amccoll.com • The personal blog of Alexander McColl

NPF: The Future of Work (2) – Modern Employment

This is part of a series of posts on UK policy. Find out more here.
Economy, Business & Trade Consultation document available at Scribd.
Statistics on the UK Economy available from the FT (free account required).

How has modern employment changed in recent years?

Conservative led governments since 2010 have faced a problem; they’ve been trying to reduce government spending against a backdrop of low private sector investment and aggregate demand. If they reduced spending they’d create unemployment, which they’d have to pay for through the social security system.

NPF: The Future of Work (1) – The Economy

Economy, Business & Trade Consultation document available at Scribd.

What is your view of the current state of the economy and modern employment?

Before considering questions about the economy, I recommend viewing the Financial Times statistics page The UK economy at a glance (you’ll need to create an account but don’t need to pay a subscription fee to view them).

The Labour Party National Policy Forum Consultation 2018

It should come as no surprise to readers that I’m a member of the UK Labour Party. Jeremy Corbyn’s administration are very consciously trying to democratise decision making within the party and to that end have recently launched the National Policy Forum Consultation 2018.

The Labour NPF Consultation 2018 an amccoll blogging project

Playlist: Winter 2017/18

As winter has turned finally to spring, I feel ready to make up for past deficiencies and post to my blog again. It’s been much too long without publishing anything, especially when it comes to my music updates, which were supposed to be monthly! To that end, I am writing this post to cover the new music I encountered from December to the end of February, then a new post for March and I can continue on monthly from there.

Winter music came to be defined by the discovery of a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) I consistently enjoy – Future House, a fantastic Youtube radio station playing future house 24/7 that became my soundtrack as I went, for a period, to the gym five days a week, and a Bach cantata thanks again to Radio 4’s Soul Music.

Without a doubt the headline act is the Future House Radio 24/7 Livestream. I can’t remember how many mindblowing tunes this channel has exposed me to. At least half of all the music in this post. Just turn it on and enjoy.

Future House Radio

Let’s stick with President Trump

General John Hyten, who is in charge of America’s nuclear arsenal, revealed on Saturday that he would not carry out a nuclear strike ordered by President Trump, if he thought it were illegal. As Huffington Post report, he would weigh up proportional response and unnecessary suffering when considering legality. Clearly this is fantastic news for the well-being of our planet and all our lives that depend on it. It should also influence anyone planning for the removal of Trump as US President.

My advice; keep him around, he’s the lesser of two evils.

Dear Fat Face

How not to do customer service

In January I bought a pair of FatFace Chinos and I wore them for probably a couple of days each week until, in September, they suddenly developed a huge tear in a seam. I took them with me to a local store and tried on their current range, finding a very similar pair which I was planning to buy. I enquired with the manager about refunding or replacing this obviously very faulty product, but was told flatly that all their clothes are only guaranteed for 6 months and there was nothing she could do to help me.

Are quality cotton chino trousers, with an RRP of £45, designed to last 6 months? Does anyone buy trousers with that lifespan in mind?

Zimbabwe and the lesson for leaders

The military coup and forced resignation (surely to come within days) of Robert Mugabe is great news for Zimbabwe. It’s very unlikely that they could end up with a worse leader than Mugabe.

Hearing this news while listening to the final episode in Mike Walker’s fantastic radio drama Tsar cover Russia post-1989 got me thinking about Mugabe’s final, fatal mistake.

If your government has popular support, you can exercise your will over the army and still sleep safely at night. If your government leads without popular support, as some in the world still do, military backing is the only reason you’re still in power and you absolutely cannot piss them off.

Playlist: October 2017

October featured two great future bass mixes and lots of Catalan music, as I tried to fully immerse myself in the culture before and during my short trip there. My top track comes courtesy of Youtube channel 7clouds, which I discovered thanks to Youtube recommending me this Pink Vibes mix. Just my kind of music!

7clouds – Pink Vibes – Future Bass Mix 2017

Marching with Catalans

Today the Catalan parliament declared independence.

This is an 800 word edit of an earlier post entitled “One evening in Catalonia“, published to contribute to the conversation. Events took place on Tuesday 17th October 2017.

In Girona, on an unusually warm October evening, I find myself in the centre of a crowd of Catalans noisily demanding independence. Jaume responded to my advert on Couchsurfing for a place to stay. To his surprise, I asked to join him on tonight’s protest. The previous day the Spanish state imprisoned two of the leaders of the independence movement, Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sanchez, on charges of sedition. They face a maximum sentence of 14 years.