Notices by Emeritus Prof Christopher May (chrismayla6@zirk.us)

As Eva Wiseman points out:

'while governments have an obsession with efficiency, its still limited solely to cost-cutting. There seems to be little interest in, for instance, making access to welfare payments more efficient or healthcare, or childcare... No, efficiency is only important when trying to maximise profit'!

efficiency defined by cost, rather than by effective practice(s);

we know the cost(s) off everything but the value of nothing!

#politics #economics

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/mar/30/striving-for-efficiency-is-all-very-well-but-it-leaves-no-time-to-live

@GeofCox

Very well put; the disaster of false economies is all around us, but what I would add to your account is the domination of short-term reasoning behind the focus on costs; costs can be reduced relatively quickly in the budget cycle, investment returns, especially SROI take some time to materialise & so cannot be accounted for by the economically myopic.... this is an issue across the UK & lies (among other things) behind the 'productivity puzzle'...

For those posting that the UK is becoming a police state, here's a little more evidence for you; complain about your daughter's school on WhatsAp, get arrested....

There's something very strange going on in this country.... its not just a dark place we're heading into but its a place where democracy is not just compromised but being dismantled!

#politics

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/29/parents-arrested-by-hertfordshire-police-for-complaining-about-daughters-school

There is something very wrong in this country when six young people meeting to discuss politics in a Quaker Meeting House are arrested by the police after a mass (twenty officers) invasion of the building (armed with tasers).

The freedom to protest, or even the freedom to meet in a room to discuss current affairs, are central to a democracy... if this freedom is now compromised (further), as it seems to be, we are in a very bad place!

#politics

h/t @Thebratdragon

https://www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-events/news/quakers-condemn-police-raid-on-westminster-meeting-house

Says it all... Ben Jennings (Guardian)

#politics #poverty #benefits

If you were wondering how much data various chatbots might be collecting about you when you 'talk' to them, here's Surfshark's assessment, handily rendered as a diagram by the ever helpful Visual Capitalist website.

Headline: Gemini is collecting the most....

#ChatBots #AI #surveillance #technology

More political declaratory politics from Labour:

Rachel Reeves has announced a 'landmark' £2bn for affordable housing for fiscal year 2026-27.

However, the current £12bn Affordable Homes Programme (at £12bn over five years up to 2025-26) actually implied an annual expenditure of £2.4bn annually;

Reeves new announcement looks like a reduction, not a 'landmark'!

Of course the Treasury claims this will be increased by (as yet unspecified) 'additional funds'... yeah right!

#housing
h/t FT

As Alan Shipman (OpenU) points out, in the end the UK economic malaise really centres on one problem - the inability to raise productivity.

Among the causes:

ineffective Govt. industrial policy (focussed as it is on financial services);

rubbish management (which I've posted on before) & unwillingness to invest in workers' skills or wellbeing;

oligopolies stifling competition alongside hopeless (captured) regulators;

inequality of 'rewards'.

#productivity

https://theconversation.com/why-the-social-pain-of-welfare-reform-overshadows-any-economic-gain-252574

If the UK is to wean itself off exporting to the USA, which would seem to be a good idea right now, then despite our historic mono-lingualism, many firms will be needing to think about the sorts of non-English language resources & staff they will need to compete effectively in foreign markets.

Many firms manage it but too often the US market has been seen as an easy place to sell due to a common language.

Time to recruit multi-linguists (and by extension, teach them)!

#languages #trade

Confirming what many already suspected, excluding children from school pretty swiftly leads them to become embroiled in violence as their peer group (who they hang out with) changes.

While its not surprising that stressed & over-burdened teachers are not always able to see how to help these young people, equally a system that kicks them out & delivers them to the criminal underworld is dysfunctional.

We need a better response to 'problem' pupils

#schools #education

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/mar/22/teenagers-excluded-from-school-twice-as-likely-to-commit-serious-violence

A fire at an electricity substation closes Europe's busiest airport for a day.... what does this tell us about the UK's infrastructure resilience?

The clear & straightforward answer is the lack of redundancy in key service provision.

Time was when systems would have back-up in place for emergencies, but once this started to be treated as a cost rather than a necessary investment in service continuity out the 'spare' capacity went!

One more cost of financialised management!

#infrastructure

Another Brexit dividend... The EU will exclude UK arms manufacturers from its €150bn rearmament fund unless the UK signs a security & defence pact with the EU.... negotiations on which have stalled due to the continuing tensions between the EU & UK on fishing & youth mobility.

So, looks like for now the only increase in defence spending that will be spent in the UK is out own...

But, hey those Europeans, eh? Glad to see the back of them.... /s

#Brexit #defence #security #politics

The (forced) disappearance of cash continues, but I wonder what would happen if you turn up at a card only premises, eat their food & then only offer cash?

They will say card only, but you are offering legal tender;

They might say you have consumed food without the means to pay, but you have the legal means to pay.

Would they call the police & how would this be litigated I wonder?

Just needs a group to organise this sort of action, and we might find out?

#economics
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/mar/16/uk-high-street-chains-restaurants-cash-payments

Apparently a Govt. 'source' has today suggested that Labour MPs making representations (complaining) about the prospective benefits freezes & cuts are (actually) just 'pearl clutching'

If true then this is both ageset & sexist if being used as an insult (its unclear how else it might be intended), and suggests Labour 'managers' have developed a tin ear for any political development outside the confines of the Westminster Village.

#austerity #politics #benefits

h/t Simon Fletcher/Modern Left

As Labour continues to plan on cutting benefits, a new National Institute of Economic & Social Research report concludes that the UK has one of the weakest social security 'safety nets' in the developed world... alongside a low-wage labour market, the economy ensures the poor stay poor. Now Labour plans to make that worse!

As Max Mosley, one of the reports author sums it up: 'We are neither delivering prosperity through high wages nor security through welfare'!

Disgraceful!

#politics
h/t FT

Hmmm, once again when Keir Starmer says 'I am not afraid to take the big decisions' (as he did to worried Labour MPs last night), we know that the 'big decisions' are to cut welfare payments for the poorest most vulnerable members of our society, and not to any attempt to increase the taxes on the most wealthy....

#politics

h/t FT

When the 'international community' suggests a 'land for peace' deal (as may be likely part of Trump's 'negotiation' for peace in the Ukraine), its worth pointing out what that might if it was translated into our own country.

Here are two countries that might interest you in that regard; I cannot see either agreeing to give up 20% of their territory, can you?... but that's what international power disparities look like!

#InternationalRelations #Ukraine #Politics

h/t Pablo O'Hana (LinkedIn)

More evidence of who exactly Rachel Reeves is listening to, when (re)formulating policies.... and if I tell you its investment firm Blackstone's CEO, who made representations about NonDoms interests right before the 'crack down' on NonDoms was softened, would you be shocked? Sadly, its all too predictable.

No doubt he'll have been whispering to her about those benefits scroungers & disabled people robbing the benefits system, too

#Politics #lobbying #RachelReeves

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/rachel-reeves-non-dom-soften-blackstone-stephen-schwarzman-lobbying-meeting/

Perhaps not unsurprisingly, climate activists seem to have take the view that if they're going to be locked up for protracted periods for peaceful protest, why not commit criminal damage (sabotage) that might cause more disruption & likely will not carry much worse sentences if caught....

Whether this accelerates into a major campaign or remains spasmodic remains to be seen but the logic of 'might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb' has a long pedigree.

#protest
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/08/a-new-phase-why-climate-activists-are-turning-to-sabotage-instead-of-protest

Last night the President Trump suspended all military aid to Ukraine, potentially leaving a window of opportunity for Russia while the Europeans scramble to make up the shortfall.... if you were in any doubt that Trump is getting his instructions on Ukraine from the Kremlin, this might clear that up for you?

#Ukraine #Trump