Millennium3

C G Jung - Man & His Symbols - helps you to get to understand yourself.

David Agnew

Littlejohn's Britain, Richard Littlejohn.

Richard Littlejohn has finally got round to doing for New Labour what he did for the Conservatives in 'You Couldn't Make It Up'

Jeremy Clarkson wrote:
"Littlejohn slaughters more sacred cows than a foot and mouth epidemic. He makes you laugh out loud and drives you incandescent with rage at what the Blair years have done to Britain"

Independent UKIP

Shouldn't this thread be removed to the Recommended Reading part of the forum or if not cease being a sticky thread?

Anthony Butcher

'Recommended reading' is actually a category, rather than a forum. I could create another forum just for suggesting books I suppose, but it just seemed ok to keep it here.

David Agnew

Polly Toynbee reports on what it is like to be among the deserving (working) poor.

The book is interesting on the subject of the poverty trap: It's not just that the loss of benefits when you work encourages dependency, it is also the loss of security (low-paid jobs tend to be insecure). In addition, there is the cost of going to interviews, and the problem of bridging the income gap between the immediate loss of social security, and the first pay packet.

The book shows that it is expensive being poor (you're more likely to need credit if you're poor, but you get charged much more interest than if you're not poor).

Much of the misery of being poor is simply unnecessary:
* The shoddy state of council housing (leaking windows, leaking water tanks, lifts not working).
* Anti-social and criminal behaviour in council accommodation. (our politicians' refusal to reduce the crime rate hits the poor hardest).
* The bad manners of the employers of the low paid.

I had assumed that NHS trusts contracted out cleaning and portering to save money, but apparently they do this because the politicians have said that they must. This results in inefficiency:
* Because NHS managers are not responsible for organising cleaning themselves, they lose touch with cleaning requirements. For example PT found that she could clean an area in one third of the time allocated. The contractor had exagerated the time requirement (the longer it takes, the more money they get). So in theory, it would be possible to double the wages of cleaners, and still save the NHS money.
* Employing a contractor (who in turn gets their staff from an agency) means that the money going to middlemen could in theory go directly staff if the NHS employed them.
* Compartmentalisation and loss of initiative. If something isn't in a contractor's contract, it doesn't get done. So a burly porter may be standing by while a nurse struggles to lift a patient, because lifting patients is not part of his job description.

PT argues that it is better to relieve poverty through the minimum wage than via subsidy from the tax system (working family tax credits).

The final chapter is an interesting survey of the change in the labour market since 1970.

g hall

A State of Denmark by Derek Raymond (pen name of Robert Cook) better known for his stark crime novels about "The Factory"
He wrote this in 1970 before the UK joined the EEC but there are some interesting parallels and the way dissent is dealt with looks to be coming to a European Super State near you

__________________
"That government is best which governs least."
"This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician for all diseases and miseries".
"To be "matter of fact" about the world is to blunder into fantasy --and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful."

Chip

Has anyone read "GORDON THE MORON" by Vernon Cole. If so any comments.

mkpdavies

Got an advert through the other day for it.

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My ignore list

Labour, Blue Labour, Lib Dems

David Agnew

The Undercover Economist. Tim Harford

This is the most entertaining book on economics that I have read. It is full of interesting stuff: the economics of a cup of coffee at Waterloo station, why supermarkets price their goods the way that they do, how second hand cars are priced, why global free trade is good for the environment and the third world, the economics of road pricing, how the government auctioned 3G licenses...

The sections that I thought especially interesting were:

• How to create a fair tax system that doesn't distort the market or create disincentives (Kenneth Arrow's scheme to 'move the starting blocks')

• Why poor countries are poor. Taking Cameroon as an example, Harford gives a brilliantly clear analysis of why poor countries are poor (and yes, it is mainly the fault of politicians). British politicians should read this chapter as a lesson in what not to do (In my opinion the factors that have impoverished Cameroon also exist in Britain, but in a milder form)

• How China got rich. Under the insane economics of Mao, millions of people died, but now China has the fastest sustained period of growth in world history. Harford explains how the transition was made from socialism to a market economy without the shock that wrecked the Russian economy. He explains how China attracted twenty times as much foreign direct investment as India

• Why the US insurance based health system is so inefficient (it is expensive, patchy, bureaucratic and discourages labour mobility). He also explains why the rationing system in the NHS creates a mismatch between what patients want, and what gets delivered. He then gives an example of a health system that works: Singapore's. It delivers better outcomes than the US and British systems, and it is cheaper too. (Is UKIP's new health policy based on the Singapore system?)

Biscuitman

Hi Chip

I'm nearly finished Gordon Is A Moron.

Its a great book if you want to read on nearly every page that Gordon Brown is a moron or similar insult.

It rehashes everything that most of us know about Brown the 'wonder chancellor' and how he destroyed our economy but doesn't back the statements up with hard facts.

I was hoping to get some stats out of the book that I could use in the local press but - although what Coleman says is correct - he presents it badly and nothing is substansiated.

Its the first of Colemans books I've read so I don't know if this is his usual writing style.

I've got about 20 or so pages to read yet and haven't even picked it up for over a week - possibly I won't finish it - I can't see it converting anyone either.

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IF THE EU WAS THE ANSWER, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A STUPID QUESTION!