The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has produced a new pamphlet, People Not Trident. It argues against the colossal waste of funding needed to a replace the Trident nuclear weapons system. It makes the case that the £100bn saved could be used to invest in a whole host of sectors, housing, education, international development, the switch to renewable […]
Posts under ‘Infrastructure’
Energy system needs fundamental reform, not just Ofgem tinkering
Feb 28th, 2014 by Dave Watson.Ofgem got out of their pram yesterday to complain about Labour and Which? criticisms of their ‘fundamental reforms‘ to the energy market. They said: For the Labour Party and Which? to dismiss Ofgem’s fundamental reforms is to misunderstand the barriers to competition that we have identified and are tackling. In fact Ofgem’s reforms go further […]
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Who’s fooling who at the BBC about the rise of China?
Feb 27th, 2014 by Michael Burke.Robert Peston is the BBC’s new economics editor. He has opened his new role with a programme called ‘How China Fooled the World’. For a time it is available on BBC iPlayer and Peston’s own summary is here. In the blog and the programme Peston argues that China dodged the global economic crisis by increasing […]
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Living where privatised railways mean subsidising foreign state-run services
Feb 26th, 2014 by Dan McCurry.The railway that passes our constituency Labour party office in Bethnal Green and Bow is owned by Abellio, the Dutch state railway company. Am I alone in thinking this is somewhat surreal? We supposedly put these franchises out to tender because we wanted the private sector to provide their management know-how. It turns out that […]
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Water is a public service – not a commodity
Feb 17th, 2014 by Dave Watson.Water is a public good, not a commodity. Today there will be a hearing in the European Parliament on the European Citizens Initiative – Right to Water (watch it live online). Nearly two million people signed this initiative across Europe, asking the European Commission to propose legislation implementing the human right to water and sanitation as recognised by […]
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The battle to keep ticket offices open on the London Underground
Jan 24th, 2014 by Newsdesk.In the next two weeks, members of rail unions RMT and the TSSA are planning two 48-hour strikes, from noon on 4 February and again from 11 February. This video sets out the background: the threats to London Underground ticket offices and staff, and, in the longer run, a fully automated underground system including driverless trains, no-one […]
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We need to back local pubs
Jan 22nd, 2014 by Andy Newman.In January 2013, Vince Cable, the business secretary, announced that the relationship between pub companies (PubCos)and publicans would be defined in law, and an independent adjudicator appointed to examine unfair practices. The Financial Times reported Mr Cable speech at the time, where the minister said:
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Boris Island is a non-starter at £50bn+, but is he wrong about hubs too?
Jan 3rd, 2014 by Michael Meacher.The whole argument about another airport runway for London is based on the idea that the future lies with big national hubs, and of course Heathrow argues that on that basis the extra airport runway should obviously be provided for Heathrow. They argue that 70% of all long-haul services to and from Britain go to […]
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The return of the state
Dec 28th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.For 34 years private markets have held sway, with the corollary that the State was inefficient and bureaucratic and should accept its role to get out of the way. Since that Thatcherite-engineered change of culture after 1979 the UK has undergone a major recession in each decade – in 1980-83, then again in 1990-93, and […]
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The case for public ownership
Dec 5th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The public’s demand for re-nationalisation is steadily growing, partly because the record of privatised companies has been so poor, partly because the excuse of globalisation is now seen not to betoken greater efficiency but rather funnelling increasing assets to the very rich and undermining job security for workers, and partly the big new outsourcing companies […]
