Authors and filmmakers can answer this question but policy makers and pundits seem not to have a clue. Perhaps it’s because they see them as statistics, not people. By Daniel Taghioff, India.
Aravind Adiga’s Booker winner White Tiger and Danny Boyle’s Golden-Globe-harvesting film Slumdog Millionaire (based on Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup’s novel Q and A) illustrate [...]
Tag Archives: wonkstuff
So, where are the poor in the Brave New World?
January 13, 2009 – 3:03 pm
Spice-up Girls reunion promised with Campbell and Mandy proving social mobility is a fact in Brown's Britain
January 12, 2009 – 6:15 pm
Several weeks ago, Thus Magazine speculated that dark forces were abroad in the Mordor of Gordon Brown’s never-had-it-so-good Britain in the form of Mandy and Campbell. Now, according to The Independent on Sunday, Alistair Campbell, disgraced Blair witch doctor, alleged dodgy dossier editor, hammer of the BBC and the deceased Dr David Kelly, looks set to join [...]
Throw away your crutches and limp down to the McJobCentre, says PM
December 10, 2008 – 7:55 pm
By John J Kelly
In yet another demonstration of the sort of lateral thinking that has made Gordon Brown not only saviour of the banks but saviour of the world, Work and Pensions Minister James Purnell announced a government pledge to force long term sickness benefits claimants and some single mothers back to work. The Welfare Reform White Paper [...]
Another wrong move in the war against teenage binge drinking
December 4, 2008 – 2:35 pm
In political circles we talk about the Problem of our Binge Drinking Culture as if it is something that can be solved with the right intervention or piece of legislation. By Julia Margo, Demos
Much recent research has explored the causes of youth binge drinking. Work at Sheffield University has suggested that “cheap alcohol is the [...]
Fiscal scriscal, fiddle-dee dee, Europe's suddenly OK with me
November 21, 2008 – 6:17 pm
Before spreadsheets enabled geeks to assume they could manipulate the economic weather, we knew that if we spent too much, we’d run out of money. If we ran out of things to sell or do in return for more money, we’d be in trouble. If we borrowed money at unrealistic interest rates, we’d be in [...]
There is a word for it ….
November 19, 2008 – 4:41 pm
I love online dictionaries. Does this make me a Dork, a Geek or a Nerd? I especially like the OneLook Reverse Dictionary. If you ever feel lost for words, take a concept that leaves you speechless, put it in, and out come the suggestions.
One concept that has been leaving me speechless recently is how many [...]
Human capital is only useful if you don't break the bank
November 16, 2008 – 11:30 pm
The mantra of the Third Way seems to be about “capabilities”. UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband pontificated in The New Statesman that this it is about creating an “I can” society. But what exactly is the point of all this? Coming from a Development background, it took me a while to realise that all politics, [...]