Blighty
Britain
London's mayoralty explained
Strings attached
May 5th 2012, 1:35 by The Economist online
As Boris Johnson begins another four-year term as mayor of London, we take a look at the powers he has at his disposal
Elections in Britain
A little local trouble
May 4th 2012, 11:55 by J.G. | LONDON
GOVERNMENTS tend to receive a bloodying snub from voters in the middle of a term in office, and the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has honoured the tradition. In elections for local authorities on May 3rd, the opposition Labour Party was triumphant with around 39% of the popular vote and perhaps over 700 new councillors—although results are not yet finalised. The party has gained control of more than 20 councils, including the big city of Birmingham, and held on to more.
The Tories won just 31% of the vote and relinquished councils such as Dudley, Harlow and Plymouth.
The Economist/Ipsos-MORI issues index
Doling it out
Apr 17th 2012, 19:16 by A.G. | LONDON
NOT since before the millennium has joblessness vexed the British so much. According to an opinion poll conducted for The Economist earlier this month by Ipsos MORI, two-fifths of the population think that unemployment is among the most pressing problems facing the country, the highest level of concern in 13 years, up four percentage points from the previous month.
The fear is well-founded: the total number of people without work is at its highest for 17 years. Half of those who cited it said unemployment was the greatest threat facing Britain. Young people and Labour voters tended to be more concerned than were older people and Conservative voters.
Elitism and English universities
University challenged
Apr 16th 2012, 11:14 by A.G. | CAMBRIDGE
"BREAK, break, break," implores Zeynab, "On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!" The dozen or so inner-city teenagers grouped in the classroom scribble notes as she and a second Muslim girl critique Alfred Tennyson's 1835 elegy to his late friend Arthur Hallam. It is the Easter holiday but these 17-year-olds are in a lecture theatre at the University of Cambridge, attending a voluntary four-day programme that aims to boost their chances of entering higher education.
Although just 7% of British schoolchildren are privately educated, 41% of British undergraduates at the University of Cambridge come from independent schools.
Private-sector pay pain
Women's workplace woes
Mar 30th 2012, 13:47 by D.M. | LONDON
THE ECONOMIST ran an article this week showing the higher pay premium that public-sector workers enjoy over their private-sector colleagues in Britain, according to official figures. Even after adjustments for age and qualifications (workers in the public sector tend to be older and better educated) the pay gap persists. Women benefit in the public sector more than men in relative terms but, alas, still earn on average a fifth less per hour. Women in the private sector get an even rougher deal: men have an average pay premium of 33% over their female colleagues.
Scottish universities
Spiffy Scots
Mar 30th 2012, 11:59 by A.G. | LONDON
EDUCATION in Scotland is distinct from elsewhere in the United Kingdom, as it has been for centuries. As far back as 1469, well before Scotland became part of Great Britain, the Scottish parliament was passing laws on the schooling of the sons of noblemen. Nowadays children in Scotland often start primary school later than their counterparts south of the border. They sit university entrance exams that are different to those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland ("Highers" instead of "A-levels"). Degree courses span four years rather than three.
Panicking over petrol
The silliest country in the world
Mar 29th 2012, 17:05 by J.B. | LONDON
PITY Britain's politicians. They spend much of their time being ignored as they try to explain important issues to the public. The repetition involved can be numbing: New Labourites used to complain that the moment they became heartily sick of saying something, and convinced that they sounded like interminable bores, was about the moment ordinary people began to catch on. Just occasionally, though, people do listen to politicians. The consequences can be calamitous.
So it has proved over the past couple of days. On March 28th David Cameron condemned a threatened strike by fuel tanker drivers, which could occur in about 10 days’ time.
Schools reform
The ties that bind
Mar 28th 2012, 15:11 by A.G. | LONDON
ALMOST two years after the Conservatives became the dominant force in the coalition government, schools reform has raced ahead of even the party’s own expectations. Some 1,635 schools in England have become academies free from the stranglehold of local authorities, with control over their budgets, the pay and working hours of teachers and what they teach. Two dozen free schools established by parents, teachers and charities have joined them, and 70 more are due to open in the autumn. Alas for England’s schoolchildren, such structural reforms have so far failed to promote the innovation needed to boost standards in the classroom.
Britain's budget
The right sort of signals
Mar 22nd 2012, 20:05 by The Economist online
GIVEN the constraints, George Osborne has come up with a smart, well-judged budget, say our correspondents
George Osborne's budget
The political post-mortem
Mar 22nd 2012, 16:37 by J.G. | LONDON
UNLESS something goes very wrong in the coming years, George Osborne has delivered the most politically tricky budget he will ever give. The hours between sitting down after his speech yesterday afternoon and reading the press this morning might add up to the toughest day he will endure as chancellor. So why, as he tours the broadcast studios to explain his budget, is he not more despondent? I suspect that he is consoling himself with the following thoughts.
The first is this: the grim headlines were unavoidable from the moment he resolved to deal with the 50p rate of income tax now. That decision guaranteed him a double kicking.
Health and longevity
A chinking time bomb
Mar 22nd 2012, 12:50 by A.G. | LONDON
THE British are living ever longer, thanks to medical advances that variously halt or treat disease. However deaths from preventable causes, such as from eating and drinking to excess, have grown just as surely as the nation's waistline has expanded. According to a report published today by the National End of Life Care Intelligence Network, an outfit funded by the Department of Health, the number of people who died from liver disease in England rose by 25% between 2001 and 2009. More than a third of these deaths were caused by alcohol.
Liver disease is most deadly during middle age.
The Economist/Ipsos-MORI issues index
Petrol heads
Mar 21st 2012, 18:34 by A.G. | LONDON
A LEAP in concern about petrol prices features in the latest monthly look at what keeps Britain awake at night. The poll conducted during March by Ipsos/MORI on behalf of The Economist found a seven percentage point rise in the proportion of people who thought high fuel prices worrisome, while there was a seven percentage point fall in the numbers concerned about the economy.
Overall the economy still dominates the polls, as it has done since September 2008 when it overtook crime to become Britain's most pressing concern. Some 57% of people fret about it. Second on the worry list is unemployment, mentioned by 36% of Brits.
George Osborne's budget
Open for business
Mar 21st 2012, 16:38 by J.G. | LONDON
MORE of a newspaper review than a budget, quipped one pundit in Westminster. Almost every notable item in George Osborne's budget on March 21st had been leaked (or, more decorously, "trailed") to the press in the recent weeks. But policies do not have to be surprising to be bold. Although there were no changes to the pace or scale of deficit-reduction—the government's fiscal strategy was set in 2010 and remains immovable—the chancellor elucidated a dramatic package of micro-economic reforms.
The budget and the 50p tax rate
Inside the mind of George Osborne
Mar 20th 2012, 22:38 by J.G. | LONDON
"WHAT is he thinking?" In hushed huddles around Westminster, MPs, advisers and journalists are exchanging theories as to why George Osborne is even contemplating a reduction or abolition of the 50% top rate of income tax in Wednesday's budget.
Even those who would cheer such a move admit that it risks entrenching the Conservatives' image as the party of the rich. Since inaugurating the age of austerity in 2010, the chancellor of the exchequer has imposed a public sector pay freeze, signalled an end to universal child benefit and tightened spending across government.
Privatising utilities
The open road
Mar 20th 2012, 9:57 by R.B | LONDON
Grand announcements about growth and infrastructure often closely precede budgets. So it was with the government’s National Infrastructure Plan before the chancellor’s autumn statement in November. So, too, this week David Cameron, the prime minister, gave a speech about unlocking “large-scale private investment” to upgrade the country’s road and motorway network, shortly before Wednesday’s budget.
Infrastructure is a good thing to bang on about. It is rather useful.
On this blog, our correspondents ponder political, cultural, business and scientific developments in Britain, the spiritual and geographical home of The Economist. It takes its name from a fond but faintly derogatory name for the mother country often used among British expats.
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Most commented
- Chen Guangcheng: Chen, China and America
- Charlemagne: Kicking against austerity
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- Christians, gays and bullying: A race to take umbrage
- Schumpeter: The Mormon way of business
- Human rights: Blind justice
- Evangelical voters: Lift every voice
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Over the past five days
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