David Fleming drew on the wisdom of Elinor Ostrom, who published ‘Governing the Commons’ in 1990. An article in the Economist records that “collaboration was her watchword. Neighbours thrived if they worked together. The best-laid communal schemes would fall apart once people began to act only as individuals, or formed elites . . . “ She asked two basic questions: how […]
Colin Hines, co-founder of LWM and convenor of the UK Green New Deal Group, comments on the Guardian’s recent editorial on productivity and robots which ‘repeated the cliché that automation does cost jobs, but more are created’. He says that the problem with this is that the new jobs are frequently in different places from where they are lost and […]
Jeremy Corbyn has launched an environmental manifesto that outlines plans for the UK to achieve 65% of energy from renewable sources by 2030 – without fracking. Corbyn proposes to put cities, councils, devolved governments and communities at the heart of an efficient, decentralised energy system by promoting a shift to electric and hydrogen buses and cars; a network of low-emission zones and […]
Colin Hines, co-founder of Localise West Midlands and Richard Murphy, Professor of Practice in International Political Economy, City University, London, warn that the Paris Climate talks are facing an enormous funding problem to which there is only one viable solution. In a new report published by Finance for the Future, entitled ‘Climate QE For Paree’, they suggest that the measures […]
Philip Stephens, an associate editor, in the Financial Times: “Globalisation – the open trading system – is fragmenting; it needs an enforcer – a hegemon, a concert of powers or global governance arrangements”. Evidence: the collapse of the Doha, the demise of global free-trade agreements, and the emergence of regional coalitions and deals. The emerging economies are building south-south relationships […]
. Quantitative Easing currently benefits the non-bank financial sector, commercial banks and the Treasury Under QE, Hansard evidence informs us, the Bank of England’s Asset Purchase Facility purchase of just under £375bn of government bonds from the non-bank financial sector has led to a lowering of long term interest rates. The non-bank financial sector and commercial banks now hold more […]
Colin Hines, co-founder of Localise West Midlands, sends news of a report advancing a much-needed debate about how to move the UK out of the counterproductive politics of austerity and into the age of the Green New Deal. He sees this as a matter of the utmost urgency and thinks that if it isn’t introduced rapidly, we are likely […]
We summarise the thoughts of Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator here, because Localise West Midlands’ aims and policies are designed with his ‘politically sellable vision of a prosperous low-carbon economy’ in mind. He wrote, yesterday: “Last week the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was reported to have passed 400 parts per million for the first time […]
In a newsletter this week (not yet available on his website) Local Euro MP Phil Bennion expresses the hope that the government’s ‘Green Deal’ will be more widely extended to help people in rented social housing: “Millions of homes in the UK do not have full double-glazing. More than half do not have enough insulation or an efficient condensing boiler. […]
. Compass, an ideas and action based pressure group, is discussing alternatives to the Government’s economic ‘Plan A’, which isn’t working, with over 50,000 members and supporters around the country. Its original Plan B, one page summary here, includes elements advocated in the last post by LWM’s co-founder Colin Hines: “infrastructure programmes, such as more housing, making every building energy […]