makes British media tick and what British people want to read. Although crimes and atrocities occur every day, there are criteria which land them on page nine and conditions which qualify it for extraordinary media coverage, bordering on the obsessive. For the missing girls of India or teenagers in London enslaved by gangs it's the former, in Madeleine McCann's case it was...