SOME REFLECTIONS ON (HORSE) MANAGEMENT

I recently caused some unintended offence by suggesting that consideration be given to a horse's management regime. With hindsight, options would have been a better word to use than regime. However, I was doing some research on Iran at the time. Better still, I might have initiated a discussion about the objectives of horse management. For me, these are encapsulated in the soundness, wellbeing and safety of animal and keeper or rider. Others may have more aspirational objectives for their horses, but "soundness, wellbeing and safety" are values which many organisations - the National Health Service, for instance - would do well to make central to their management.

INTOLERANT (NEO) LIBERAL VALUES IN UK MEDIA

Today's Financial Times has an article on "the rise of liberal intolerance in America". This is a serious matter, but the irony of the title could not help but give me a quiet chuckle. As I've noted previously, the paper - whose objectivity I've come to value over the years - has embarked upon some fairly hysterical coverage of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party. Whilst this is by no means exclusive to the FT - the BBC is just as bad -  it does beg the question whether this is a Liberal or Neo-Liberal bias, or indeed, a combination of the two.

BRITAIN: OSBORNE'S GREAT LEAP BACKWARDS

Although today's front page of the Financial Times attributes a "great leap backwards" to his Labour shadow, in fact this potentially disastrous economic manoeuvre has been led by Chancellor George Osborne, and John McDonnell's "coup de theatre" has only served to draw attention to it.

Like Mr McDonnell, I keep a copy of "Quotations from Chairman Mao-Tse Tung" (see above) at home for reference. However, it was former UK Coalition government Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Liberal Democrat Vince Cable, who in 2010 started the Maoist discourse in contemporary British politics: "There is a kind of Maoist revolution happening in a lot of areas like the health service, local government, reform, all this kind of stuff, which is in danger of getting out of control" (1). This "revolution" is clearly still underway and the Labour Shadow Chancellor decided to highlight the ongoing "great leap backwards" yesterday.

It was the UK government's sale not just of the family silver but also of the furniture -  "this government is selling off to a Maoist regime British assets" - that  Mr McDonnell emphasised in a humorous reference not just to Chairman Mao but also to former "One Nation" Conservative prime minister Harold Macmillan, who upbraided the Thatcher government for public asset stripping (2,3). Unfortunately, such allusions proved too much for the intellectual capacities of most of his colleagues and the media: something which is just as worrying as the fact that the UK is increasingly run like a combination of real estate and asset disposal agency.

However, the news is not all bad. Recent reports by the Conservative Bow Group on the need to restrict foreign acquisitions of property in Britain and ditch the High Speed 2 Rail project suggest there may still be a revival of common sense politics amongst the Tories as well as Labour (4,5).

Postscript: Journalists on the Financial Times recently voted for strike action in a pensions dispute. Therefore, they must be old-fashioned political left wingers (6). Spot the irony!

References
1. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/dec/23/vince-cable-mao-coalition-marxist-capitalism
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34931047
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1ssGrq5S3w
4. http://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2015/nov/21/foreign-buyers-british-property
5. http://www.bowgroup.org/policy/revive-britains-railways-improve-capacity-says-bow-group
6. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/19/financial-times-journalists-vote-to-strike-over-pensions

PLAN FOR "A VERY BRITISH COUP LITE" IN 2020

Plan for "A Very British Coup Lite" in 2020 is my advice to Jeremy Corbyn. By this I mean the new Labour leader should consider a plan for going to the electorate in five years on a PR (proportional representation) ticket in a pre-election Centre-Left coalition with the Liberal-Democrats and the Greens. Chris Mullin might also consider this option as one of the plot lines for his sequel to the original "A Very British Coup" - http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/10/y-fictional-prime-minister-harry-perkins-jeremy-corbyn-a-very-british-coup

LINKEDIN IS A RATHER HUMOURLESS PLACE

The recent spat between a young woman barrister and older male lawyer about his comment on her profile picture has reminded me that the online professional network LinkedIn is a rather humourless place. I can't recall having read one memorably amusing post on the site, although it's possible that I'm just in the wrong sort of networks. Having said this, the people in my Google+ and Facebook communities display no shortage of humour, even it they have very serious points to make.

Doing very little these days, I wonder if contemporary face-to-face business networking is equally po-faced, and if so, I'm glad to be out of it. Modern professional self-marketing, at which some people are undoubtedly very good, reminds me of New Labour, right down to the fake sincerity. You also seem to need a touched-up (or even air-brushed) image for your online profile - particularly if you are a middle aged woman - which I don't have.

I note that Cherie Blair CBE has a profile on LinkedIn in which she also appears as Clerie Booth QC. Amongst her experience is listed that of Downing Street "Spouse" 1997-2007. I wonder what a younger Ms Booth, also a human rights barrister like the young woman mentioned  previously, would have done had a male lawyer commended her profile picture on LinkedIn, or indeed, what she would have done to her husband, also a lawyer, had he complimented an attractive younger woman online.

As a non-lawyer, I tend to regard the profession as something of a "conspiracy against the laity", to quote George Bernard Shaw. In my experience, lawyers tend to take themselves rather too seriously (although I'm sure this is a professional requisite). Indeed, I wonder if at the core of many a legal dispute is a sense of humour failure. It is also not without irony that much of the self-importance that attaches to such disputes is widely regarded as a joke by outside lay observers.

Therefore I'm surprised that many people apparently seem to take LinkedIn and what goes on there so seriously. It also seems to me that young women should worry less about whether men find them too attractive, because they will all too soon find that this ceases to be an issue in life and that the main problem for many older women becomes one of feeling a need to look younger and more attractive. Such is life, and the best way to get through it is not take places like LinkedIn too seriously.

THE ESSENTIAL NAIVETY OF NEW LABOUR

A few years ago I purchased a new edition of Peter Mandelson's memoir "The Third Man" for the princely sum of £1. Sub-titled  "Life at the heart of New Labour", I thought the book very well written and a good Summer read. However, although Lord Mandelson held a number of senior UK government positions and was later Britain's European Union trade representative, "The Third Man" is really a book about political party management, as it seems was "life at the heart of New Labour". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Man:_Life_at_the_Heart_of_New_Labour

It is hardly surprising, therefore, that most people now regard New Labour's years in office as a period of weak governance, whether in relation to the UK government's decision to participate in the invasion of Iraq, or poor regulation of the banking system. Party politics aside, the so-called New Labour Project was primarily an exercise in brand management and this has probably been its greatest success and most enduring legacy, with Conservative prime minister David Cameron later becoming the self-styled "Heir to Blair". http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2015/05/who-won-the-election-was-it-cameron-heir-to-blair-cameron-voice-of-lynton-or-was-it.html

Now is seems that an increasing number of Labour Party supporters are fed-up with politics as brand management and want something more ideological, possibly even a return to socialism. The veteran MP Jeremy Corbyn has become the surprise leader of this movement, and - perhaps even more surprising -  the wider electorate seem to relate to Mr Corbyn's brand of politics too. Not only is he now the apparent front runner in the Labour Party leadership contest, but also apparently the most popular candidate amongst voters from all parties http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/14/jeremy-corbyn-labour-leadership-most-popular-candidate-voters-all-parties?CMP=share_btn_gp

Needless to say, New Labour's old political spin machine has led a ferocious assault on Mr Corbyn, who has in turn suggested that former prime minister Blair could face a possible war crimes trial over the illegal Iraq invasion.  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-tony-blair-could-face-war-crimes-trial-over-illegal-iraq-invasion-10439020.html  However, the role of New Labour in this debacle is more likely to be remembered in these famous words: "It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Antoine,_Duke_of_Enghien

In short, the invasion of Iraq points to the essential naivety not just at the heart of the New Labour Project but in the type of political management that it has come to represent and which has since been espoused by the Conservative Party. This can be seen at every level of government, whether in the incompetent patronage of some organisations linked to David Cameron's "Big Society" campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Society or continuing incompetence in the management of Britain's economy -  http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2015/05/06/the-naivety-of-the-uk-economic-debate/

It seems rather rich, therefore, that the Financial Times should today publish a somewhat hysterical leader article on the prospect of Mr Corbyn's election as the new leader of the Labour Party - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/311c4e18-426e-11e5-b98b-87c7270955cf.html Had Britain enjoyed a period of robust and prudent governance in the 21st century, alarm bells at the prospect of a socialist interloper might be justified. As it is, most people beyond the well-heeled Westminster elite probably welcome a return to ideological politics in the hope that these might just lead to better government.

SOME POSSIBLE LESSONS FROM KIDS COMPANY

It seems difficult to escape the downfall of Kids Company, although many people might wish to. However, as I suspect something will emerge phoenix-like from the ashes, here are some possible lessons for the future from a detached observer:

1. There may be considerable social capital in having complementary health/education centres, run by charities, the state (if Jeremy Corbyn becomes prime minister) or a combination of both in deprived neighbourhoods which offer a range of free services for vulnerable children and their families. In addition to therapies and support such as meals, these might provide lessons in practical areas like nutrition, cookery and financial management.

2. Such centres should be subject to appropriate forms of assessment so that their impact upon users and the wider community can be understood. If state-funded, value for money criteria should be applied.

3. Ministers and civil servants should be more aware that whilst celebrity figures may be good at attracting media attention and funding to their causes, they are sometimes poor managers and administrators. Having said this, the state and its agents, including the National Health Service, have also shown themselves to be frequently deficient in administrative and management capability, as well as poor custodians of public funds.

4. Unfortunately, the availability of relatively large sums of money for good causes, when perceived to be incompetently run, will attract people who have less than altruistic motives and others who see an opportunity to exploit.

5. The state and charitable sectors are as much - if not more - prone to cronyism than commercial business. This needs to be widely recognised and measures put in place to ensure that people from outside the insidious public-funded networks which increasing dominate British society are involved in how money is spent. Charitable governance needs to be reviewed and some organisations should consider whether they are best served by being a charity, social enterprise or both.

6. No organisation seeking to be sustainable over the long-term should become so dependent on a single source of funding that the withdrawal of this is likely to result in its demise. Kids Company is not alone in finding that the end of public money also means curtains for the charitable recipient.

Media reports indicate that the fate of Kids Company will be subject to inquiries by both the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/82397fae-3dd8-11e5-b98b-87c7270955cf.html#axzz3iJVF60F7 Lets hope lessons are learnt by all those involved.

UK GOVERNANCE: CRISIS, WHAT CRISIS?

The Spectator's Isabel Hardman said recently: "One jubilant (Conservative) MP jokes that ‘we could strap babies to foxes and then tie them up with badgers, shoot them, and Labour wouldn’t know how to oppose it’."(1) The hunt for Jeremy Corbyn (mainly by his Labour own colleagues) has indeed provided the government with a useful distraction, although Harman continues: "That facetious analysis (by said jubilant Conservative MP) rather ignores the fact that the Tories didn’t manage to get their modest change to fox hunting legislation through, but the point still stands: the longer Labour is in a mess, the more powerful the Tories can become." However, whilst the British system of governance requires an effective opposition, in my view the present government may still end up hoist by their own petard, and rather sooner than they might have expected. (2)

The Financial Times pointed out this week: "...The recent disruption at Calais is estimated at about £250m a day in lost trade to the UK, factoring in wider costs to businesses such as retailers and manufacturers who do not receive crucial goods in time or have to write off spoiled food." (3) A full account of the problems is provided in this BBC report: Why is there a crisis at Calais? (4) As Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, told The Daily Mail:  'This is a real crisis, and it's a crisis that in the end is going to affect not just the south east of England but also other parts of the country.' (5) In fact, this Labour veteran has had some of the most sensible things to say on the situation in Calais, including an article yesterday in The Huffington Post (6). Meanwhile, sense from the government on the crisis seems, it is widely agreed, thin on the ground.

If Mr Cameron and his colleagues do not wish their turn at UK governance to be defined by the famous words "Crisis, What Crisis?" reputedly spoken by 1970s Labour prime minister Jim Callaghan, although in reality spun by The Sun newspaper, they must consider how to set their  houses in order sooner rather than later. Chancellor Osborne may have convinced his party and some of the British electorate that, in the words of Gordon Brown, there will be "no more boom and bust" (7), but this defies the now accepted view of the capitalist system as recently described, for instance, by the Financial Times journalist John Plender. (8) In government, economic and other crises will come around with reliable regularity, and particularly at times when those in office least expect them.

References
1.  http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/07/tory-mps-congratulate-lynton-crosby-on-his-election-success/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petard#.22Hoist_with_his_own_petard.22
3. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fb4f3370-3603-11e5-bdbb-35e55cbae175.html#axzz3hZU0vvaU
4. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29074736
5.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3180997/Moment-migrants-slice-way-lorry-West-Midlands-climbing-250miles-away-Calais-Keith-Vaz-warns-crisis-affect-country.html
6. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/keith-vaz/calais-summer-crisis_b_7913228.html
7. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2551691/House-price-boom-DECADE-George-Osborne-says-demand-homes-continue-outstrip-supply-years.html
8. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/33d82de6-2bc3-11e5-8613-e7aedbb7bdb7.html#axzz3hZU0vvaU

ECONOMICS FROM CENTRAL PLANNERS TO BANKERS

The European Central Bank HQ in Frankfurt, Germany

As Coursera's thought-provoking mooc on "The Economics of Transition and Emerging Markets" (see my previous post) draws to a close, I feel it's time to reflect on the state of British and European political economy.

The high-point of Moscow's Higher School of Economics online course was for me an essay for peer assessment which asked participants to compare the transitions of the former Soviet Union and China from centrally planned economies to market-orientated ones. As I researched this fascinating subject, it also became clear that there has been a parallel transition towards central planning in some market-orientated economies - I'm going to take the UK as an example - in recent years. Moreover, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney told the Eurozone yesterday to follow Britain's example, notwithstanding "...central bank governors do not usually comment on the fiscal policies of their own jurisdictions, let alone foreign ones", http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bank-of-england-governor-mark-carney-urges-eurozone-to-spend-its-way-out-of-stagnation-10009743.html Good evidence for the re-construction of the central banker's role as central planner.

It should also be remembered that not so very long ago the Royal Bank of Scotland (currently 82% owned by the UK government) "had a £2.4tn balance sheet that was as big as the German economy in 2008" making it the world's largest bank. However, following the global financial crisis, the rescue of this institution, along with other major parts of the banking sector, effectively committed the UK economy to the state capitalist model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism  A feature of this model which Britain has not yet embraced is the Sovereign Wealth Fund http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_wealth_fund so Chancellor George Osborne proposes to set one up based on the proceeds of fracking for shale gas http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/10/uk-proposes-shale-gas-sovereign-wealth-fund Although the financial viability of fracking, aside from environmental objections, is currently questionable http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31022280

In Germany fracking is currently banned, and I should imaging that Chancellor Merkel is presently minded to tell Governor Carney to "frack off", after the fashion of Vivienne Westwood who once sought to style the world's most powerful woman http://www.dw.de/refining-merkels-makeover/a-1887784 As a child of communist East German Mrs Merkel knows all about the centrally planned economy. The need for the Eurozone to follow Britain down the path of moral hazard in the form of quantitative easing is therefore one reason why the Eurosceptic Telegraph can claim today that "Germany's worst nightmare has come true" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11377010/Germanys-worst-nightmare-has-come-true.html For what is QE but a soft budget constraint http://blogs.ft.com/maverecon/2009/10/kornai-on-soft-budget-constraints-bail-outs-and-the-financial-crisis/#axzz3QJmVZbRE of the kind linked to the collapse of Soviet communism?

Reports of the Euro's death have been greately exaggerated before, of course, but the entry of China's Renminbi into the world top five currencies this week means that we do indeed live in interesting times http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times