- In praise of German local government ingenuity – the pothole taxI love it. Unseasonally cold weather in North Western Europe has created a load of potholes across the streets of the old continent but a town in the Ex-Communist East Germany, Niderzimmern, has hit upon a way of makling money from this driver’s blight. Niederzimmern, not far from Weimar, and an area I know quite well (and [...] […]
- Micro-hydro – huge potential for the UK?I keep thinking about this trip I went on last weekend – a tour of micro-hydro plants organised by the South Somerset Hydropower Group. It was a good deal – for £60, we got lunch, coffee x 3 and bussed around 6 quite different micro-hydro sites, with plenty of expert commentary, not least by some [...] […]
- The death of the full-time job . . . ?Very thoughtful piece by Sean O’Grady in the Independent this morning – So where on earth have all the proper jobs gone? He observes that while full-time jobs are going down, part-time jobs are increasing. I remember 20 odd years ago some futurist forecasting that in the future, we would all have 3 or 4 jobs [...] […]
- In Ireland – deep public sector cuts are working . . .There’s been a lot of policy chatter over the last year in the UK about the lessons the Britain can learn from Canada and Sweden- at least a decade or more ago – on cutting government expenditure harder and faster than anyone really wants. That’s all fine, but why not look across the Irish Sea [...] […]
- The Alternative Manifesto – By Dr Eamonn ButlerThe other day, we had our inaugural private EPC dinner with politicians, thought-leaders and leading members of the business community – it was terrific. And we had a real treat, because Dr Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute agreed to step in at the last moment to speak about his new book; The Alternative Manifesto [...] […]
