Surging labour costs are keeping UK unemployment high May 29, 2012 THERE is a straightforward reason why unemployment remains so high in Britain. Unit labour costs are rising – hiring someone to produce a set amount of output is becoming more expensive. And higher prices mean reduced demand – in the jobs market as in everything else. This may come as a bit of a surprise: [...]
Surging labour costs are keeping UK unemployment high May 29, 2012 THERE is a straightforward reason why unemployment remains so high in Britain. Unit labour costs are rising – hiring someone to produce a set amount of output is becoming more expensive. And higher prices mean reduced demand – in the jobs market as in everything else. This may come as a bit of a surprise: [...]
CBI supports Gove’s drive for numeracy June 29, 2011 EMPLOYERS’ organisation the CBI yesterday threw its weight behind Michael Gove’s pledge to put maths back at the heart of the curriculum. In a speech at the Royal Society, the education secretary said he would like to see the “vast majority”of students studying maths until the age of 18 within a decade. And he told City [...]
Britain’s social mobility is far too low April 4, 2011 SOCIAL mobility is weaker today than it was in medieval England. That is the shock finding of research by Gregory Clark of the University of California, Davis. He uses surnames to trace whether descendants of the rich and poor of one generation have the same economic status as their ancestors or eventually revert to the [...]
Why the City must invest in maths June 29, 2011 THE refined surroundings of the Royal Society are a world apart from the scenes of protest that will dominate Westminster today. Yet this is where Michael Gove, the education secretary, has come to announce his intention to put maths at the heart of the curriculum. His aides say he decided to press ahead with the [...]
We need a proper education industry April 20, 2011 IT is time to harness the profit motive to sort out the UK’s schools. That may sound hopelessly radical – but the seeds of a revolution have already been planted, and the green shoots they are generating remarkably promising. Britain’s current crop of private schools are not all charities. As a report out today from [...]
Pensiveness is mood of the day for Tories October 3, 2010 POLITICAL EDITOR THIS shouldn’t be an annus horribilis for the Tories. For the first time in 13 years, their leader will address the party conference as Prime Minister. The long slog of opposition is, at last, over. And yet things are not quite right. Maybe the party should have gone to Brighton or Bournemouth this [...]
Miliband the elder is Labour’s best chance July 27, 2010 POLITICAL EDITOR THERE are few things duller than a Labour leadership contest. The five rivals have been travelling the length and breadth of the country, delivering exactly the same stump speech at a never-ending series of hustings. It’s a running joke among the contenders that they know each other’s scripts off by heart, not just [...]
It was the Tories wot should’ve won it May 7, 2010 IT was the Tories wot should’ve won it. David Cameron entered this election with huge advantages over his rivals. The party’s coffers were bursting with almost £18m – the maximum that can be spent on a campaign – practically outstripping the Labour and Liberal Democrat war-chests put together. Nearly every newspaper came out in support [...]
The Tory who wants to empower parents and fight the bureaucrats March 7, 2010 TORY activists are a miserable bunch at the moment, and who can blame them? The polls suggest we are on course for a hung parliament, with their party struggling to land blows on a tired, unpopular government. And even if the Conservatives do emerge victorious, there is little in David Cameron’s policy cupboard for the [...]