Archive for category Social Cohesion
No pain, no gain? Perhaps for some, but not for all
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, Politics, Social Cohesion, Tax and Spend on 28/02/2011
Today the Cobden Centre blog covered a new research paper by two Harvard Economists, Alberto Alesina and Silvia Ardagna. The paper examined fiscal stimuli and fiscal adjustments, and what factors were correlated with their success.
Wasted youth
Posted by David Merlin-Jones in Economics, Politics, Social Cohesion on 18/02/2011
The announcement that unemployment levels have risen further at the end of last year is unwelcome but no surprise. There are an extra 44,000 out of work, creating an unimpressive total of 2.5 million. What should really set alarm bells ringing is not so much the volume of unemployed, but just who these people are – most are young, piling out of schools or uni’s but with nowhere to work and the employment Catch-22 mounting. This is bad, but what really makes it unacceptable is that while we wallow, other countries, such as Germany, steam ahead. What’s the way out?
All you need is love?
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Politics, Social Cohesion, Social Security, Tax and Spend on 14/02/2011
It is perhaps fitting that on Valentine’s Day David Cameron attempted to stoke up love for the Big Society in the face of recent criticism. It is perhaps doubly fitting because the success of the Big Society may depend upon love, or largely altruistic feelings, in the short term at least.
‘People power’… perhaps not
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Politics, Social Cohesion on 08/11/2010
Today David Cameron promised to end the era of ‘bureaucratic accountability’ and usher in the era of ‘democratic accountability’. From an era with a bureaucracy held to account by the government for meeting targets to an era where the bureaucracy is held to account by ‘the people’ who monitor its progress in moving towards ‘milestones’. Read the rest of this entry »
So long, and thanks for all the work
Posted by David Merlin-Jones in Family, Marriage and the Culture, Immigration, Social Cohesion, Social Security on 12/08/2010
A recent survey by Aon has found that only 43% of Britons want to retire and enjoy their golden years in this country, the lowest satisfaction rate in Europe. However, the figures involved don’t add up to anything worthy of pessimism, as they are merely fantasy and ideals. Read the rest of this entry »
The Delights of Diversity: The Rhetoric and the Reality
Posted by David Conway in Social Cohesion on 16/02/2010
‘We believe that diversity is good for society—socially, culturally, economically.’
So runs the vision statement of the Institute of Community Cohesion, which last year received from the Department for Communities and Local Government almost a quarter of a million pounds ‘for a range a work aimed at helping local partners build more cohesive and integrated communities’.
One wishes in vain from this Quango for some account of exactly what the basis is of its guiding philosophy, when the truth so manifestly belies the exact opposite.