employment
The sickness benefit trap
Now that I’m no longer editor of this magazine, I can admit that I spent the election night of 1997…
Portrait of the week: Storm Bert, Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire and Putin gives cockatoos to North Korea
Home A white paper outlined measures to counter economic inactivity (which had risen by September to 41.2 per cent among…
Who chooses assisted suicide in Canada?
Sign of the times A petition for an immediate general election gathered 2.7 million signatures in five days. What are…
Why forcing a return to the office won’t work
The Romans never invented the stirrup. What we call a ‘chest of drawers’ was unknown before the late 17th century…
Letters: What is the Chancellor trying to achieve?
Zero-sum game Sir: Though troubled by the impact of Budget measures on employers and economic growth, I am more baffled…
Why the young are fleeing to Portugal
The legendary music producer Rick Rubin once asked me why I had never moved to the United States. The answer,…
Starmer’s snowflakes’ charter
I almost choked on my cornflakes when I read that the Prime Minister had said he would slash red tape…
Labour will regret its war with P and O
Labour’s Employment Rights Bill promises workers flexible working, is supposed to protect them from unfair dismissal from day one of…
Will AI make bricklayers better-paid than barristers?
Old tortoise that I am, my head usually yanks back into my shell when people start talking about artificial intelligence.…
In defence of McJobs
The burden of higher taxation must fall on those with ‘the broadest shoulders’, says the Prime Minister, and City folks…
Labour vs labour: how can the government claim to be promoting growth?
Growth, growth, growth: that was what Keir Starmer told us would be his government’s priority in his first press conference…
How hot is too hot to work?
Gold standard The Paralympics were instigated in 1948 and first held alongside the Olympics in Rome in 1960. But disabled…
How to quit like the Japanese
Tokyo For many, the idea of quitting a job they hate, of walking into their boss’s office and telling him…
Degrees of failure: the great university rip-off
Is university still worth it?
Jonathan Ashworth: ‘We are at risk of a lost generation’
Jonathan Ashworth on Labour’s plans to cut unemployment
The civil service’s exercise in navel-gazing
Navel-gazing in the civil service
Britain needs more honesty about unemployment
Is low unemployment causing us more problems than we realise? The suggestion might seem absurd, offensive even. It’s reminiscent of…
In Japan, being a token westerner is big business
How to make money as a token westerner in Japan
Work is no place for your ‘whole self’
One of the few things I have learned in this life is that Dante Alighieri was wrong. In the Inferno…
Bad news, Governor: the wage-rise spiral is already raging
I’ve had the opportunity recently to take part in wage-rise discussions for several small entities in which I’m involved. The…
What’s to become of Africa’s teeming youth?
Demographers are attached to their theories. The field’s most enduring is the ‘demographic transition’, whereby modernisation inexorably lowers a society’s…
Who survived the sinking of the Titanic?
Prime numbers As of 29 January Boris Johnson will have been Prime Minister for two years and 190 days. Currently…
Boris’s hostage to fortune
Most prime ministers would be worried about supply chain shortages. But as became increasingly clear at the Tory party conference…
