Benefits from parts of economy that are performing strongly are not being felt by allBritish households have grown more pessimistic about the state of the economy and their own personal finances, according to official figures, amid rising debt levels and faster income growth for the richest in society.Pulling together an assessment of personal and economic wellbeing data for the first time, the Office for National Statistics said the benefits from parts of the British economy that were performing strongly were not being felt by all. Continue reading...

Shortfall in standards casts doubt on transparency of Britain’s aid spendingToo much of Britain’s aid budget is being spent poorly by Whitehall departments on projects that fail the test of reducing poverty in the world’s poorest countries, a campaign group has said.The One Campaign – an advocacy organisation set up by the U2 singer Bono – said the huge gulf in standards across government was undermining the battle to build public trust that taxpayers’ money was being well spent.Related: UK aid funding must not be privatised | Letter£1.5bn of aid was being spent with barely any transparency about where and how it was delivered.At least £475m of aid came with strings attached so that is has to be spent through UK institutions, contravening Britain’s system of untied aid.£115m of FCO aid was being spent to subsidise relatively affluent students going to university in the UK.Three of the five largest (in cash terms) programmes within the Newton Fund – which aims to develop science and innovation partnerships that promote the economic development and social welfare of partner countries – were based in China and were not focused on global poverty reduction.Related: UK Foreign Office ranks among world's worst on revealing how aid is spent Continue reading...

While the UK woos China’s telecoms giant, fears grow over the risks it poses to national securityIf, according to an ancient Chinese proverb, “a crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind”, then Huawei is barrelling in on a storm force 12. Where the hurricane takes it, though, may be out of the telecoms giant’s control.A slew of bombshell allegations have raised troubling questions about the telecoms company’s probity and revived long-held concerns about its relationship with China’s intelligence services. The UK, in need of friends as Brexit looms, is struggling to negotiate the fallout. To ignore the mounting brouhaha risks alienating its closest ally, the United States, currently locked in a bitter trade war with China which has become synonymous with Huawei. But the UK needs Chinese technology to keep pace with the 21st century.Huawei’s cyber-security approach fell short but no hostile Chinese state activity was uncovered Continue reading...

Whether polar or recessionary, you can be sure they’re extremely unpleasantAh well, I suppose in these fractious times that we must take our comforts where we can find them – and so we must look to Italy and the prognostications of my favourite hyperbolic economic commentator, who never fails to cheer, with his dazzling and fresh lexicon of doom and chaos. Last week was no exception. As the country slides into recession, he thundered about a “recessionary vortex” that has “metastasised” over the past two months, while a former chief economist at the Italian treasury offers the terrifying warning that the country is “entering a self-defeating loop of negative growth”. (I’m not certain if a self-defeating loop is the same as a doom loop, but I’m pretty sure they must be related.) Further, “the downturn is tightening the noose on their non-performing loans”, while the pay-off - “Italy’s debt trajectory can quickly go parabolic” – conjures a suitably apocalyptic vision of a country deeper into the doo-doo than even this benighted isle.And so, almost inevitably, to the weather. While much of America suffers perishingly cold conditions thanks to the polar vortex (and if I were in charge, I would ban snow – filthy, worthless stuff), what do we get from the BBC forecasters but: “A quick heads up about the weather today.” Please, can we agree to proscribe the poxy phrase “heads up”, with all its ghastly PR/advertising/marketing overtones? And can we also chuck into the great big bin marked “redundant phrases” “spits and spots of rain” and “mist and murk”. I know we are obsessed with the weather, but these infantile phrases mean nothing. Continue reading...

Its populist leaders said they were on the cusp of an economic miracle to rival the 1960s, but debt and uncertainty intervenedSharing his predictions on the economy less than a month ago, Luigi Di Maio, the Italian deputy prime minister, believed the country was on the cusp of an economic miracle akin to the one enjoyed in the 1960s.“During that period we built highways, now we can build digital highways,” he enthused. His comments were met with derisive laughter. Continue reading...

German has flirted with recession, while growth is returning to Portugal and Spain

Hard Brexit is only the latest example where the British economy has taken second place to pride and party loyaltyA no-deal Brexit is just another cataclysmic event among many in Britain’s recent history. That’s why there is a good chance it’s going to happen.The economy, unfortunately, has usually taken second place over the last 60 years to pride, party loyalty or – and this must be the most significant driving force – a trusting sense that no matter how bad things look everything will turn out OK.Related: So just when, exactly, will the City press the no-deal panic button? | Nils Pratley Continue reading...

High employment rates gloss over a ‘much more complicated story’ of stagnant wages and vanishing mid-level jobsJanuary marked the 100th consecutive month of job creation in the United States – a record breaking streak of job creation that has left employers scrambling to find workers and dragged the long-term unemployed back into the market.Yet even now, 20m jobs later, there are some parts of the US economy that have yet to reflect the positive image projected by the continuous job growth and low unemployment rate.Related: US economy adds jobs for record 100th consecutive monthEmployers think they should be able to get whoever they want at those lower wages Continue reading...

They encourage us to think that anyone who is homeless deserves it. A radical cultural shift is needed on this subjectThe latest official figures for homelessness show that, in England outside cities, the number of people sleeping rough on any one night is down 2%. But this is where the good news ends. Rough sleeping has increased by 165% since 2010, with rises of as much as 60% in major cities, compared with last year. The homeless charity Crisis’s own research estimates that more than 8,000 people sleep rough on any given night. Meanwhile deaths of homeless people have more than doubled in the past five years.Most people agree that rough sleeping shouldn’t exist in a healthy society – especially not in the sixth richest economy in the world. But it doesn’t appear out of nowhere; it’s the product of political decisions. So why is it being allowed to continue?Related: Why are we still using a 19th-century law that criminalises homeless people? | Shaista Aziz Continue reading...

Heavy workloads, stress and anxiety are costing the economy. A shorter working week would help both business and workersOur current political moment is defined by a state of paralysis. By refusing to face the reality of a broken economic model, reactionary forces are driving us towards a future based on exclusion, continued deregulation and the scrapping of workers’ rights. Instead of conceding to this “inevitable” race to the bottom, progressive forces of all kinds need to meet the crises of the 21st century head-on by putting forward proposals that tangibly improve people’s lives.As Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has demonstrated in the US with the green new deal, fresh proposals can change political and economic narratives so as to embrace collective opportunity, potentially avert catastrophe and move us towards sustainable futures. What will make up our “new deal” here in the UK? A new report by Autonomy – a thinktank of which I am co-director – argues that a shorter working week should be a central pillar of our economic future.Related: ‘Miserable staff don't make money’: the firms that have switched to a four-day weekRelated: Post-work: the radical idea of a world without jobs Continue reading...

The US jobs market shrugged off the government shutdown in January, with 304,000 jobs created last month

As Brexit barrels on, politicians must stop blustering about trade and work on policy priorities such as education and transportThis week’s report spelling out the calamitous impact of austerity on our major cities shows that much of the current debate over public policy is looking in the wrong place for answers.Thanks to Northamptonshire county council blowing up its own finances, Surrey using its muscle within the Conservative party to highlight the damage being done by cuts, and areas such as Somerset facing serious difficulties, an impression has been created that English shires are suffering the most pain under austerity.Related: Deprived northern regions worst hit by UK austerity, study findsRelated: Witless ministers have hammered councils like austerity punchbags | Richard VizeRelated: Sign up for Society Weekly: our newsletter for public service professionals Continue reading...

US president optimistic of reaching ‘the biggest deal ever’ as Beijing welcomes ‘constructive discussions’Donald Trump has said he will meet Chinese president Xi Jinping soon to try to seal a comprehensive trade deal as the US president while China’s trade delegation said the two sides had “clarified a timetable and roadmap” for the next negotiations.Trump, speaking at the White House on Thursday during a meeting with Chinese vice premier Liu He, said he was optimistic the world’s two largest economies could reach “the biggest deal ever made”.Related: Huawei indictments: sanctions busting, industrial espionage and a stolen robot Continue reading...

Inheritance tax loopholes and entrepreneurs’ relief mostly benefit the rich, critics sayInheritance tax loopholes and incentives for small business owners, most often benefiting the richest people in Britain, have cost taxpayers at least £4bn a year, according to official figures.Analysis of figures published by HM Revenue and Customs on Thursday revealed that the total cost of Britain’s system of tax relief had risen to a record £164bn annually – more than the entire NHS budget. Continue reading...

Labour values are at the heart of protecting our most vulnerable residents, says Jack Hopkins of Lambeth council, while Ted Watson says the Labour leadership of 1921 opposed the fight against austerityZoe Williams’ article (Red-on-red warfare won’t stop austerity, 29 January) contains some welcome recognition of the challenges that councils face under prolonged Tory austerity. But as she says, austerity has not gone away and for councils that have been dealing with it for nine years now things are more difficult than ever. Lambeth council has lost over £230m of government funding since 2010, with a further £38m to find over the next few years.Despite keeping 23 children’s centres open since 2010, at a time when Tory cuts have closed hundreds across the country, in 2018 the government cut the dedicated schools grant, which helps to fund our children’s centres, by £1.4m. As a council, we have protected children’s centres from that cut this year – but now we have no choice, with further cuts in all services imposed by the Tories, except to consult on plans that will keep 18 children’s centres in the borough. While that will see five centres shut, we’re working with them so they can still provide nursery places and other activities for children so the buildings aren’t lost to the community and are still open if we get a Labour government that will fund local services properly as Zoe Williams suggests. Continue reading...

TUC research finds London workers hit hardest with cumulative loss in real earnings of £20,000Wages are still worth a third less in some parts of the country than a decade ago, according to a report.Research by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) found that the average worker has lost £11,800 in real earnings since 2008. Continue reading...

The exit of Jim Yong Kim offers a chance to put the Bretton Woods institutions in the service of the many, not the fewThe president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, will step down on 1 February – three and a half years before the end of his term – in search of greener pastures. His readiness to resign from the leadership of one the two most powerful international financial institutions is a worrying omen. But it is also an important wake-up call.The World Bank and the IMF are the last remaining columns of the Bretton Woods edifice under which capitalism experienced its golden age in the 1950s and 1960s. While that system, and the fixed exchange rate regime it relied upon, bit the dust in 1971, the two institutions continued to support global finance along purely Atlanticist lines: with Europe’s establishment choosing the IMF’s managing director and the United States selecting the head of the World Bank.Related: 'Ridiculous': report Ivanka Trump could lead World Bank meets scornIf we do not act quickly – demanding a radical change of direction – the World Bank will likely fade into irrelevanceJim Yong Kim’s departure makes one thing clear: the World Bank is on the brinkDavid Adler is a writer and a member of DiEM25’s Coordinating Collective. Yanis Varoufakis is the co-founder of DiEM25. He is also the former finance minister of Greece Continue reading...

Country’s economy shrinks by 0.2% amid weakening growth rates across the eurozoneItaly’s economy fell into recession in the final three months of 2018, in a blow to the country’s governing radical centre-right coalition, which pledged to boost the country’s persistently low GDP growth.The 0.2% drop in the eurozone’s third largest economy between October and December followed a 0.1% fall in the previous three months, the Italian statistics agency said. Declining GDP growth over two consecutive quarters put Italy in recession. It is the third time the country has fallen into recession in a decade. Continue reading...

Progressives were caught napping by the financial crisis. They cannot not be as ill-prepared next timeIt’s often said that real change takes place at a time of crisis, but that’s not the whole story. A crisis makes change possible, but only when new ideas are knocking about does it actually happen. Otherwise, it is soon business as usual. The US economist Milton Friedman understood that fact, which is why he toiled away in the political wilderness to plot the downfall of postwar social democracy and was fully prepared when trouble arrived in the mid-1970s.The left was so in thrall to market forces and globalised capital that it blew a golden opportunity in 2007Related: UK personal insolvencies hit seven-year high; US consumer confidence slumps - business liveRelated: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez knows yesterday’s radicalism can become tomorrow’s common sense | Jeff Sparrow Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as America’s central bank leaves interest rates on hold and strikes a dovish tone

Given the ever-ticking Brexit clock, the air of complacency in the markets is extraordinaryAt what point do financial markets start to panic about the risk of a no-deal Brexit? In theory, you’d think it would be about now. We have, after all, just witnessed the strange spectacle of the prime minister abandoning her own Brexit deal to go back to Brussels to try to secure changes to the Irish backstop, something the European Union has said, time and again, it will not contemplate. Meanwhile, the clock ticks and the default position remains that the UK leaves the EU on 29 March.The pound, it’s true, had a minor wobble on Tuesday evening when MPs voted against Yvette Cooper’s amendment (the one to prevent a no-deal by extending the article 50 negotiating period) but you’d barely notice it on a chart extending over several days. Sterling stands at almost $1.31 against the US dollar, a couple of cents higher than it was on 1 January. Continue reading...

Stephen Martin resigns as UK lobby group head after two years of three-year contractThe head of the Institute of Directors, one of the UK’s biggest business lobby groups, has resigned after less than two years in the role and with less than two months to go until the planned Brexit date.Stephen Martin stepped down on Wednesday with immediate effect, after joining the organisation in February 2017 on a three-year contract.Related: Business confidence in UK at lowest ebb since Brexit vote – IoD Continue reading...

Consumer borrowing growth at four-year low, says Bank of EnglandThe boom in consumer borrowing across Britain has cooled to the slowest annual growth rate in four years, according to official figures, as households rein in their spending.The Bank of England said annual consumer credit growth slowed to 6.6% in December, continuing a trend for weaker levels of household borrowing on credit cards, personal loans and car finance deals. Continue reading...

Guardian analysis reveals that almost every town centre in England and Wales has declined since 2013, with some losing over a fifth of storesEnglish and Welsh town centres have lost 8% of their shops on average since 2013, according to a Guardian analysis, with some major destinations such as Stoke and Blackpool shuttering two out of 10 town centre sites over the past five years.The average toll equates to at least 40 shops closing per town centre in England and Wales, in a stark illustration of the economic conditions faced by retailers and local communities. Continue reading...

Some people face a three-hour trip to have their case heard. Others have no legal representation. Even judges are calling it ‘hell’Courts are strange places. Some, like Snaresbrook crown court in east London, could be mistaken from the outside for a stately home – a grand listed building set beside a lake. Once inside, though, there’s no mistaking its status as part of the unloved criminal justice estate – low ceilings, headache-inducing strip lighting, threadbare furnishings. Others are eerie, like Isleworth, south-west London, which used to be a mental institution.Many courts, however, are as unlovely as they are unloved. Postwar multiplexes with little going for them, tolerated by all who use them as a necessary evil in the work that we do. The government touted the closure of 230 of these buildings since 2010 as a good thing, because the income from selling them off would be ploughed back into improving the rest. But it’s no surprise, given the state of these courts, that they have failed to generate enough money to deliver on that promise. Guardian analysis shows that sales so far have generated just £34m – roughly what the government spent on just one “change management” consultancy contract from PricewaterhouseCoopers. The idea that you improve courts by closing them is just the latest in a cycle of dystopian logic in which cuts to public funding create delay and decay, thereby justifying further cuts.Related: Court closures: sale of 126 premises raised just £34m, figures showIt’s no wonder judges are among those who have raised concerns about 'hasty justice' Continue reading...

Anne Taylor is impressed by 16-year-old’s Greta Thunberg’s speech at the World Economic Forum in GenevaJeremy Corbyn considered it wasting time at a “billionaires’ jamboree”, referring to a quarter of the cabinet flying to Davos in the middle of the Brexit impasse (The week that was, Environment, 26 January).Greta Thunberg (Mountain mover, 26 January) clearly didn’t think it was a waste of time. Taking 32 hours to get there by train, the 16-year-old activist practised what she preaches. What could be more important than the future of our planet? As she said in her speech: “Either we choose to go on as a civilisation or we don’t.” Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as UK insolvencies hit highest level since 2011

Jump in insolvencies follows period of rising inflation and lacklustre wage increasesA jump in personal insolvencies in the fourth quarter of 2018 sent the total number of people going bust last year in England and Wales to the highest level since 2011.Debt advisers blamed Brexit uncertainty, weak wages growth and tighter credit rules for forcing more people to declare themselves insolvent in the run-up to Christmas. Continue reading...

Tory cuts of £816 per person, compared with a rise of £115 in Oxford, have left the city unable to protect those in needThis week started with me reporting a couple of things that many in Liverpool already know – that their city has been ravaged by the austerity agenda of the past nine years, and that the Conservatives don’t care too much about them and their lives.Most people in this city know it – and most people are angry about it – but this week’s report into local council funding cuts by the Centre for Cities thinktank brought into sharp focus just how unfair this all is.Related: Deprived northern regions worst hit by UK austerity, study findsRelated: The future of Liverpool: does the great port city still face out to sea? Continue reading...

Damian Hinds’ plan to reduce workload is sensible – but schools need more money tooThe government’s teacher recruitment and retention strategy for England contains much that is sensible and desperately needed. Key recruitment targets have been missed for six years in a row. In some subjects, and some parts of the country, shortages are acute. In physics, for example, the number of trainees last year was just 47% of the number sought. Bursaries trialled on maths graduates appear not to have solved the problem. A third of new teachers give it up within five years, while nine in 10 heads struggle to fill posts in the core subjects that make up the GCSE Ebacc. Last year, 10% of all secondary teachers left teaching. Meanwhile, the population bulge that followed the spike in the birthrate in the 2000s means the secondary-school-age population is expected to rise until 2025. The situation is accurately described as a crisis.The education secretary, Damian Hinds, has come up with a package of measures that he hopes will ease it. Efforts to reduce workload dovetail with the priorities set out in the new Ofsted inspection framework. Ministers and inspectors now acknowledge the “unintended consequences” of a system that has accountability as its overriding objective. One idea is that requirements for data collection should be relaxed, giving teachers more time to think about the substance of what they are teaching. Specific support for new teachers, which the government has promised to fund, includes mentoring and time outside the classroom. Inspectors, in future, will take a broader-brush approach, less focused on the minutiae of individual pupils’ measurable achievements and more on the big picture. Continue reading...

Court closures | Rachel Whiteread | Parakeets | Rooks v crows | Post-Brexit parachuting | Air travelYour front-page article on magistrates’ courts (28 January) applies to England and Wales. However, the Scottish sheriff’s courts have suffered similar cuts. With the closure of the sheriff’s court in Rothesay, the participants in any case have to travel to Greenock by ferry. So you have police, lawyers, defendants and witnesses travelling together, a perfect opportunity for trouble.

North-east and Wales should get over double the funding per person of London – studyA future Labour government should use funds from a national investment bank, targeted transport spending and buying British as part of a long-term strategy to spread economic prosperity to the struggling regions, a specially commissioned report for the party has said.The report called for funding from the national investment bank – a key plank of the opposition’s economic strategy to be heavily skewed in favour of communities hard hit by the decline in manufacturing.Related: England can be better than the Brexit caricature. We have to make the case for it | John Harris Continue reading...

Almost four in 10 Britons offer their time free of charge, but many of them are stepping in where the state has failedAt first it sounded quite lovely, didn’t it? The notion of a “big society” – back in those heady days when David Cameron and Nick Clegg stood side by side in the Downing Street garden. In May 2010, we were still ignorant of the devastating austerity these two men would go on to inflict. And so they offered us the “big society” – from the Cabinet Office a document was proudly produced. “Our Conservative-Liberal Democrat government has come together with a driving ambition: to put more power and opportunity into people’s hands,” reads the opening. “We want to give citizens, communities and local government the power and information they need to come together, solve the problems they face and build the Britain they want.”Related: Deprived northern regions worst hit by UK austerity, study findsThat so many of us volunteer our time is testament to our individual good nature, but in many cases it’s a sad indictment of our society Continue reading...

New HMRC forecast means 2% cut in rate to 17% will now cost Treasury £6.2bn in lost revenueThe government’s planned cuts to corporation tax look set to cost the public purse billions more in lost revenue than previously thought, according to new analysis.The tax rate on company profits is slated to be cut from its current level of 19% to just 17% by the end of the decade. But even before the planned cuts, the UK already had one of the lowest corporation tax rates in the developed world.Related: Tax, tech and electric cars: why is Dyson going to Singapore?Related: British taxpayers face £24bn bill for tax relief to oil and gas firms Continue reading...

Poorest areas bearing brunt of council spending cuts, according to thinktank analysisAusterity cuts have fallen hardest on deprived communities in the north of England, which are enduring the highest poverty rates and weakest economies, according to a study.The Centre for Cities thinktank study shows that the poorest areas have borne the brunt of council spending cuts. Local authority spending has fallen nationally by half since 2010, with areas such as Liverpool, Blackburn and Barnsley facing average cuts twice that of their counterparts in the more affluent south, according to the thinktank. Continue reading...

Struggling Yorkshire town has endured crippling council cuts – but locals are fighting backThat Barnsley is the British city worst affected by a near-decade of austerity cuts comes as no surprise to Susan Round, 61, owner of the Pats for Pants underwear stall in the town centre’s covered markets. “I do think it has got worse. The state of the roads. Social care. The hospitals. Antisocial behaviour. Spice.”According to the Centre for Cities thinktank, Barnsley council spending has reduced by 40% over eight years – around four times the average reduction faced by cities in the south-east – since the coalition decided in 2010 that local government would bear the brunt of austerity and the poorest boroughs would shoulder the biggest cuts.Related: Deprived northern regions worst hit by UK austerity, study finds Continue reading...

Readers respond to the news that Heidi Allen MP has embarked on an anti-austerity tour and discovered terrible poverty in the UKIt’s good to see that a Tory MP is moved to tears by witnessing the terrible poverty that exists in this country (‘I’ve absolutely had enough’: Tory MP embarks on anti-austerity tour, 24 January). But if they didn’t know about this already, Tory MPs were clearly alerted to by the recent report by the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty – a report that was either denounced or ignored by members of Heidi Allen’s party. Allen appears to acknowledge that the much of the poverty she has witnessed is the result of her party’s austerity policies.The honourable thing she should do is not only to openly criticise these policies but to walk over to join the ranks of a party that genuinely wants to eradicate poverty and promote progressive policies that ensure the redistribution of wealth.

Brexit is a solution to what wealthy Leavers perceive to be their problems. It will not remedy the discontents of the manyAs the Brexit farce proceeds, it is worth remembering that before David Cameron made his catastrophic error of calling a referendum, the EU was way down the list of British people’s concerns in almost every opinion poll. Indeed, not even in the first 11.The central point is that Brexit became the focus for all manner of discontents, many of them understandable. But leaving the EU would indubitably not be the answer to them, and would be guaranteed not to make the discontents into “glorious summer”.They should conduct a second referendum campaign which is not only anti-Brexit but also pro-investment Continue reading...

Young people hold a climate change strike on the final day of the World Economic Forum, after campaigner Greta Thunberg addresses delegates

Each month we look at key indicators to see what effect the Brexit process has on growth, prosperity and trade

Two former members of Bank of England’s rate-setting committee opine on the economic outlook

It’s never been cheaper to fix your home loan with decade-long deals as low as 2.44% (and no upfront fees)The world maybe at risk of another financial collapse and Brexit may send the UK economy off a cliff, but there is at least one positive outcome: it has never been cheaper to fix your mortgage payments for the next 10 years.According to the latest research from the mortgage number crunchers Moneyfacts, the average 10-year fixed mortgage rate has decreased significantly over the past five years and now stands at an average of 3.05%.Related: Lenders cut mortgage rates to give a kick-start to 2019 Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the third day of the World Economic Forum, as George Soros gives a speech on the sidelines of Davos

Speaking in Davos, chancellor says changes such as end to free movement are on the wayPhilip Hammond has told business leaders they need to accept the result of Britain’s EU referendum and warned that a failure to implement it would damage the country’s political stability.The chancellor told increasingly restless business leaders that he was working for a deal that safeguarded the economy, and said he understood their frustration but companies had to accept that changes were coming – such as an end to the free movement of people and business models built on a supply of cheap labour.Davos is a Swiss ski resort now more famous for hosting the annual four-day conference for the World Economic Forum. For participants it is a festival of networking. Getting an invitation is a sign you have made it – and the elaborate system of badges reveals your place in the Davos hierarchy.

Christine Lagarde urges world’s financial sector to find greater purpose and slams lack of women at top of bankingThe head of the IMF has warned against fat-cat pay after noticing an increase in executive rewards across the banking sector.Christine Lagarde used a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos on Thursday to remind the financial sector against spiralling executive pay. Continue reading...

Average weekly outlay up £18 to £572.60 with extra spending paid for by borrowing or savings

One London borough has been bringing people together to work, socialise and dream. The results are extraordinaryIf there is hope, it lies here, in the most deprived borough in London. Barking and Dagenham has shocking levels of unemployment, homelessness, teenage pregnancy, domestic violence and early death. Until 2010, it was the main stronghold of the British National party. Its population turns over at astonishing speed: every year, about 8% of residents move out. But over the past year it has started to become known for something else: as a global leader in taking back control.Since the second world war, councils and national governments have sought to change people’s lives from the top down. Their efforts, during the first 30 years of this period at least, were highly effective, creating public services, public housing and a social safety net that radically improved people’s lives.There’s a programme to turn boring patches of grass into community gardens, play corners and outdoor learning centresRelated: Yes, there is an alternative. These people have shown how to ‘take back control’ | Aditya Chakrabortty Continue reading...

At their best, churches are magnificent, calm refuges. They’re no places for trendy pods full of digital nomadsWalking through Camden Town in north London recently – a place whose countercultural relevance dwindled sometime between the Libertines’ first and second albums – I came across a building labelled WORK.LIFE, plus the slogan, “Because life’s too short”.It seemed to symbolise everything that the late cultural theorist Mark Fisher meant when he coined the phrase “boring dystopia”. WORK.LIFE is one of those hubs for freelancers, or “digital nomads” – a handy phrase if that green juice cleanse isn’t providing the quite the level of purging that your body desires. Don’t flush yet, though, there’s more: “Nestled in one of London’s most iconic postcodes, there’s plenty of creative spirit here as well as a punk-rock approach to business.”Related: Justin Welby: no-deal Brexit would harm poorest people in UKRelated: How to save our high streets? The answer is in the church | Simon Jenkins Continue reading...

Vanguard Group founder Jack Bogle’s investment strategy was simple, successful and principledThe death on 16 January of Jack Bogle, the founder of the investment company Vanguard Group, was met with a slew of flattering obituaries. Of course, obituaries often praise their subjects. But Bogle’s seemed more laudatory than usual. And I think there is a reason: Bogle was an unusually morally directed man.Of course, we cannot judge his success by his personal wealth. When Bogle established Vanguard in 1975, he set it up as a nonprofit. The company has no outside shareholders; all profits are reflected in lower fees, not dividends. Continue reading...