After a bleak start to the year, which has so far been peppered by social unrest and political scandals, Bulgaria has sworn in a new government. The country has been without a stable administration since protests in February saw former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov ousted. Elections last month were inconclusive when Borisov’s centre-right GERB party… [Read More]
Dear Civitas, I’ve heard that you’ve published some bits and pieces in the past about social mobility, so I thought you might like to know that I’ve been made ‘Social Mobility Tsar’ by dear old Cleggers. I’ve replaced the Labour chap, Alan Milburn, who achieved so much in this post. How did I get the… [Read More]
Asking family for help finding work is something we expect, not grounds for accusations of nepotism. Jobseekers are explicitly told to turn to friends and family.
Latest figures show that the Eurozone would be economically masochistic to punish the UK if a ‘Brexit’ occurred. A new study by the think tank Global Britain analyses balance of payments figures released by the European Central Bank (ECB) in May which reveal three crucial points:
Fancy getting on the tube at ‘Virgin Euston’? Wouldn’t Bond Street be better named ‘Burberry by Bond Street’? Or better yet why not rebrand Kings Cross as ‘Kings KFC Cross’? These, if media reports are right, are the sorts of questions that Conservative party members of the London Assembly are mulling over. The plan is… [Read More]
Late last week it was revealed that health regulator Monitor is taking action over the mass-closure of NHS walk-in and urgent care centres, or ‘Darzi centres’ as they are sometimes known after their creator, surgeon and former Labour health minister Lord Darzi. These GP-led centres were originally set up to expand accessibility and patient choice… [Read More]
The Financial Transaction Tax was agreed last October and has faced strong criticism ever since. A recent Civitas report explains the potential damages of the original plans (Does the EU impede the UK’s economic growth? pp.5-6). The European Commission itself estimated continent-wide job losses of up to 812,000 as a result of the ‘cascading effect’ making… [Read More]
Emily Davison’s cause was a good one but you cannot always judge a cause by how loudly people protest for it or against it.
£110bn worth of energy investments required to keep the lights on. Europe’s most challenging decarbonisation target. All coal plants being decommissioned by 2016. Only one of nine nuclear plants remaining operational after 2023. These are the facts about energy in the UK. It is a potential crisis waiting to happen and it is about more… [Read More]
Care quality and the need for service integration continue to dominate the health news agenda. Last week in the Health Service Journal, senior advisor at MHP Health Bill Morgan wrote an incisive analysis of the new safety and quality regulations in the coalition’s new Care Bill, which I wrote about recently. He stresses that the… [Read More]