What caught my eye this week including Kamala vesus the price gougers, a clean energy Marshall Plan, Labour's youth mobility denialism, Silicon Saxony, and when America nearly elected a communist
To repeat a comment I made on Sam Freedman’s latest post:-
“Key must be to keep MPs on side - so some increases in tax plus 3rd child critical. Narrative that the situation is far worse will sink in and turning ship around must start now.” Sam’s post didn’t mention Brexit unlike yours which must be critical.
Meanwhile the right wing press won’t support anything this government does and centrist (FT Guardian) will fall in behind sensible approach”
Agreed. The timidity of the Starmer administration is very very concerning. The UK's structural problems stem in large part from skills shortages, which can only be met - long term - whoever has the courage and tenacity to create a fluid labor market with its continental neighbors. This can be achieved in small but incremental steps. Corporations considering large scale investment in the UK's 'leading-edge institutions' and collaborative agreements with major universities will not be impressed with this midsummer madness. We might ask - is this administration, like its predecessors, going to be cowed by the grotesquely incompetent and nativist 'security state' of the Cooper-led Home Office? Or is Starmer prepared to opt for the 'Mission led' growth touted during the campaign? Let's hope that common sense and the latter prevail. In which case inward investment might flow.
I wouldn’t recommend anyone to move to Saxony. It’s not just that the AfD are nasty, far right racists. Many Eastern Germans wear their racism on their sleeves. I’ve heard many stories from people I know and trust about racist abuse, including in the big cities like Dresden. And I wouldn’t venture into the countryside at all. Stay away, maintain your dignity.
For a “Clean Energy Marshall Plan” to actually work, the US would need to be a leader in the manufacture of renewable goods, as it was in infrastructure development and the production of assembly-line goods at the end of the Second World War.
The US is by no means a leader in the manufacture of renewable goods, and developing a domestic renewables manufacturing base that can meet domestic demand should take precedent over competition with China for influence in the global south. That would be a waste of money on a competition China would almost certainly win given its already-established renewables manufacturing prowess and overcapacity driving prices for its renewable goods to the floor.
To expand globally, there first must be a solid domestic manufacturing base, which the US still does not have despite the IRA and CHIPS Act driving sharp increases in renewables investment.
I can only echo Frank Colson and, impliedly, you: “The timidity of the Starmer administration is very very concerning”. At a time when we need a Roosevelt or an Attlee, we seem to have got throwbacks to (Ramsay) MacDonald and Snowden.
PS How come I’ve never previously heard of Past Present Future?
To repeat a comment I made on Sam Freedman’s latest post:-
“Key must be to keep MPs on side - so some increases in tax plus 3rd child critical. Narrative that the situation is far worse will sink in and turning ship around must start now.” Sam’s post didn’t mention Brexit unlike yours which must be critical.
Meanwhile the right wing press won’t support anything this government does and centrist (FT Guardian) will fall in behind sensible approach”
Agreed. The timidity of the Starmer administration is very very concerning. The UK's structural problems stem in large part from skills shortages, which can only be met - long term - whoever has the courage and tenacity to create a fluid labor market with its continental neighbors. This can be achieved in small but incremental steps. Corporations considering large scale investment in the UK's 'leading-edge institutions' and collaborative agreements with major universities will not be impressed with this midsummer madness. We might ask - is this administration, like its predecessors, going to be cowed by the grotesquely incompetent and nativist 'security state' of the Cooper-led Home Office? Or is Starmer prepared to opt for the 'Mission led' growth touted during the campaign? Let's hope that common sense and the latter prevail. In which case inward investment might flow.
I wouldn’t recommend anyone to move to Saxony. It’s not just that the AfD are nasty, far right racists. Many Eastern Germans wear their racism on their sleeves. I’ve heard many stories from people I know and trust about racist abuse, including in the big cities like Dresden. And I wouldn’t venture into the countryside at all. Stay away, maintain your dignity.
For a “Clean Energy Marshall Plan” to actually work, the US would need to be a leader in the manufacture of renewable goods, as it was in infrastructure development and the production of assembly-line goods at the end of the Second World War.
The US is by no means a leader in the manufacture of renewable goods, and developing a domestic renewables manufacturing base that can meet domestic demand should take precedent over competition with China for influence in the global south. That would be a waste of money on a competition China would almost certainly win given its already-established renewables manufacturing prowess and overcapacity driving prices for its renewable goods to the floor.
To expand globally, there first must be a solid domestic manufacturing base, which the US still does not have despite the IRA and CHIPS Act driving sharp increases in renewables investment.
Thank you for the substack - always enlightening.
I can only echo Frank Colson and, impliedly, you: “The timidity of the Starmer administration is very very concerning”. At a time when we need a Roosevelt or an Attlee, we seem to have got throwbacks to (Ramsay) MacDonald and Snowden.
PS How come I’ve never previously heard of Past Present Future?
Excellent article