I nearly got scammed
The other day I was working for a printing company delivering their products in north London, and I pulled over on a road outside Enfield and took a fifteen-minute break to drink my coffee....
Category: Economy
Debenhams: another big British chain in trouble
Today it was announced that the British department store chain Debenhams was to close 50 of the stores it operates in the UK, leaving it with 116 (in other words, nearly a third of...
Why I’m against Universal Basic Income
Recently the idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) has gained a lot of traction in Left circles in the UK, with calls for Jeremy Corbyn to adopt it and try and make it...
'Retirement flats' to free up family homes
Demos: build retirement properties to free up 3 million family homes I was going to be writing a piece this morning about how unworkable it would be to ‘encourage’ the over-55s to move out...
TSB is nobody’s local bank
I’m one of the people who’s been “bumped” from Lloyd’s Bank to the new TSB, a spin-off set up because the EU decided that Lloyds/TSB was too big after getting a government subsidy. The...
Another pioneer for the Tory workfare scheme
There is a long article in today’s Guardian about the racism facing the Roma population in Hungary, which has faced acute discrimination since (at least) the end of Communism, particularly in the education system...
Minimum wage undermined by fake self-employment
Self-employed business opportunity? No thanks | John Harris | Comment is free | The Guardian This article exposes something I have had personal experience of in the past year, which is proper jobs (usually...
The problems with paring down the Royal Mail
Earlier this week I heard on the news that the Royal Mail were closing down two of their big London sorting depots, namely Bow and Nine Elms. I’ve worked at Nine Elms and it...
Demo report
So, I made it to the demonstration yesterday, as I had arranged to meet Riven Vincent who wanted someone to walk with her. I got there late because I was delayed leaving home and...
Trafalgar into Tahrir?
Anti-cuts campaigners plan to turn Trafalgar Square into Tahrir Square | World news | guardian.co.uk I am planning to attend the march organised by the Trades Union Congress this coming Saturday (26th March), but...
“Big society” is just an empty slogan
BBC News - Big Society is my mission, says David Cameron David Cameron gave a speech today in which he claimed that, while reducing the budget deficit was his duty, his so-called Big Society...
On new unemployment laws and student protests
I read today that the government are proposing new legislation that would bring in supposedly new restrictions on people who are on Jobseeker’s Allowance, in which people who refuse work or “community service” will...
Odone report on assisted suicide
New Report: Assisted Suicide - how the chattering classes have got it wrong The Centre for Policy Studies (which is, as I understand it, a traditionally Tory-aligned think tank) has published a report by...
Borders turns off lifts for last week
The bookshop chain Borders UK is set to close next Tuesday, with all 45 remaining Borders and Books Etc stores closing (a few, and most of Books Etc, already have), and the place looks...
My reward for being a good customer
I’d forgotten that I’d been on Borders’ mailing list, which happened after I agreed to fill in some sort of survey after buying a book in the Kingston branch. I got various mailshots which...
Romanians bilked by self-employment scam
BBC News - Romanian workers reveal true cost of beauty This is a story about Romanian workers who were tricked into coming to the UK to sell cosmetics on a “commission-only”, “self-employed” basis. This...
Borders UK goes into administration
BBC News - Borders bookshops in the UK go into administration Yet another big British retailer is on the verge of going bust. Borders was another victim, like Zavvi, of the Woolworth’s bankruptcy; they...
Sacked Mini workers had an hour’s notice
Today, 850 workers at the BMW plant in Oxford, which manufactures the Mini car, were fired because the company was facing falling sales. The Mini was a long-standing Austin/Rover product, which was saved when...
Why Britain is up the spout, by Nick Cohen and a Frenchman
I have recently seen two articles ruminating on the causes of the recent credit crunch and resulting recession, one by Nick Cohen in the Observer Review last Sunday, and the second by Jaques Monin,...