UK
Britain is going through a difficult time, when its sustained ability to punch above its weight, economically and diplomatically, is ebbing. The end of irrational exuberance found the country ill at ease with itself, with rising inequalities and unhealthy nationalism, just when it needs to be fleet-footed in recognising that many of the traditional pillars of its strengths have changed. The need is to recognise other supports and partners and find a new common purpose after the pandemic. I live in hope.
the road to beijing lies through brussels
Tuesday 18th June 2013
I brought together my two favourite themes of the moment, europe and china, in my most recent column, concluding that whatever europe might or might not become were britain not in it, it is clear what britain would quickly become in those circumstances: irrelevant. Also on the platform
it's our castle, not our keep
Sunday 28th April 2013
The dynamics of home ownership are shifting in the uk, much to the chagrin of most, who will remain for a good time yet in a state of denial. I have been trying for some time to prick this bubble, as in my latest newspaper blog; for more on the photo, see 29 march 2013...
on the right track
Wednesday 10th April 2013
My debut, I think, in a green magazine (p8), writing about the move from reliance on grants from government to get things done, towards the need for recyclable investment; easy to say, hard to do. Discovered, on the back page, that their new chief economist is an old colleague from the ecb...
flying higher
Wednesday 23rd January 2013
They annoyingly changed the title, but the rest of this piece on the airport got through. Though deeply ambivalent about air travel's carbon emissions, until and unless there's a comprehensive willingness to do something about it, sid from salford has as much right to fly as bartholemew from buckingham...
stick or twist
Wednesday 19th December 2012
Like football, this is the argument that divides economic families: are we in a cyclical or structural recession. No, really: this is the starting point to whether austerity is unavoidable cure or the medicine that kills the patient, as my latest newspaper blog sets out...
joined up ?
Thursday 6th December 2012
Today, and most days, the manchester evening news, but yesterday I finally reached the outer margins of the guardian, with a blog, which let’s face it is just an article by another name, on data sharing, one of the less glamorous areas my team works in. Read all about it...
the future...
Wednesday 21st November 2012
...is hard to predict, and other second hand quotes, wrapping around a news story, but is it good, or is it bad. And is it right, as the mayor of detroit supposedly said when presented with a telephone. It’s wonderful, I can foresee the day when there will be one of these in every city. On the art of forecasting...
from bricks to clicks
Tuesday 23rd October 2012
In my latest newspaper blog, I revert to my once familiar doom and gloom role, though on this occasion I think well-justified, as "saving our town centres" is a compelling and popular moto, but the legions are lined up against the things that actually need to be done to make it so...
much like hard work
Tuesday 25th September 2012
I am enthusiastic and long-term believer in community budgeting, by whatever name it goes; although the jury is still out whether it is at all possible in the uk in any way. My latest newspaper blog explores the rationale and some of the basic realpolitik.
city central
Tuesday 11th September 2012
Inspired by my holiday (see 9, 16 august 2012) and my work on devolution, very much theory not practice in the uk, I combined the two for one of my better blogs in my now-regular spot in the local rag.
still the next big thing
Tuesday 24th July 2012
I have been harping on about china since... well, for a very long time, and so as I’ve been involved in a very productive spurt of activity over the last weeks, it was an obvious topic for my now-regular newspaper blog...
what did we get for our money ?
Thursday 12th July 2012
Common wisdom holds that some neighbourhoods play a particular downbeat function for a city, e.g. as a transitional “landing” area that people move on from as quickly as possible, and that’s why massive interventions never transformed them. I am not so sure, a doubt reinforced by this latest article.