Category Archives: Economics
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Will the main parties ever come clean about their actual tax and spending plans?
Leave a commentApril 24, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Yesterday’s election news was dominated for a time by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (an independent think tank aiming to …
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Are the CMA concerned that Poundland will buy 99p Stores then become the £1.01 store?
4April 22, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
I will start this with a question: against whom do Poundland compete? Is it other pound shops? Maybe. Is it 99p …
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EU Commission vs Google – why it matters
Leave a commentApril 21, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
I first used a search engine back in 1995. It was powered by Yahoo and from what I remember it …
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Explaining the Shell – BG Group merger
1April 20, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Whenever there is a large fall in oil prices, the largest energy extraction firms start sniffing around the smaller ones. …
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UKIP’s manifesto – plans relying completely on the counter-factual
Leave a commentApril 17, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
What I have liked about UKIP’s contribution to British politics over the past few years has been the effect that …
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The Green Party manifesto is the most honest of them all.
16April 16, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Reading the Green Party manifesto I found myself lost in admiration for the only honest document produced by any political …
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The Conservative Manifesto relies on us trusting them. Have they earned it?
6April 15, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
If you ever wanted to understand how close this election is, just think about this: The Conservative manifesto is all …
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Labour’s Judo political, classic sales technique manifesto…game on Dave.
2April 14, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
There are a variety of reasons why Ed Miliband stood up at the lectern yesterday to deliver Labour’s General Election …
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Why abolishing zero hour contracts really would throw the baby out with the bathwater
Leave a commentApril 2, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Once again the issue of zero hour contracts came to the fore this week as Labour announced restrictions on their …
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Profit caps for private healthcare providers – The wrong answer to a problem that doesn’t exist
1March 30, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
I wish someone could take Ed Miliband by the lapels and ‘help’ him to understand that demand has to meet supply. …
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Why the Conservatives should talk more about the NHS
1March 27, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
There are a lot of frustrated people following this election campaign. Journalists are frustrated by only receiving pre-prepared soundbites and …
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The “long grass economic plan” budget
Leave a commentMarch 19, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Well, what a budget that wasn’t. It was supposed to be an election giveaway, but it wasn’t really. It was …
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Whither the environment in this election?
1March 17, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Has anyone else noticed the lack of any debate or attention during this election campaign on the issues of the …
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The Labour pledge card is a “no hard choices” list of incrementally more progressive Miss World statements
Leave a commentMarch 16, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
I have a friend who is a lifelong Labour Party supporter. At the next election he is not only intending to …
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If our workers were more like our immigrants we would need less immigrants
Leave a commentMarch 15, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
In their wonderful detailed and balanced attempt to discern the difference between myth and reality with immigration to this country, …
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Should our water companies ever really be ‘private’ companies?
Leave a commentMarch 14, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
I advise you not to read this whilst eating, or even attempting to digest. The water around you is full …
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Spending targets or Results targets? Lessons from foreign aid.
Leave a commentMarch 12, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
There is an interesting debate going on around our defence budget at the moment. Having told other members of NATO …
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Free Schools – Vive la Difference!
1March 11, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
At last we have a proper issue on which the parties are properly split. It is an important one as …
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How do we make “The Pinch” less painful?
Leave a commentMarch 8, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
David Willetts, or “two brains” as he was once nicknamed, came to speak at my school this week. Willetts has …
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Unrealistic targets are not the way to deal with the politics of immigration
Leave a commentMarch 5, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Talk to people around the country about immigration, and they will say that it is a really important topic for …
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£6000 tuition fees – sneaky short-term political opportunitism
2March 2, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
In the end, after all the fanfare, the announcement by the Labour Party of how and why they were going …
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Left wing supply side policies – Why and how Labour CAN be socially democratic without money.
Leave a commentFebruary 28, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
In a wonderful article in Prospect Magazine, the Labour peer Stewart Wood, a key advisor to Ed Miliband, has explained …
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Speed cameras – should Labour be exchanging our safety for a few votes?
Leave a commentFebruary 25, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Between 1998 and 2009, during the last a Labour government, the quantity of traffic rose by 15%, but there was …
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Reality for Syriza as the limitations on sovereignty in the Eurozone bite
Leave a commentFebruary 23, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Well that didn’t take long, did it? As Alex Salmond and Scotland would have found out had they achieved independence …
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Conservative welfare policies are too easily badged with “nasty party” to win them an election
3February 19, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Margaret Thatcher’s lasting legacy to the Conservative Party seems to be that when they say “long-term economic plan” many people …
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Miliband’s plan for high quality apprenticeships makes sense
Leave a commentFebruary 18, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Monday was a great example of the importance of defining what you are talking about. Ed Miliband gave a speech …
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Grexit could be the human solution
Leave a commentFebruary 15, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
At the end of an outstanding article by Hamish McRae on whether it would really matter if Greece left the …
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More paternity leave isn’t about the money – it requires a massive culture change
Leave a commentFebruary 13, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
There has been much kerfuffle this week about Labour’s plans to double paid paternity leave to four weeks (doubling …
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Labour’s tuition fees discussions are like watching a slow-motion car crash
1February 11, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Sometimes, political parties do things that are actually hard to watch, so utterly amateurish and nonsensical are they. Trying to …
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Government’s policies favour older people for a good reason…and it’s not what you think
Leave a commentFebruary 10, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Let’s start with a fact. Older people are more likely to vote than younger people. Ergo, policies that benefit older …
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Time for Ed Miliband to show he understands Profit.
3February 9, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
The debate around Labour’s relationship with the business community at the moment is about many things. One could say it’s …
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What to do about the high cost of low price milk?
Leave a commentFebruary 7, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
It is often the case that when people ask whether a staple food going down in price is ‘good for …
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Plain packaging on cigarettes – could it actually increase smoking?
Leave a commentFebruary 6, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Here’s an easy task. Explain to someone why anyone who opposes the policy of removing branding from cigarette packets must …
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Can you campaign against fuel poverty AND oppose fracking at the same time?
2February 5, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Last week, MPs voted overwhelmingly against a bid to have all fracking suspended. However, this was not without controversy. Tessa …
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Let’s give all our children the skills to succeed
2February 2, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
This weekend, the Conservatives launched a new policy that demands that children are able to perform a variety of literacy …
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Syriza coalition with Independent Greeks shows Tsipras refuses to accept he can’t control Economics
1January 30, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
There’s going to be a lot to write about Greece over the next few months. The inevitable result of a …
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Why is there a correlation between immigration and inequality?
Leave a commentJanuary 24, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Professor Danny Dorling from Oxford University visited our school this week to talk about inequality. It was the very last thing …
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Why the distinction between poverty and inequality is important
Leave a commentJanuary 22, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Why is the distinction between poverty and inequality important? Two exchanges in the media this week tell us why. Firstly. …
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The Coalition’s employment record – Labour’s jobs myths or Conservatives’ massaged figures?
Leave a commentJanuary 20, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
David Cameron has put the Conservatives’ record on employment at their heart of their election battle plan. In a speech …
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The ‘Poll Tax’ files released from the National Archives – Thatcher can’t say she wasn’t warned.
Leave a commentJanuary 18, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
The release of a tranche of documents from the a National Archive under the ’30 year rule’ has cast a …
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Inflation at 0.5% – should we worry about deflation now?
Leave a commentJanuary 16, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
So inflation has continued it’s fall to the point where deflation is a distinct possibility, with some economists saying it’s …
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Labour can win on the economy if they can explain why ‘their’ type of economic growth is better
Leave a commentJanuary 15, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Much has been made of the Institute of Fiscal Studies’ calculation that Labour’s plans for the future would mean that …
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Ed Miliband needs to come clean and say whether or not he wants to re-nationalise the energy providers
Leave a commentJanuary 14, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
First of all, there is little doubt that no-one in this country should be having to choose between heating and …
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The NHS is a political football for a good reason
Leave a commentJanuary 13, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
First of all, let me get something straight. Labour has every right to use the NHS as a political football, …
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Day one and Labour quickly falls into Tories’ austerity trap
Leave a commentJanuary 6, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
Amongst the astonishingly negative start to the General Election campaign yesterday, as the Tories said that Labour would crash the …
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Why deciding if the deficit really has been halved depends on your political view
Leave a commentJanuary 5, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
The Conservatives ‘fired the starting gun’ on the election campaign last Friday by unveiling a poster. Under the slogan “Let’s …
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A level choices are the key to closing the gender pay gap
4January 4, 2015 by Paul Goldsmith
We’ve been debating the gender pay gap in Economics A-level over the past few weeks. In particular, students are asked …
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Deflation stalks the UK – why we should worry
4December 27, 2014 by Paul Goldsmith
Normally, you would expect the announcement that inflation has fallen as far down as 1% to be greeted with joy. …
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Why Christmas is one big free Coca Cola advert
Leave a commentDecember 25, 2014 by Paul Goldsmith
Joining the many children, both young and grown-up, who are sad to see the back of a Christmas after today, …
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Labour immigration policy cannot exist without offering an EU referendum
2December 23, 2014 by Paul Goldsmith
The Labour Party is undergoing convulsions on the topic of immigration this week. First, Ed Miliband gave what he had …
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