Economy

Harsh as it may sound, the retail and hospitality sector of the economy which has suffered most immediately under the Covid restrictions was also the least productive.  For those who follow conventional economic models, then, the damage currently being wrought on that sector is of little concern.  Shops and cafés …

Thousands of patients are queuing on trolleys in the corridors of overstretched hospitals.  NHS managers have appealed to the public to only seek hospital care in a genuine emergency.  Those genuine emergency patients have been told to take taxis to A&E because of a shortage of ambulances.  Meanwhile, ambulance paramedics …

Age is the most important factor in the current pandemic.  Put simply, once you pass 50, each additional year adds to the risk of your developing and succumbing to Covid-19.  But age may play a less obvious role in determining your relative risk – one that speaks volumes about the …

In my last post I underestimated the speed with which the UK government would U-turn and plunge England into a second lockdown.  After all, just a fortnight ago Chancellor Rishi Sunak told MPs that even a two-week “circuit-breaker” would be enormously damaging to the UK economy.  Only after modelling (from …

The British Government is about to commit economic Seppuku.  It doesn’t know it yet; and its spokespeople are determined to put off the day of reckoning.  Nevertheless, with SARS-CoV-2 infections spiralling out of control despite official attempts to curb the spread through local lockdowns, it cannot be long before the …

I am reliably informed that there are some districts in the USA where mentioning the term “the new normal” will get you hauled out of your car and beaten unconscious by some “mostly peaceful” kid with a skateboard.  It wasn’t always this way.  Back in the early days of the …

How do you hide mass unemployment at little cost to the state?  One way is to create a giant higher education system to keep millions of young people out of the jobs market; and fund it using student debt. While this may not have been the intention of the architects …

In the next six weeks we will find out if we are at the start of a Covid-19 second wave.  What we know today is that the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the UK has been growing dramatically from the beginning of July; with the seven day average …

The UK government has lost its lead in the polls for the first time since the general election last year.  Despite the many mistakes made in handling the Covid-19 emergency, the government had maintained a lead of some 6 to 9 points over the Labour opposition.  But an Opinium poll …

Prior to 1965, August bank holiday was sensibly held on the first Monday of the month.  A trial period between 1965 and 1970 led to the holiday being moved permanently to the last Monday in August from 1971.  And so, rather than being a summer bank holiday, it became a …