I just did a post on London Remade‘s Debate column about what economic policies we should demand from the next Mayor. That’s very short-term. Then tomorrow I’m giving the first talk in a UCL event about the London Economy in 2062. Yes 50 years ahead. A bit long term. I’ll post some stuff here and tweet a bit if I can. #L2062 My talk here Edwards London Economy 2062 and all should be on web soon. I’ll add that link.
19 April. London is ensuring that this historic puddle, which for years has been delaying and infuriating passengers entering and leaving Euston Station, is conserved as part of preparations for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, starting 100 days from now.
My lengthy correspondence a few years ago led to some abortive works by one of the many public bodies, all of whom deny responsibility. The puddle could easily have been lost, but is now back in it’s full width and depth. Joe Barnes of Liverpool tweets on 18 April “…I nearly drowned…” Click on the photo for more images, then on slideshow. Read the rest of this entry »
[Some friends...] ask if I can explain why “the Ruth Glass interdisciplinary initiative at UCL was disbanded in the end”. This is the best I can do. Maybe others can help.
Ruth was a cornery and ungovernable person, incapable of arse-licking. My feeling always was that this, as much as her radicalism within her work, always made heads of departments keep her (and sociology) rather at arms length. Read the rest of this entry »
We vote in May for Mayor and for the London Assembly. Today I did a letter to the Evening Standard and a piece for the election blog of the London Civic Forum where Deirdre McGrath had asked me to do something on the economy. Difficult to think what to be demanding where the Mayor/Assembly can do so little. Read the rest of this entry »
…week or two. Lots of stimulating things which it would have been good to write about, but then on to the next so there was no time. And than a really bad cold which made it hard to play a full part in an INURA meeting. Still here are a few jottings for the record. Skip this post if you are just looking for serious essays. Read the rest of this entry »
Just come from a talk by Henry Overman at LSE and jotting down some reactions. He has that kind of cocky, glib, style of presentation common among liberal (mainstream) economists which I find very hard to challenge in the heat of the session. Read the rest of this entry »
The London Evening Standard published an article by the fecund Simon Jenkins. They asked me to write a letter in response, which I did.
Simon Jenkins (24 January) is right to point out how inadequate are the executive and taxation powers of the London Mayor. It would be great to see them strengthened but what would they be used for? Read the rest of this entry »
Usual fine orgy of eating and drinking and playing games with words. Two good big fat books came as presents: Osssie gave me Hobsbawm’s How to Change the World: tales of Marx and Marxism and Gavin gave me David Graeber’s Debt: the first 5,000 years. I have started on Hobsbawm, though I struggled with the first chapter—on the pre- and post-Marx history of socialism—because I just don’t know enough history to follow it all. But then Read the rest of this entry »
How weird is this? I am consulted by both sides in a picketing rights issue. Yesterday, 30 November, was a day of coordinated and major strikes by public sector workers in the UK and I had some interesting calls about where it is possible to picket outside the first big public service in the King’s Cross Railway Lands – the University of the Arts (UoA or CSM) in the Granary Building. One call was from a union member in the UCU branch there. Read the rest of this entry »
Taking part in a seminar at Birkbeck The Housing Crisis: Experience, Analysis and Response organised by Paul Watt and Stuart Hodgkinson. Very interesting indeed. Read the rest of this entry »