Emeritus Prof Christopher May

Retired Professor of Political Economy
(Lancaster University, UK - retired 2021)
(also #ProfDJ across the Lune Valley)
Contributor: North West Bylines #NoBridge

DJ repertoire(s): Jazz nights; Soul/funk nights; Disco classics night; 70's night
Academic interests: Critical Political Economy; Art History; Music business
Reading: Art History; Science Fiction; 'Literary' fiction; classics
Past Lives: Music industry (studio/retail); Bookseller (family business); political pressure group

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Last Notes

2026-03-15 22:26:40 UTC

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Well, the issue of their role in the coalition has been debated a number of times in my timeline over the last couple of years, so I won't start that up again.... see also @npub17tv…q7ve reply earlier in this thread for more on the positioning of the LibDems.

2026-03-15 22:21:50 UTC

Here's the Guardian's account of today's al-Quds Day rally & counterprotest facing off with the police's plan to keep them separated across the river from each other seeming to work (inasmuch as each group seems to have been 'safe' from the other, if not from the police who made 12 arrests, including as one might expect for support of a proscribed organisation).
#protest #democracy #AlQuds
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/mar/15/arrests-al-quds-day-rally-counterprotest-london

2026-03-15 22:10:52 UTC

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Indeed, especially on social issues, perhaps not so much on the economics?

2026-03-15 22:10:03 UTC

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They've often been depicted as left on social issues & right on economics.... but have definitely often been seen as a refuge from the (then) two 'main' parties....

2026-01-17 18:17:43 UTC

From this side of the Atlantic (the UK side) it looks like the US is slipping towards civil war, goaded on by a President wanting to invoke the Insurrection Act as a way of militarising his political power.
I'd be interested if followers of these posts in the US think the same or whether the media's distorting mirror is deceiving us about the gravity of the situation...
(Civil) analysis & contextual answers boosted & thanks in advance for sharing.
#USPol #Trump #InsurectionAct

2025-09-14 07:13:45 UTC

Britain has turned its back on arts education in schools, remaining (as Anthony Seldon/FT points out) 'perversely fixated on cognitive skills & memory' rather than fostering creativity & innovative thinking.... and while making some initially positive promises about once again expanding the provision of arts in schools, this remains consternated by the other curriculum demands put on schools & the shadow of past disinvestment in arts educative capacity in schools.
#art #education #politics
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/115/201/393/604/262/535/original/259ca910395539aa.png

2025-09-10 05:41:58 UTC

'This is England 2025.
It starts slowly at first, then all of a sudden it just creeps up on you'!
The view from Faversham.... 'Racists & thugs are acting with impunity, intimidating local residents & people of colour, who are living in fear'!
When the BBC gives Farage a platform to broadcast his hate this is the result... if we end up with a Reform Govt. then the BBC wil have comprehensively failed as a public service broadcaster!
#politics #racism #FarRight
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/09/racist-mob-menacing-refugee-children-far-right

2025-05-06 16:49:07 UTC

The good news is that the India/UK free trade deal seems to have been finalised (after three years).
However, even on the UK Govt's own estimate it will only increase UK GDP by around 0.1% by 2040.
The 'price': easier access for relocating Indian staff & a National Insurance 'holiday' for three years on arrival.
The benefits, large reductions in tariffs on whiskey & cars (the latter still subject to quotas though).
Is this any sort of replacement for EU membership? Hell, no!
#trade
h/t FT

2025-05-06 05:46:24 UTC

Given only around a quarter of the population would appear (if YouGov's data is accurate) to have a favourable opinion of Nigel Farage, why the hell is the Labour leadership so keen to ape hi views?
#HeadInMyHands #politics
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/114/459/295/037/551/471/original/4ae757fd1ef311d9.png

2025-05-06 05:39:59 UTC

When we worry about low turnouts at elections & the impact both on democracy itself, but also on the shape of politics (by virtue of distortions to the demographic of voters), the Q. of voting suppression also figures in discussion.
So, you'll be unsurprised that one way the UK disenfranchises people is by having a difficult t navigate voter registration process (with a range of further restrictions).
Democracy would be enhanced by simplification!
#voting #politics
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/06/britain-has-one-of-most-difficult-voter-registration-processes-report

2025-05-05 17:29:16 UTC

Cancer charity Macmillan is planning to cut funding to over 70 CAB offices offering specialist advice to cancer patients on benefits & budgeting around their care & treatment.
This £14m annual cost is, according to the charity no longer affordable... but given the service in 2022 secured £112m in support for vulnerable patients this *does* look badly conceived!
Once again its the poorest most vulnerable who pay the price when budgets need cutting!
#cancer #health
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/05/macmillan-cancer-support-charity-specialist-benefits-advice-services

2025-05-04 07:14:50 UTC

The Police Federation represents police officers so one should not be surprised it takes their side in disputes with their employers... but the organisation, functioning as a quasi-union seems beset by chaos & infighting that has little to offer other than further exhibiting the misogyny & bullying that have become typical of revelations about police behaviour.
The Q. then is can you reform the police with the current Policy Federation, unreformed?
#police #politics
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/police-federation-under-fire-for-backing-unsackable-rogue-cops

2025-05-03 07:56:07 UTC

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Yes, I would generally agree... I was using the classic British under-statement.... apologies

2025-05-02 08:53:51 UTC

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Agreed, there seems to be a thought that somehow if you wait long enough it'll sort itself out.... perhaps (I say cynically) by life expectancy of the poor dropping further?

2025-05-02 05:50:32 UTC

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No I didn't & have had a quick look on the Big Issue website & nothing sprung out indicating it was that specific piece... if you find it, I'd like to see it, thanks

2025-05-02 05:21:35 UTC

More kicking the can down the road on social care:
The Casey review's terms of reference say: ''The Commission should produce tangible, pragmatic recommendations that can be implemented in a phased way over a decade'.
Given that the review wont report for another year, this suggests it will be setting out reforms that may take us through to 2036 for (potential) implementation.
Given the central role of social care problems in our ongoing health crisis, this isn't good news!
#health
h/t FT

2025-05-01 05:10:15 UTC

How serious is the crisis in the UK university sector?
Across the sector university managers are (perhaps perversely) cutting staff as a way of trying to resolve budgetary problems, reflecting an abiding British management problem that sees staff as a cost rather than an resource that needs to be nurtured & invested in.
QMUL-UCU have been tracking announcements of staff reductions & their list suggests universities are shedding staff at an alarming rate!
#universities
https://qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/uk-he-shrinking/

2025-04-30 17:43:40 UTC

There's been much discussion of the UK's debt to GDP ration & what it might mean for the Govt's ability to borrow more & how this fits with Rachel Reeves' (new/revised) fiscal rules.
So, here is a chart of Public Debt to GDP for a wide range of countries, arranged by the percentage.
I'm not arguing there is a particular threshold over which it becomes unsustainable, nor that a lower debt/GDP ratio os necessarily good... but just wanted to share this graphic of the range of levels.
#economics
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/114/428/137/830/241/348/original/fe87208f97457235.jpg

2025-04-30 05:25:49 UTC

As @npub1pce…k8vy pointed out a couple of weeks ago, the first sector that will see real job cuts in the wake of the Trump tariff 'policy' will be logistics.... and sure enough, responding to the dive in imports related to Amazon shipments from China, UPS is cutting 20,000 jobs from its workforce.
Trump has already attacked Amazon for saying it will make explicit the cost of tariffs, I wonder what he will say to/about UPS?
#economics #logistics #tariffs
h/t FT

2025-04-28 21:18:35 UTC

I see that some are already rushing to blame Spain's 'reliance on renewable/sustainable energy for the massive 'oscillation' that has been identified as causing the widespread power outage today.
The system, with relatively few links to the European grid via France, was unable to cope, it is claimed, with a large (weather related?) shift in energy use.
You can be the nuclear power lobby will be now pushing the line they can keep the lights on...
#energy #Spain
h/t FT

2025-04-28 16:40:48 UTC

So it would seem the pay review bodies in both the health sector & education have recommended settlements, that while not massive, are above the projected affordable pay rises pencilled in by departments in light of Rachel Reeves views on the money available under her fiscal rules....
and so once again we are hearing the government demanding that workers be 'realistic' about their stagnant standard of living while CEOs and others demand double digit pay rises.
#LINO indeed!
#politics #workers

2025-04-28 13:47:35 UTC

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Which might be why the scheme is (at least at the moment) to be flying under the radar?

2025-04-28 12:22:36 UTC

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I hadn't seen that about Cambridge but there have been some stories about other universities making US scholars welcome (and funding their work)

2025-04-17 06:10:10 UTC

Can expanding the 'Advice & Guidance' scheme, incentivising GPs to offer tests & treatments on site or locally rather than refer patients immediately to hospital offer a way to reduce waitng lists & improve patient experiences of the NHS?
My local surgery has just built extra (physical) capacity to offer expanded treatments/tests; other surgeries will be doing the same.
More investment in GP practices makes more sense than some other policies!
#health #NHS #doctors
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgrgqqjdlg4o

2025-04-16 16:34:32 UTC

WTO DG, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, warns we are seeing a major de-coupling of China/US trade & this will have an adverse impact on the global economy...
she may be right, but equally we may be 'merely' entering a period of transition (as I've argued before) between a system where the US is (perhaps too uncritically) seen as the global economic 'leader' to one not where China takes over, but rather we end up with a multipolar system of regional trading blocs!
#economics
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/16/trump-tariffs-will-send-global-trade-into-reverse-this-year-warns-wto

2025-04-16 05:25:45 UTC

Seemingly some lower priced imports POTUS Trump does like:
In an executive order yesterday he paved the way for the importation of medicines from countries where they are cheaper, in a direct move against Big Pharma that often charges US customers around three times the lowest prices levied outside the USA.
This will surely be a popular move, but not with the Pharma sector, which (one must conclude) have done too little to seek favour at the Court of the Tangerine Tyrant.
#BigPharma #politics

2025-04-15 21:04:35 UTC

One thing that is becoming clear from the rule of the Court of Tangerine Tyrant... if the US constitution fails to contain the danger of Trump's administration, people like me who support a written constitution as a way of improving UK politics are going to have some re-thinking to do.... because Trump is the very sort of leader a written constitution would be expected to protect people from.
If a constitution doesn't work in this case, then how useful would it be?
#politics #RuleOfLaw

2025-04-03 17:05:28 UTC

Three things about Trump's Liberation Day tariffs:
1. are they merely transactional? will concessions mean they'll be reduced/abandoned?
2. Trump is acting as if the US still controlled a large proportion of global trade; it doesn't, its around 13% of international trade (by value); which implies
3. If rather than retaliate, other countries' firms re-focus on regional markets (& states maintain free[ish] trade in those blocs], the harm may in the end be focussed on the US!
#trade #economics

2025-03-28 12:41:37 UTC

The UK is suffering an ongoing health crisis unlike other European countries partly due to long-term unwillingness to invest in health provision.
This means over the summer the NHS may be 'run hot' & (just about) cope but in the winter with more volatile health needs among an ageing population, the system lurches from annual winter crisis to catch-up each year.
Crucially, spending on health infrastructure can both help get people 'back to work' & offer a wider economic stimulus!
#health #NHS
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/114/240/075/461/499/805/original/102238264f5346dd.png
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/114/240/078/015/057/636/original/7b399234ce05a79e.png

2025-03-25 12:51:24 UTC

Although I used to travel to the USA quite a lot for work, and before that for leisure purposes, I have not been to the US for over a decade.... and now looking at was is happening at US Border Control, I wonder why anyone would risk visiting?
This seems like a country whose Govt. (and portions of its political class) are in the grip of a Sakoku mindset that seeks to limit or diminish contact with the outside world.... Trump as Shogun, perhaps?
#politics

2025-03-25 08:47:03 UTC

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Essentially, its quiet simple; the Council seek to procure locally & 'encourage' others to do so too.... it also has quiet a locally active university in UClan... but as I said its by no means fully developed, but does offer a more generalisable model than the excpetionalism of Cambridge

2025-03-23 09:58:22 UTC

If the UK is to wean itself off exporting to the USA, which would seem to be a good idea right now, then despite our historic mono-lingualism, many firms will be needing to think about the sorts of non-English language resources & staff they will need to compete effectively in foreign markets.
Many firms manage it but too often the US market has been seen as an easy place to sell due to a common language.
Time to recruit multi-linguists (and by extension, teach them)!
#languages #trade

2025-03-23 09:46:38 UTC

A key problem with Rachel Reeves plan to save £5bn by cutting disability benefits eligibility is that many of those costs will need to be picked up by Councils (who are already in grim budgetary position).
So not only is this a policy penalising the vulnerable to free up money for defence, it will also likely compound local problems while ensuring for many disabled people any (posited) reforms of the system will be way too late to help them.
Its a disgrace!
#politics
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/22/government-plans-to-cut-pip-benefits-could-pile-more-pressure-on-councils

2025-03-22 08:37:13 UTC

Meanwhile in Wales, evidence is mounting (confirming) that 20mph speed limits reduce deaths on the roads.
As Lee Waters (ex-Welsh Transport Minister) point out: 'There is still this idea that 70 or so road deaths a year in Wales is acceptable. But we would never accept 70 deaths a year on the ferry to Ireland, or on buses'.. Indeed!
And it not an unpopular policy (except among cultural warriors trying to claim its an imposition on 'drivers' rights'.
#transport #Wales
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/22/wales-20mph-speed-limit-cut-road-deaths-why-debate

2025-03-22 07:49:18 UTC

A fire at an electricity substation closes Europe's busiest airport for a day.... what does this tell us about the UK's infrastructure resilience?
The clear & straightforward answer is the lack of redundancy in key service provision.
Time was when systems would have back-up in place for emergencies, but once this started to be treated as a cost rather than a necessary investment in service continuity out the 'spare' capacity went!
One more cost of financialised management!
#infrastructure

2025-03-20 06:52:24 UTC

Given Rachel Reeves dependence on Office of Budget Responsibility's forecasts for keeping to her fiscal rules, as Chris Giles (FT) notes we may soon see a crisis when the OBR finally admits its always optimistic projections for productivity growth just aren't being met & therefore will need to be revised (radically) downwards.... which will negatively impact projections for growth & tax receipts, further diminishing any projected fiscal 'headroom'.
A crisis foretold?
#economics #productivity

2025-03-16 08:52:27 UTC

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I know, its just so inept....

2025-03-16 08:08:26 UTC

As Sally Gainsbury (Nuffield Trust) says at the heart of the budget part of the NHS crisis is a simple fact:
'While technological advance elsewhere tends to reduce costs, in healthcare it increases them by expanding what treatments are possible. As a consequence, it also expands what the public expects to receive.... [And so] healthcare consumption tends to grow at more than twice the rate of population growth'.
Managing that is, of course, the political challenge
#Health #politics
h/t FT

2025-03-08 13:32:33 UTC

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and which apparently has seen a major increase in downloads in the last six months.... I wonder why? [irony klaxon]

2025-03-07 18:10:32 UTC

An unnamed 'senior' Labour backbencher (quoted in the Guardian) on the prospective cuts to welfare, echos concerns expressed here (and elsewhere):
'We are a rich country but we have lots of poorer people. Do not target stuff at the poorest and most vulnerable. There are others ways of doing it'!
Well there may be other ways but Rachel Reeves seems unwilling to countenance them....
#austerity #welfare #benefits
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/mar/07/dont-punish-the-vulnerable-labour-mp-uneasy-over-planned-welfare-cuts

2025-03-01 10:14:42 UTC

In the last 30 years the growing suspicion that fund managers are more interested in enriching themselves than their clients has led to a major shift into passive investment funds tracking nominated share indexes & charging lower fees that actively managed investment funds.
as a famous book once asked: 'Where are the clients' yachts?' - a realisation of the skewing of benefit that likely has driven a move away from giving investment mangers fat fees for average or worse returns.
#investment
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/114/086/635/374/844/415/original/ce4b5cbe536f32d9.png

2025-02-26 22:03:33 UTC

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ah yes, but talk is cheap.... which is what drives our contemporary declaratory politics, where to declare a policy is as good as enacting it

2025-02-25 22:15:59 UTC

Hmmm... so one day after meeting West Streeting, the Head of NHS England resigned, and then Streeting announced that Whitehall was going to to be taking a stronger role in 'managing' the NHS.
The FT quote one Govt. advisor saying:
'They’ve removed Amanda because they want to look like they’re doing something... It’s become obvious to everyone in the industry that Wes’s team came in without a plan'!
So, more centralisation; reinforcing a key problem with UK governance
#NHS #health

2025-02-20 18:05:11 UTC

As Robert Shrimsley (FT) points out the Right (and its championing of culture warrior's deception of the country's problems) are completely misdiagnosing the real crisis the UK faces.
With stagnant growth (in general terms but also in household incomes), with a dysfunctional housing market, a stagnation of productivity improvements and service after service collapsing or in a crisis of regulatory failure, the UK's problems are economic no cultural.
Wilfully ignoring this is idiocy!
#politics
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/114/037/529/251/658/584/original/4bf19e9fccefdeaf.png

2025-02-09 12:09:13 UTC

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So, the 'get out the vote' campaigns could pay some (by your logic albeit limited) dividends?

2025-02-09 09:37:25 UTC

Why do centrists always think they must chase the voters who support the Far Right?
Why do they never choose to chase voters on the Left, surely an equally viable strategy?
Well, part of the answer (as has been so often expressed here & elsewhere) is the manner in which the Left is (miss)reported in the mainstream media, and the influence of that media on our political class....
and of course, the class position of our politicians (who always see the 'threat' of the Right as 'overstated'!)

2025-02-07 06:51:33 UTC

Despite claims for its ability to support regeneration of regional economies & (more dubious) claims it will help get the UK to net zero, it seems the Govt. is having second thoughts on large scale support for carbon capture projects; funding has already been allocated to two, but two more have been paused & previous supporter Ed Miliband seems to have decided the nuclear is a better be, if even more expensive!
Now, a further pivot to renewables would be good!
#CarbonCapture #climate
h/t FT

2025-02-04 06:42:44 UTC

Interestingly, posting a cartoon about the Tangerine Tyrant prompted a number of abusive emails from his supporters yesterday.... in a way, more detailed but similarly critical text only posts have not.
What might this tell us about the Trump's supporters on Mastodon?
Scanning for posts to flame, cartoons catch their attention more easily, perhaps?
#Mastodon #politics

2025-01-29 07:16:41 UTC

Hardly surprisingly Labour's tin ear for EU politics has meant the 'reset' negotiations, which were meant to have produced an initial security focussed agreement with Brussels, have stalled in light of EU demands around the revival of youth mobility scheme(s), and EU members' demand for access to UK waters for fishing fleets.
The problem is the EU sees the 'reset' as transactional, while the UK thinks cooperation is our right as a neighbour... but Brexit poisoned that well!
#Brexit #EU
h/t FT

2025-01-29 07:03:04 UTC

The UK Govt. is in the grip of economic essentialism; Keir Starmer has declared, all ministers have to 'set out the growth credentials of new policies in order to get approval from their cabinet colleagues'.
So, Govt now is focussed *only* on economic metrics & indicators (modelled to show contribution to economic growth).
This essentialism has been what has done for many UK businesses, now myopic management will shape policy.
Economics is key but cannot be the only focus!
#politics
h/t FT

2025-01-25 07:45:33 UTC

Noam Chomsky offers a thought for your weekend.... as in the Court of the Tangerine Tyrant they yell 'drill baby drill'!
#climate #FossilFuels
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/113/887/866/516/361/544/original/0352a4f1340df25b.jpeg

2025-01-19 09:55:55 UTC

The Royal College of Nursing's new report confirms what we really already know; the Tory engineered crisis in the NHS is taking a massive toll both on patients & on nurses and other health workers.
There may be many clever wheezes to try & start to reduce the crisis conditions in health care, but lets be absolutely clear - more beds & more staff are going to the the key, whatever else is done!
#health #NHS #nurses
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/19/burnout-shame-heartbreak-nurses-are-being-crushed-by-our-broken-nhs

2025-01-19 09:07:07 UTC

Not only was the Tories Rwanda migrant removal programme a brutal & callous attack on vulnerable people, it was also a monumental waste of money.... this we knew, but its worth being reminded of the extent of the waste entailed by Pritti Patel when she by-passed normal ministerial processes to give it the go-ahead.
The Tories really were/are the Nasty Party... but the problem will be how soon the electorate forget (or perhaps didn't care in the first place).
#politics
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/18/revealed-conservatives-spent-134m-on-never-used-it-systems-for-failed-rwanda-scheme

2025-01-18 09:46:12 UTC

Interestingly there has been a signficnat rise in the number of small business owners using Employee Ownership Trusts to exit their business (typically but not only, on retirement). Transferring ownership to a small firms employees this way is 'tax efficient' and the trust usually pays an upfront amount followed by continued payments from the profits until the transfer price is paid.
Its an interesting way of democratising business ownership! (Not socialism, but neighbouring?)
#workers
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/113/848/712/435/352/152/original/b016149427683cb2.png

2025-01-17 06:51:17 UTC

The idea that a group of the 'great & good' can help the UK engineer an improvement in its 'soft power' seems to me to misunderstand how soft power works.... you don't weird soft power, rather you (global) actions result in soft power when others regard your actions as influential or requiring their adjustment.... so the biggest damage done to the UK's soft power was likely Brexit & no amount of chatting & strategising is going to do much to reverse that!
#SoftPower
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jan/17/cultural-figures-and-royals-to-boost-uk-global-influence-in-soft-power-council

2024-12-13 21:27:01 UTC

Why is Japanese birth-rate dropping.... well it seems that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has decided that its because people don't have enough time to procreate... (by reorganising their hours across four days - more time in bed)
Oh OK, really its to allow a better work-life balance so prospective parents can see how they could handle childcare, not that they need more time to get it on....
(Marvin Gaye track in the background)
#children #Japan
h/t FT

2024-12-07 09:02:48 UTC

As with all good conspiracy stories the fact that both Reform & Elon Musk have denied he is considering giving the party $100m to fight the next election in the UK, merely confirms the likelihood of it happening for many commentators.
Certainly Labour are scrambling to tighten up rules on foreign donations to political parties, but if Musk wants to give Farage money, he'll likely find a way... so can we expect Reform's already toxic political profile to become even more toxic?
#politics

2024-12-01 10:44:34 UTC

From airlines to ticket agencies, the late additional charges in the purchase process are becoming not just an irritant but also the mechanics by which corporates are maintaining (or increasing) their profits.
They are based on a simple logic that once you have (emotionally) committed to the purchase, while annoyed by the extra costs, you'll pay them.
However, the bigger Q. must be: how long can firms who rely on customers' discretionary purchases continue pissing them off?
#capitalism

2024-12-01 08:57:07 UTC

Is Meta acting in good faith in its attempts to curtail the spread of self-harm content to teenagers?
Rather than take Meta at their word, Danish researchers set up their own self-harm network, & ratcheted up the explicitness of the content to see at what point Meta would start taking the images down....
guess what; all Meta's algorithm did was to amplify & spread the messages/posts.
So, can we trust Meta with children's wellbeing; most certainly not!
#socialmedia
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/nov/30/instagram-actively-helping-to-spread-of-self-harm-among-teenagers-study-suggests

2024-11-30 09:56:36 UTC

How inequality stretches into retirement:
Of those able to pay into a defined contribution pension over half do not think they are saving enough; that will be an underestimate as people often underestimate how much they need to put in a pension for a 'comfortable' retirement.
And why don'e they pay more in? because they can't afford to!!!
Its no use lecturing people that they need to save more for their retirement, first you need to ensure they're paid more!!!
#pensions #inequality
h/t FT

2024-11-26 07:11:08 UTC

More evidence that the UK is increasingly a services-led economy.
The Q. is how does this impact on workers prospects & how the young should frame their preparations for the world of work?
Also, its worth noting that professional services are skewed in geographical location(s) of activity towards London & the south of the UK, also contributing to continued regional economic disparities.
The UK's economy continues to move towards its post-industrial future!
#workers #services #education
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/113/547/978/655/760/492/original/fd076f9588825212.png
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/113/547/989/612/162/621/original/63c815f2a82c4876.png

2024-11-25 21:32:51 UTC

More to consider around the palliative care end of the assisted dying debate... there is very clearly an issue about the availability of pain management & therefore the experience of end-of-life care...
This debates drawing in more & more evidence but this is unlikely to make it any easier to resolve the balance between freedom of choice and freedom from coercion...
Still the more we know....
#AssiastedDying
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/nov/25/about-20-terminally-ill-people-in-uk-die-in-unrelieved-pain-each-day-research-finds

2024-11-23 10:15:27 UTC

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Yes, I think that is what drives the compassionate aspect of the demand for the choice.... sadly, we also know that all sorts of explicit & implicit pressure can be experienced by those in late(r) life.
These are not easy issues to resolve, but the more specific cases we know about the more helpful experience can be bought to the debate... thanks for sharing what must have been a fraught experience, even with the Hospice's support

2024-11-23 09:02:19 UTC

A key(& previously under-acknowledged) aspect of the assisted dying debate has become the quality of & access to palliative care for the terminally ill; is a desire to end it all a reflection of a failure on end-of-life care?
My feeling is it may well be for some, but not all.
Ideally, I'd like to see a clear voluntary & safe choice for those choosing to exit in a manner (and time) of their choosing;
But safeguards are key & so clearly is better palliative care.
#AssistedDying

2024-11-20 22:29:50 UTC

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I •can* see what farers are angry but by picking a target for their anger that doesn't effect them, they are not helping their cause are they...
If they were out demonstrating against the supermarkets then fair enough & I would be strongly supporting them.... but they are not (they complain quietly & anonymously, and I completely see they are afraid or reprisals); mis directed anger does their case no good whatsoever

2024-11-19 07:11:51 UTC

I have posted here before on the misleading character of GDP as an indicator of 'economic success', so I very much welcome the Office of National Statistics development of two new measures:
Gross Inclusive Income; and
Net inclusive income.
This will count those things absent from GDP but which can enhance welfare/wellbeing of the population.
How this will relate to the UN Human Development Index is as yet unclear, but a move in the right direction!
#GDP #economics
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/nov/19/inclusive-income-rival-gdp-measuring-economic-growth

2024-11-18 08:59:33 UTC

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From my perspective (outside the NHS looking in) its not an either/or but a both.... longterm (Covid-related) sickness + stress/tensions of health care work

2024-09-06 06:46:08 UTC

More gender based violence: Olympic runner, Kenyan Rebecca Chaptegei dies after being set on fire, seemingly by her boyfriend.
Every day we see how men brutally seek to control women & when they fail exact a fatal revenge.
I am speechless at my gender's attitudes & actions;
every time we (by which I mean us, men) turn a blind eye to lower levels of abuse, we make this sort of action that much more 'acceptable' - we need to act up!
#gender
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/olympian-rebecca-cheptegei-burned-1.7313488

2024-09-05 06:02:46 UTC

As Ministers introduce plans to remove heredity peers from the Lords... the Q. is will this be the first step of meaningful reform of the second chamber, or be seen as sufficient.
Here's my proposals for reform...
Choose members by lottery;
Limit terms of office to two years;
balance citizens with experts;
increase the voice of the young;
Focus scrutiny on key bills.
#politics
https://northwestbylines.co.uk/politics/all-change-for-the-house-of-lords/

2024-08-25 07:27:39 UTC

Keir Starmer will tell us we'll be finding things getting worse before they get better & that Labour is going to have to make some 'unpopular decisions'.
I have no doubt that the Tories have left a toxic legacy, but why is it that once again the poor & vulnerable are having to suffer the pain for things to be 'fixed'?
Why aren't the unpopular decisions about taxing the better off, or using a different economic rationale?
We know why....
#austerity #politics
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/24/keir-starmer-warns-of-tough-times-ahead-to-fix-tory-ruins

2024-08-24 07:50:10 UTC

Both the main Edinburgh TV Festival MacTaggart Lecture (by James Graham, writer of Sherwood) & the 'alternative Mactaggart (by campaigner, and all round good thing, Carol Voorderman) focussed on the problem of class based exclusion from the industry & the dominance of a cultural agenda driven by the privileged, the rich & the right wing media.
Surely, now must be the time to do something about the skewed class character of our 'culture industries'?
#culture #TV #class #politics
h/t Guardian

2024-08-22 08:09:57 UTC

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agreed - without public transport's massive expansion & transformation into a (proper) public service, other aspects of the green transition will be much more difficult to contemplate, let alone deliver!

2024-08-18 21:26:35 UTC

The paradox of success & failure in the hospitality industry:
as staycations are replaced by going abroad (again), many British holiday businesses are not doing so well; holiday cottages are not fully booked in many locations.
But, wait a minute, aren't these the same businesses that we are blaming for snapping up homes & turning them into short-term lets for visitors?
Might we hope for a crisis in staycation provision that might return some holiday lets to the local housing market?
#housing

2024-07-21 07:13:42 UTC

Labour's pensions dilemma:
It wants to utilise pensions funds to expand investment which involves pushing pensions funds into riskier investments;
it also wants to encourage more saving for pensions into employer pensions plans.
The only way this can really work is by a return to defined benefit (DB) plans where the risk from the investment plan doesn't fall on the worker as in defined contribution plans
but DB plans are unpopular with employers & have been declining for years
#economics

2024-06-30 21:19:05 UTC

Ob Friday (surprisingly, perhaps) The Economist came out for Labour, now the FT (much less surprisingly given its centrist learnings) has also come out for Labour.
The Q. is what Labour will do with this endorsement from two albeit different organs of the capitalist elite?
If it empowers Rachel Reeves & her 'treasury mindset' then this is not good.... but if it suggests we will not see attacks on Labour from the business press (for now) then it might be a useful detente (?).
#Election2024
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/112/707/651/809/963/953/original/7ee11449da1ef283.png

2024-06-27 19:19:38 UTC

If you're looking to find out who has been supplementing your (or any) MP's wages via donation, Consolidate is the site for you.
Its full of detail - my favourite search function is: once you have found an MP's donors, you can then check who else the donors are bankrolling and by how much.
In the great swirling money-go-round of the Westminster Village this sort of transparency is what voters need when asking questions of their representatives & governments.
#politics
https://www.consolidate.org.uk