At last, a decent article about the scottish independence referendum coming up later this year (15 dec 2012, scotland the knave; 8 may 2011, scotland the brave), from andrew rawnsley. He makes the point that the real risk of the result is less that it is a yes, which is highly unlikely, but rather that it is close, opening the way to holding another one in some years time, the “neverendum” situation that canada found itself in for decades as quebec tried to leave, though never did. The nationalists only need to win one. What finally did for the quebecois, he says, was lovebombing by the rest of canada, so david cameron, rather mocked for asking the english and welsh…

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Over 25% of russian men die before reaching 55, a signal cause of russia’s declining population and highlighting of how its place in the “bric” pantheon is unsustainable, based as it is increasingly entirely on its temporary oil prowess. The function of studies is often to ramp up the basis for action on what we already know to be true. The fact that russia men who down large amounts of vodka die very young falls, at least for me, into that category. I know this to be true from my own experience, having spent quite a lot of time in different bits of russia in the 1990s and been astounded by the cultural propensity and capacity of russian men (and…

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After some six years in my current role, I am moving on, although my other half is very happy that for once a change of job isn’t bringing intercontinental upheaval. The jt were very interested. I am becoming a director at the manchester airports group. The group is largely owned by greater manchester’s local authorities, so there is some follow-through for me, as there is too in the train of thought (or flight of fancy), brilliantly captured in aerotropolis, that sees airports increasingly as centres of global production and enterprise in their own right and so powerful engines of local economic development. Our own airport city may well be an exemplar of the approach. Having just bought stansted, a london…

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In the run up to every european election, the pitch gets a little higher that this time around (the quiet road to 2009) each party will select a pan-european candidate for commission president, giving the election more singularity and bite, and helping to bridge the “democratic deficit”. This would build on what, despite falling turnout, is the ever more powerful european parliament (13 march 2013, not the papal elections; parliament of bores ?; 12 february 2011, strasbourg: bring the roof down). At the same time the powers that be, to date the member states, also appoint the council president, the otherwise-named foreign minister (21 november 2009, what to say of ashton and humpty rumpty) and nato’s secretary-general (12 june 2011,…

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A new year and indeed new era begins shortly, and perhaps in preparation I have spent much of the last quiet days back on my family tree (8, 15 september 2013, looking up and been a while), now also taking shape on my study wall. We did have a few days out, with a delightful family visit to cambridge flanked by an afternoon in lincoln, a delicious michelin star lunch and west side story. The major events of the year will be in october, and there’s already much to prepare, both for my son (which he is duly getting on with) and for me, which is what I will devote the small remainder of my holiday to, bar some…

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The derivation of policy from short-term political imperative has a long and (ig)noble history, but there does seem to be a bit of an english wave at the moment, from benefits cuts achieving no savings, to free school dinners for those of a certain age, to energy bill cuts (or freezes). Proving all those training courses wrong, there will shortly be such thing as a free lunch, providing you are under 7, but not if you are 8 and your parent(s) can’t afford it. In a similar vein, the strong incentive that rising fuel bills gives to people to radically reduce their energy use, through technology and culture change, has created two big problems. One is fuel poverty, for those…

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Some systems are so complex no-one understands and therefore questions them (credit default swaps spring to mind). Add sacred cow status and that makes the british prescription system practically untouchable. However, as was suggested to me today by someone with vastly more knowledge, the system seems patently ridiculous. Prescriptions are the chits given by doctors to patients to get medicine and are now the second highest area of UK health spending (after staff). More than a staggering 1, 000 million prescriptions were given in 2012 just in the community sector, at a cost of some £8.5bn, and that was far less than hospitals (£13.3bn). Though nominally they cost just under £8 in england, around 90% of prescriptions are free, mainly…

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Policies are not always, or even usually, popular. Most are either unknown to or not really understood by most of the population. Successful politicians can explain and justify enough of what they are doing in terms of individual actions. The underpinning intellectual framework is rarely part of the immediate rational. This may seem, and indeed is, a rather elitist point of view. It is also a truism and a reason that politics across the western world seems to be coming so unstuck, as the waves of apathy that built up (or perhaps better ebbed away) in the better times turn now into waves of anger and anti-elitism with times more challenging. Although this political disconnect is most talked about in…

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It’s not often I’m tempted to agree with the saudi government – it’s up there with the one occasion in my life I think I agreed with berlusconi (4 february 2010, silvio and me), but here goes. I can only applaud their extraordinary stand of turning down their seat on the security council. Granted it’s a buggin’s turn seat, but still it’s their first time ever and in diplomatic united nations parlance, it’s like a nuclear bomb. Granted too it could be said to be a somewhat hypocritical stance given their own record at moments in their history and their pique mainly comes from their side in the whole fight losing to their arch rivals (iran). However, sit back and…

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