Emeritus Prof Christopher May / is on Nostr

Retired Professor of Political Economy
(Lancaster University, UK - retired 2021)
(also #ProfDJ across the Lune Valley)
Contributor: North West Bylines #NoBridge

DJ repertoire(s): Jazz nights; Soul/funk nights; Disco classics night; 70's night
Academic interests: Critical Political Economy; Art History; Music business
Reading: Art History; Science Fiction; 'Literary' fiction; classics
Past Lives: Music industry (studio/retail); Bookseller (family business); political pressure group

Last Notes

2024-06-25 08:32:35

Taxpayer's money going up in smoke?
Nearly £1.5bn worth of PPE from one supplier has been destroyed or written off.
Full Support Healthcare, strangely now are registered in Jersey for 'privacy' had previously been a small healthcare provider... well they did well didn't they? The taxpayer, not so much.
Yet one more piece in the procurement scandal(s) surrounding the Tories' management of the pandemic.
#tories
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cll476qzm85o

2024-06-14 09:14:55

- reply

Hmmm.... well the map-distribtion os space is certainly a thing, but the problem is many of the empty homes are in the wrong places.... likewise, where homes are under-occupied, problems of down-sizing due to a lack of appropriate housing stock are also a problem - but you're right just building is not the whole solution!

2024-06-13 07:56:31

Increasing numbers of people diagnosed with cancer, in a context of static (or worsening) NHS treatment capacity has, unsurprisingly, led to longer waits for treatment....
If this was the only area of the NHS in crisis we might be worried but optimistic that something could be done, but of course its not - this is merely one aspect of the massive & cruelly engineered crisis the NHS has been forced into by 14 years of Tory defunding & attrition.
#health #cancer
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/13/deadly-cancer-treatment-delays-routine-nhs

2024-06-11 07:49:25

How much would it cost to clear the social housing waiting list of 1.2mn households?
Property consultants JLL (who advise on affordable housing & are quoted in FT) reckon to build out the current shortage would cost £205bn.
However, this is 'only' around half of what the UK mobilised to respond to Covid... just in case you were about to say, that's clearly unaffordable!
More help to first time buyers isn't going to help.
We must build more social housing!
#housing #inequality #politics

2024-05-29 23:34:41

So Junior Doctors will be striking just before the election having lost patience with the lack of any progress in pay negotiations, to match the reassurances the were given when they paused previous strike action.
Rishi Sunak claims this looks 'politically motivated'; only in the sense that he & his familiars have failed to deliver any repair of doctors' standard of living.
This is part of Tory engineered health crisis that itself is politically motivated!
#health
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/29/junior-doctors-strike-england-june

2024-05-29 23:12:55

here's an interesting Q. posed by @npub1tvx…xvrp - why did four firms using the Covid VIP Lane pay £98m in total to fixers with Tory party connections?
What exactly was that money for?
And we can be sure that it was loaded into th contracts so those fixers were actually paid for by us (the taxpayers).
Just a reminder, should you need it, that while we were in lockdown & people were dying, the Tories & their chums had their snouts in the money trough.
#corruption
https://goodlawproject.org/fixers-vip-lane/

2024-05-27 08:02:07

[sound of grinding teeth]...
Someone needs to sit the Guardian editorial team down & explain to them:
Rising house prices are not 'growth' - this is asset price inflation driven by financial instruments & constrained supply... read my lips: IT IS INFLATION!
(just because its excluded from RPI/CPI measure doesn't make it growth!)
And most inflationary areas are not 'best performing' - they are areas of housing crisis!!!!
#housing #headinmyhands
https://www.theguardian.com/money/article/2024/may/27/house-price-growth-in-rural-areas-outstrips-towns-in-great-britain

2024-05-24 08:23:03

In the worst 'Ghost Enclaves' over 50% of local homes are owned by investors for short-term holiday lets (or as seldom used second homes).
This, of course, has knock-on effects for locals trying to stay in the area for work or family reasons - the housing crisis is driven by inequality & them compounds that inequality.
The Q. is will the next government have the political will to expand social housing & clamp down on non-residential uses of homes?
#housing #inequality
https://theconversation.com/the-uks-coastal-ghost-enclaves-are-the-result-of-government-failure-on-low-use-homes-227743

2024-05-21 07:42:10

If you think consumer sentiment (confidence) is a good indicator of the general state of the economy, you'll (perhaps) be unsurprised that across the EU and in UK & USA, such sentiment has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Given the continuing cost of living crises, high(er) interest rates & a range of issues from conflicts to climate change, its perhaps more surprising sentiment has not declined more.
But, if capitalism is a system built on confidence about the future....
#economics
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/112/477/467/176/089/247/original/ddc10f154cfb37b6.png

2024-05-18 09:34:38

I sometimes thought my father thought he could't die while he still had books on his pending pile (a stab at immortality I seem to be replicating)... so, it was strangely touching to see Tom Gauld has had similar thoughts.
#reading #immortality
@npub1ny7…uv57
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/112/460/903/721/835/430/original/8d54b19004cf81d4.png

2024-03-27 10:50:59

concludes, rightly, that while voters might forgive (or forget, provided the press lets them) that a Labour Govt broke its promise not to raise taxes, few will be so forgiving if it has not made significant repairs to the social damage (from the NHS to the UK's infrastructure) wrought by 14 years of Tory rule.
Things will not be easy for Labour if they win the election but there's no need to tie their hands behind their back
#NHS #infrastructure #taxes
https://mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2024/03/why-raising-taxes-substantially-is.html