Yesterday it emerged that Greencore is to recruit 300 Hungarians to work in its Northampton sandwich factory. The company makes fresh lunches for M&S, Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury’s and is opening a £35m new facility in 2016. They advertised jobs in the UK first, but quickly turned to central Europeans for labour after it became… [Read More]
“Five Giants” threatening the wellbeing of society were identified by William Beveridge in 1942 as being “giants of too little”; want, disease, squalor, ignorance and idleness. These, he proposed, were to be vanquished by the improved education, housing and health services offered by a post-war welfare state. However, according to Julian Le Grand, some new… [Read More]
The Prime Minister will have even multiple fires to put out on the subject of the EU in the coming weeks, with the upcoming debate on the European Arrest Warrant, the distinct possibility of another UKIP victory in the much anticipated Rochester by-election, the investigation into the £1.7bn top-up payment demanded by the European Commission… [Read More]
Despite rejecting the idea of a city mayor in 2012, Greater Manchester will receive its first elected mayor in 2017. To coordinate the creation of a ‘northern power house’, George Osborne and Manchester council leaders agreed a deal this week, dubbed ‘Devo Manc’, to reorganise the city’s political structure. The new mayor will be responsible… [Read More]
The authors of today’s report by the UCL Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration have failed to attend to the most telling criticism of their earlier work. They claim to be responding to criticism of their earlier report that also contended that recent migrants from the European Economic Area pay more in UK taxes… [Read More]
The UCL Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration has produced another report claiming that immigrants from the European Economic Area made a net contribution to the Treasury between 2001 and 2011. But, the shallow focus of the UCL report on whether immigrants pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits misses out some… [Read More]
In follow up to his report co-authored with Jack O’Sullivan in March of this year, Lord Warner (previously Minister for Health Reform in Blair’s Government), recently spoke to Civitas’ Health Policy Consensus Group. Many will remember the report’s headline controversy following recommendations of a £10 per month NHS membership fee. However, before adding to the… [Read More]
The German Chancellor said that she’d be happier to see Britain leave the EU than renegotiate the fundamental freedom of movement. If Der Spiegel’s information is correct, Angela Merkel has pre-emptively vetoed renegotiation of immigration within the EU. She called such a change a ‘point of no return’. Without German support, David Cameron would achieve… [Read More]
Following the by-election in Heywood and Middleton earlier this month, in which Labour only just scraped a win with 36.2% of the vote, former Prime Minister Tony Blair is back with some more advice for Ed Miliband on how to deal with the Ukip threat. Ukip – as we should probably now come to expect… [Read More]
Before the industrial revolution, the gap between richest and poorest economies was tiny compared to today – the richest being two or three times larger than the poorest. The industrial revolution and the rise of the developed economies changed the balance. Today the US economy is 50 times that of the poorer economies. The gap… [Read More]