Archive for the ‘Social policy’ Category
Who benefits when improvements in life expectancy grind to a halt?
August 11th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This week, the Office for National Statistics said the UK has experienced one of the largest slowdowns in life expectancy growth among 20 of the world’s leading economies. It confirmed earlier figures that show that, since 2010, Britons’ life expectancy has stopped increasing, with the change most pronounced in women. There is major debate going […]
Posted in Social policy | Comments (0)
Our universities need to start teaching economics differently
August 6th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
“Despite the pressure on universities to feed the financial industry with young, focused minds, there are efforts under way to broaden the outlook of economics graduates. The Core project was adopted by 13 UK universities last September and has won £3.7m from the Economic and Social Research Council. It is an improvement, albeit an incremental […]
Posted in Social policy | Comments (2)
Would a universal basic income really work?
December 26th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
We need some new, big and bold, ideas to tackle poverty and inequality. I have done an earlier posting about the intriguing idea of a universal basic income. I don’t know if this approach would work but I think we should try it. There is a trial in Canada; there is a trial in Finland; […]
Posted in Social policy | Comments (0)
My congratulations to Nobel prize winner Richard Thaler
October 10th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
US economist Richard Thaler, one of the founding fathers of behavioural economics, has won this year’s Nobel Prize for Economics. Professor Thaler, of Chicago Booth business school, co-wrote the global best seller “Nudge”, which looked at how people make choices. To mark the award, I reproduce below my review of his seminal book. ************************************************************** “Nudge” […]
Posted in Consumer matters, Social policy | Comments (0)
How close are we to stopping Alzheimer’s?
July 31st, 2017 by Roger Darlington
This is the question posed at the head of a very short six-part feature currently on the BBC’s website here. I was particularly interested in the section on the special role of sleep which states: “New research by Professor Maiken Nedergaard at the University of Copenhagen suggests that regular, good quality sleep throughout life may powerfully […]
Posted in Social policy | Comments (0)
Would a universal basic income actually work?
March 6th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
Rutger Bregman is a Dutch economist who is causing a stir with his book “Utopia For Realists – And How We Can Get There” which is published in English this week. He has an article in today’s “Guardian” newspaper in which he summarises his case that “Poverty is not a lack of character. Poverty is […]
Posted in Social policy | Comments (0)
How the world’s population is becoming heavier and heavier
October 10th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
“In 2010, 11.5% of adults, or 565 million people, were obese. By 2014, that had already risen to 13% (670 million) … if the trajectory does not change, 17% of adults will be obese by 2025. There will be 170 million adults with a BMI above 35, which is the threshold for urgent medical treatment, such […]
Posted in Social policy, World current affairs | Comments (0)
Why is opinion polling becoming harder and less reliable?
July 27th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
All the pollsters failed to forecast accurately the result of the British General Election in May 2015. We are still awaiting the outcome of an inquiry by the British Polling Council to determine what went wrong and how it can be fixed. Most of my work as a consumer advocate involves working with regulators and […]
Posted in Consumer matters, Miscellaneous, Social policy | Comments (1)
How many in Britain still smoke and what is it costing us?
June 13th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Fortunately fewer and fewer people are smoking in the developed world but, here in Britain, almost one in five (18.5%) is still a smoker. According to a new report entitled “Smoking Still Kills”, the annual cost is almost £13 billion – £2 billion to the NHS, £1 billion to social care, and the rest in wider costs […]
Posted in Social policy | Comments (0)
How well do people know the basic facts on immigration?
October 31st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
A new survey by Ipsos MORI has checked public understanding of the numbers behind some key news stories in 14 countries. Let’s just look at two issues in two countries. When asked: out of 100 people, how many do you think are immigrants in this country? In the UK, the average guess was 24%, but […]
Posted in American current affairs, British current affairs, Social policy, World current affairs | Comments (0)