In July the government’s Skills Funding Agency announced the ‘Esol (English for speakers of other languages) Plus Mandation’ will be completely cut. Esol Plus was introduced to push jobseeker’s allowance claimants with poor spoken English to improve their skills. This comes after years of cuts to Esol since 2010 amounting to about 40%. The vast… [Read More]
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, of the right-wing Popular Party (PP), delivered a budget this week that he hopes will boost his chances in the general election later this year. The budget includes tax cuts, more government spending, and a 1% increase in public sector pay – the first since 2009. During the 2008 financial… [Read More]
Albania suffered under a harsh communist dictatorship from the end of the Second World War to the beginning of the 1990s. Personal freedom was limited during this period. Very few people were permitted to own cars and access to public transport was likewise limited. As a consequence, people were often forced to make their daily… [Read More]
A story in The Telegraph today entitled ‘EU pays jobless migrants to come to Britain’ explains how 1,178 EU citizens have used the ‘Your First EURES Job’ scheme to get a job here. In total 34.7% of jobs the scheme has placed people on have been in Britain, but only 25 Britons have found work through… [Read More]
Recruitment bodies, working in Europe and supplying the NHS, have apparently been making enticing promises that cannot be kept for example, the offer of unrealistic wages, free or discounted accommodation and language training. These bodies often have the audacity to target medical training institutions in European countries which themselves experience shortages of nursing staff. It is… [Read More]
Being competitive requires a comparative advantage. This is the logic behind devolving control of corporation tax to the Northern Ireland Executive. The prime minister announced the move last year with the expectation that Stormont would try to replicate Eire’s success by dropping the rate. The arrival of global giants like Google to Ireland’s shores has… [Read More]
Ever since David Cameron promised an EU referendum in 2013 there has been pressure on Labour to do the same. At times Ed Balls seemed supportive but former leader Ed Miliband always rejected Cameron’s EU position, hoping that Ukip was only a problem for the right. Labour lost the election and did indeed lose many… [Read More]
Much of the debate surrounding the free movement of labour in the EU follows the theory that richer countries will face an influx of immigrants seeking higher wages. Ukip ran with this idea when they stoked fear among the British public about the mass arrival of 1 million Romanians and Bulgarians coming to the UK… [Read More]
A piece in this week’s, Director, discusses the arrival of the sharing economy, a new epoch in capitalism, whereby consumers are happy to exchange ownership for ‘access ship’. An example: the arrival of Apple music, which expands Spotify’s model of paying monthly fees to stream any song on the site, which has the potential to… [Read More]
At Civitas’ lunchtime seminar yesterday, Sir David Nicholson, the previous chief executive of NHS England, offered a thoughtful response to those who claim that the NHS is in a state of constant financial crisis. Part of the reason, he believes, that the government is not addressing the current funding problems of our health system is… [Read More]