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Plucky Wallonia exposes the lie at the heart of EU trade policy

Welcome to Wallonia.... Policy strives to achieve the things that it measures, and nothing is more fervently measured in modern economies than GDP. If increasing GDP is the policy objective, then encouraging trade - any sort of trade - will generally help. GDP measures money transactions, so the more times a product and its components are traded on their journey from producer to consumer, the more GDP is recorded. That, in summary, is the basis for TTIP, TPP, TISA and, currently, CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement negotiated between the EU and Canada, which the regional parliament of Wallonia, in Belgium, is refusing to pass . Trade agreements increase activity in global markets, which increases GDP. The size of that increase is much debated , but even a tiny percentage of GDP is a big number in pounds or Euros , and makes for good headlines . The extent to which trade agreements actually increase GDP is not, however, the real issue. The lie at the heart

Immigration is a symptom, not the cause, of our broken economy

Immigration is a symptom, not a cause, of a broken economy In the flatlands of Lincolnshire, in eastern England, the town of Boston is a centre for the industrial scale vegetable farming that flourishes in those fertile soils. In the EU referendum, it recorded the highest vote for Brexit anywhere in the country. The connection is straightforward. Those farms attract large numbers of labourers from Eastern Europe to pick and process their produce. This often transient, alien-sounding workforce is highly visible in an area of limited employment prospects and low pay. It is easy enough to make the case that immigration is depressing local wages while putting pressure on housing and other social services such as health. Easy and, at least to some extent, true. If, however, as reported , there are 20,000 economic migrants working in the area, the 6,795 people in the entire county claiming unemployment benefits will not be able to fill their shoes. Nor would they want to: 

How Britain's Olympics success makes the case for the Basic Income

Mo success - Mo Farah shows his double gold at the Rio Olympics One week later, the spectacle of Team GB's Olympics medals triumph seems a distant memory. It was great while it lasted, not least because it was so unexpected, but the British passion for sports has more to do with commitment that results. We like a loser who gives their all just as much as a winner who cruises to victory. So the UK's second position in the medals table is of passing interest rather than national significance. It's the sport itself that matters, and in the past seven days the sport has moved on. That's my view, but Liz Nicholl, the chief executive of UK Sport, would beg to differ. " We invest in medal success to create a proud, ambitious, active, healthy nation ", she said, hailing the UK as "a sporting superpower" and promising to build on the team's Rio success at the next games in Tokyo in 2020. Some £350 million will be invested over the next four years t

If we want a kinder, gentler politics, we must first shape a kinder, gentler, economic system

A member of parliament is murdered while doing her job. Flags fly at half mast, parliament is recalled for tributes , campaigning in the referendum is suspended, the prime minister and the leader of the opposition share a platform and the challenger parties decide not to contest the now vacant seat. These are far from empty gestures. At the height of the most divisive, dishonest and ill-informed political confrontation that most of us can remember, it has taken a tragic act of violence to set free the instincts of our common humanity. It has reminded us that to empathise with and care for one another, to support each other and to share in our deepest feelings, whether of joy or of loss, is profoundly normal. As such, it throws into stark relief how entirely abnormal is the institutional behaviour that our political and economic frameworks impose. In the House of Commons on Monday, the words of Jo Cox were repeatedly invoked , that we "have far more in common with each ot

The basic income will make sense when people learn to value their unpaid work

Work in progress (but investment is needed) Which is more remarkable - that 77% of Swiss voters rejected proposals for a basic income in a referendum last weekend, or that 23% voted in favour? Admittedly the turnout was low , probably because there was little realistic chance of the proposal being passed, but the fact remains that nearly a quarter of the votes were in support of a radical, socially progressive idea of which nobody much was talking until very recently. A well-executed basic income policy fixes so many socio-economic issues - both present and looming - that it's tempting to think not if, but when. The main barrier, however, may not be demonstrating effectiveness, or even affordability, but overcoming public perception. People are rightly wary of "something for nothing" offers, including the idea that people should be 'paid' without committing to 'work'. Such perceptions matter, which is why 'paid' and 'work' are in

A national policy framework for independent candidates?

Whigs and Tories - political merry-go-round By Gilray (image via Wikipedia) Wednesday's meeting in Totnes, organised by South Devon Watch  to discuss strategies for political change, was inspiring and challenging in equal part. The inspiration came from so many committed people, all seeking to bring authentic democracy to a system widely seen as unaccountable, if not corrupt. The challenge is to find a way of beating the current system without repeating its manifest failings. The meeting focused on independent candidates, both at local and national level. Among the speakers was  Claire Wright , the independent Devon county councillor who came a good second in East Devon at the general election last year. Also present was Martyn Greene of the  Free Parliament campaign , which is putting up serious money  to support independent candidates at the next national election. There can be little doubt that the tribal, adversarial party system typifies much that is wrong with our

EU referendum: a false dichotomy obscuring a far more vital struggle

Continuing the Referendum theme , a friend wishes they knew what the E.U. really does for us. This is not a Life of Brian moment but a measured desire to understand the pros and cons in order to make an informed decision. The leaflet circulated to every household by the Electoral Commission offers little help. The page on the Yes side says "More jobs. Lower prices. NHS protected." while the one for No says "Our last chance to take back control". Yes is appealing to economic self-interest, No to a sense of nationhood. Such different value systems are difficult to compare. This was reinforced in a research paper by Neil Smith that came my way this week. It makes the fascinating point that the UK is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA, which includes EU members and a few non-EU countries such as Switzerland, Norway and Iceland) independently of its membership of the EU, so leaving the EU does not, legally speaking, mean leaving the single market. If

In a single sentence, the DfE tells us everything that is wrong with both the education system and our socio-economic structures

“The evidence is clear that every extra day of school missed can affect a pupil’s chance of gaining good GCSEs, which has a lasting effect on their life chances.” So said the Department for Education, responding to a High Court judgement that children who regularly attend school may be permitted family absences. Let's think that through. Start with the assertion that a person's "life chances" depend on their GCSE results. Is that by accident, or design? If by accident, then it is high time that we do something to correct the error; but if by design then how come we've created a system that values only the narrow range of not particularly useful and sometimes harmful attributes that GCSEs assess. The ability to memorise, for example, and then reproduce in a specified format some pre-cooked "facts" that can easily be looked up on a smartphone does not seem like an essential life skill. The "skill" of suppressing ones enthusiasm - ones desir

Let's not weep for the departing oligarchs - resilience begins at home

Posh London addresses... Yesterday, billionaire hedge fund managers ; today, the nameless super-rich buying into London's property market . All our instincts are screaming that these people do not operate in the best interests of society, and yet the refrain is the same: the rich are "wealth-creators" and we should be grateful to them rather than making them account for their wealth. The rich are not wealth-creators, but wealth accumulators, and buying premium London property is part of that process. Having to reveal themselves under Cameron's much touted anti-corruption measures , will, it seems, frighten them off. Estate agents and lawyers - and doubtless interior decorators, security companies, limousine drivers and many others - fear for the crumbs that drop their way from these rich people's tables. The UK is a dependent economy. It imports far more than it exports , and somehow it has to pay for it. Like those estate agents to the oligarchs it canno

Extreme wealth is not a "victimless crime"

Warning! Wealth-creators at work! Twenty-five hedge fund managers took home $13 billion in earnings last year, according to a new report . Easy enough to be appalled, outraged, disgusted - or even impressed - but what does this really mean for the rest of us? The assumption is that these people with the Midas touch are applying their hard work, ingenuity and good fortune to generating vast quantities of wealth, of which they then take a substantial cut. They are merely the most successful of the millions of people across the world who are trying to make money in investment markets. But that phrase "generating vast quantities of wealth" is misleading. The wealth that comes through managing investments is not "created" or "generated" from new, but is reallocated away from other people. This might mean other professional investors losing out, but more often it means society at large. As employees, customers and tax-payers we all contribute to invest

Housing crisis: there's only one boat, and we're all in it.

Prices are rising, but who is winning? Having spent the weekend debating the divisiveness of party politics, let's cut to the chase and talk about one of the big political issues of the day, which is housing. Conventional political thinking assumes that this is a generational matter, pitting the interests of older house owners against those of younger renters. Since older people are more likely to vote, that makes for a political no-brainer. We could buy into that convention, which would make this an issue of inequality, or rich versus poor. This is what the political establishment would like us to do, because it suits the adversarial framing of party politics (in which the rich generally win). Or we could look at it another way, and try to work out what would be in everyone's best interests. Research published last week shows that the "Bank of Mum and Dad" will help to finance 25% of all UK mortgage transactions in 2016, to the tune of £5 billion. To add to

People don't vote, because the system offers no solutions

Limited attraction: "Did not vote" the biggest winner by far In our tribal, divisive electoral system it's no surprise that the biggest group of all is completely absent. In London on Thursday, 54% did not vote; in Scotland the figure was 44% and in Wales 56%. In English local elections the figures are similar or worse. And these figures are for registered voters. They do not include the  hundreds of thousands of (generally young) people of voting age who do not make it onto the electoral roll . Meanwhile, two election stories are dominating the news cycle. One is the failed Conservative "dog whistle" campaign against Sadiq Khan; the other is the " state of the parties " - who's up, who's down and can Labour win the next General Election under Jeremy Corbyn (or anyone else). Actually, they're the same story. Politics in the media is all about big-name politicians and the parties they belong to, rather than improving the quality of

Time to challenge the divisive values of party politics

Winners take all? How the UK is divided by the party system. Allegations that the Tories stole the last election by cheating on their spending  are far more than a storm in an over-heated social media teacup. They point to an overweaning sense of entitlement in a system that disproportionately favours the big parties. The Conservatives, as the richest party, feel the most entitled, and their dismissal of the cheating claim as an "administrative oversight" suggests that they see rules as an irritation to be brushed off rather than an attempt to level an ever more uneven playing field. Today is polling day. some people, in Scotland, Wales, London and elsewhere, have important decisions to make. Me - I get to vote for a Police and Crime Commissioner and my first instinct is not to bother, but then I'm reminded that alongside candidates from the main parties is an independent who looks like they know what they're doing. Here's a chance to challenge the system

Education is a relationship between pupils, parents and teachers. The government should keep out.

So that's what it means.. . Photo: BenLaParole (Own work)  [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons If you missed the days at school when you would have learned to identify a determiner, a modal verb or a subordinating conjunction (which I fear I must have), you will drop a lot of marks in the new “harder” KS 2 SATs  that are causing such controversy . Fortunately, these are useless pieces of knowledge, of significance only if one treats education as a form of mass-production in which the absence or misplacing of any one pre-determined component is a total fail. This, presumably, is where schools minister Nick Gibb is coming from when he says “it simply isn’t fair on children to deprive them of a day of their education.” Shadow education secretary Lucy Powell also does not “condone children being taken out of school”. In this way they encapsulate the politician's view of education as a rigid framework of inputs selected and provided b

A housing lottery in which even the winners are trapped by their own good fortune

When someone buys a house for the first time their attitude to house prices changes instantly from wanting them to be as low as possible to wanting to be as high. This, in a nutshell, describes the British housing crisis. High house prices are a drug to which a big majority of the voting population are irredeemably addicted. All that, however, could be about to change. A survey for The Observer reveals that 80% of respondents think there is a housing crisis, a number that must by definition include a majority of home owners whom rising house prices can only enrich. So what has caused this change of heart? The answer is children. For whereas the early winners in the housing bonanza (early baby boomers who bought at low prices in the '70s) could afford, five or ten years ago, to help out their adult children with substantial deposits, such opportunities are rapidly closing down. People who bought in the '90s did not get such bargains, and now prices for their twenty-something

Rescuing child refugees is valuable work, but the system can't see it

Dutch children arriving at Tilbury in 1945. Today's refugees may be less well organised, but they are no less needy Which is more valuable? The rescuing of vulnerable refugee children, or the management of a retail chain in the years prior to its collapse? By "more valuable" I mean which of these two activities brings more benefit to society? This question may seem contrived, but in a week when the previous owners of BHS are reported to have received hundreds of millions of pounds from the now collapsed business, while the government declines to help child refugees adrift in Europe , it is, at least, topical and relevant. The activities of businessmen like Sir Philip Green are said to add value to the UK economy, whereas saving the lives of children is just a cost to be avoided if possible. Green received a knighthood for his pains ; the children are left to fend for themselves on the streets or in unofficial camps. It is natural to feel distressed at the mis

Junior doctors are the standard bearers for a new economy

Photo: Garry Knight, Flikr (licence  here ) This government's confrontation with junior doctors , which looked at one point like a traditional labour dispute about terms and conditions, has morphed into something much more important. What we are witnessing is an existential debate on the nature of value. How do we, as a society, value doctoring, or indeed teaching or any caring activity? With figures showing  that the fastest growing sector of the economy in the past 25 years is head office activity and management consultancy, the junior doctors' strike is a timely reminder that we can, as a society, choose what we value, and manage the economy accordingly. At present we are stuck in a Thatcher era mindset, a perverse world of market economics in which caring is a cost that has to be paid for by creating wealth in some other way. We are told that financial services, management consultancy, estate agency, etc., create  wealth, which we can then spend on the cost of kee

Productivity in crisis - armies of middlemen living on the backs of the productive few

More productive than it looks? Photo: © Jorge Royan / http://www.royan.com.ar, via Wikimedia Commons To an otherwise comprehensive overview of the UK's productivity crisis by Duncan Weldon in The Guardian on Monday , one key factor could be added. Paid work is not necessarily productive, and not all productive work is paid. Productivity is the measure of GDP per hour worked. Traditionally, it grows by introducing new methods and technologies, so that a given quantity of goods or services can be provided by a smaller number of people. This frees up other people to create more new wealth. But the figures ignore all the work that people do freely for themselves, their families and communities - work that GDP does not measure . A paid child-minder is “productive”, but a parent minding their own child is not, according to official measures. This means that a lot of the most useful work is left out of the productivity data. And just as unpaid work should be treated as productive, muc

Decades of sell-offs leave Britain unable to pay its way in the world

Port Talbot Steelworks: p hoto by  Grubb at English Wikipedia  (Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.)  [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons The British government is chucking in some money to rescue UK steel production not as a coherent national investment but to avoid the embarrassment of losing the steel industry on its watch. The moment it gets the chance to sell its new shares it will do so. The labour movement is happy to see thousands of jobs saved by this part-nationalisation, so it won't rock the boat. The episode illustrates the lack of a political strategy for rebuilding Britain's productive capacity. George Osborne won't tell you this, but the deficit that really matters is not in the government's finances, but those of the nation itself. Last year's balance of payments reveals that Britain spent £100 billion more than it earned. Unless we find a way to pay our way in the world, we're headed into yet more serious trouble. Nearly fort

To provide affordable housing, we need to defy the conventions of the market

Quality council housing form the 1960s, when land was for use, not investment. Photo copyright  John M  and licensed for reuse  under this  Creative Commons Licence Housing campaigners in Bristol are angry that the city council has sold off 14 council houses , even though the proceeds are to be used to build new homes. In conventional market terms, the deal makes sense. The houses are old and in poor condition, but their location in expensive areas makes them valuable. So why not sell them and put the money into new, low maintenance replacements? But conventional does not mean right, and the the anger is justifiable for two reasons. First, if these houses are desirable to people who want to buy them and do them up, then why could they not be desirable to council tenants, too? The second reason is more fundamental. If you want to create affordable housing, the easiest way is to sell houses for less. But just as huge swathes of London's once-social housing have been sold i

GDP IS THE ENEMY OF REWILDING BRITAIN

Hill country in the Lake district - not as wild as it seems... © Copyright Walter Baxter and licensed for reuse  under this Creative Commons Licence George Monbiot was in tremendous form at the University of Exeter last night. In a double-header with Alan Watson Featherstone of Trees for Life , sponsored by the Network of Wellbeing  and  Exeter Community Initiatives , he was passionate, incisive, witty and erudite in turns on rewilding Britain . His central thesis: that the bare, upland landscapes of Wales, the Lake District, the Highlands of Scotland, Dartmoor and elsewhere are not natural environments of deep ecology but "sheep-wrecked" wastelands, the constant grazing of which ensures that nothing of significance is allowed to grow. True wilderness contains a hierarchy of flora and fauna, from mighty oaks to gentle mosses, and from large mammals to tiny insects and microbial life forms. Despite the association of the terms, wilderness is not barren , but replete w