When they conspire against the public
A conspiracy against the public – that’s what the pioneer economist Adam Smith called the process whereby suppliers get together and collude. I thought of that last week when I set off from Shoreham-by-Sea, my local station, to find that Southern Rail had been rushing...
New study: How did we do that? The possibility of rapid transition
A new study by the ESRC STEPS Centre at Sussex University and the New Weather Institute points to historical evidence that the sort of rapid, large scale social and economic change needed in the face of climate destabilisation has occurred before and could do so...
Money Money Money
In our pamphlet, Absent Corporations - out now - my colleague David Boyle describes the conclusions of an entrancing document which looked at the world’s mega rich corporate giants. The document was published in 2005 by Citibank and it examined the phenomenon which it...
Waking from a climate sleepwalk to piano sound
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere just rose by record levels for the second consecutive year. Camilla Munkedal writes about an artistic innovation trying to bring the reality of climatic upheaval to new audiences It began in near darkness, the only light in the...
How can you recognise inclusive growth when you meet it?
Tuesday marks the moment of publication for the report of the RSA’s Inclusive Growth Commission, which is the culmination of a year’s work by the team led by Stephanie Flanders – and I was honoured to have been a member of it. Today saw the publication of a second...
The world of the Absent Corporation
Let’s call it Catch-23. It is when you load your old version of Word onto a new computer and you are told that Microsoft cannot verify the code online, and that it has to be done by phone (see numbers below). Then you find that telephone verification is no longer...
How companies are hiding from customers
Why are large companies trying to distance themselves so much from their customers? Listen, starting at 20 minutes 28 seconds: the BBC World Business Report explores the Absent Corporation Our second ideas pamphlet, thanks to the Polden Puckham Foundation, identifies...
Zero Carbon Britain: Making It Happen
Zero Carbon Britain: Making it Happen - charts a huge range of positive opportunities for innovation, for both Britain’s economy and for its people. Paul Allen explains how the zero carbon transition offers a wide range of co-benefits including; better housing,...
They’re still not getting it: the upside down economy
Two ongoing stories demonstrate with pellucid clarity how populism gains first a foothold and then strength against a political elite which seems to have lost its way entirely. First is the new business rates. Due to start in April, the new rates are widely predicted...
A very British betrayal: how the promise to ‘take back control’ was captured by a hard-line elite
In a week when Parliament is making an attempt to widen and deepen the discussion around Brexit and the conditions of our departure from the EU, a new report from the New Weather Institute - Brexit - The Blackbird Leys Memo - warns that the government is now taking...