Front page news in the Daily Telegraph today (link below) and billed online as ‘Chaos over biggest employment tax shake-up in 70 years‘. The Daily Telegraph informs us that “under the new ‘Real Time Information’ (RTI) system, more than a million businesses – as well as charities, churches and families who employ nannies or cleaners – must report immediately any wage payments to the taxman ...

Once again I've just been reading Jeremy Warner in today's Daily Telegraph (link below) where he's written an article entitled "David Cameron is 'pure wind' on the economy".  Mr Warner makes reference to George Orwell who pointed out that, "political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give the appearance of solidity to pure wind".  Reading Mr Warner's piece got me thinking.

When asked of her proudest achievement in government Margaret Thatcher said, wryly, and accurately one assumes, "New Labour." She changed the mood music of UK PLC under her watch, and in these times of neo-liberal ascendancy that Thatcher beckoned in, neither Labour nor the Tories will introduce a Hollande style higher income tax bracket so that those who can afford it most contribute more to public finances through their income. 

In one of my recent posts (‘Energy and the Dismal Science’) I said that “our complex society … doesn’t work – it just doesn’t work – unless the economy grows consistently and reliably at around 3% per year … without economic growth the system starts to implode, and pretty quickly at that; honest.”

In January 2013 journalist Peter Oborne wrote an article in The Daily Telegraph about cricket commentator Christopher Martin-Jenkins. In it he claimed that “the passing of the inspirational amateur leaves us all the poorer”.

Democracy will not work in a jurisdiction where the majority of the electorate lack education, a minimum moral standard, and a sense of citizenship. How can the raw capitalist spirit be tempered to produce sustainability and a great democracy?

What an interesting year for anniversaries! Exactly thirty years ago Laker Airways went bust and Bill Mackey, Laker's liquidator, left us his own history lesson, which is now part of accountancy folklore.

Politicians have been rattling on about the fiscal cliff during media soap opera hour dodging the full extent of the crisis.

Today, beyond any doubt, the desirability of system change is widely accepted. Here is a look into the 3 urgent global problems to address first. 

We need to face the inevitable: the global economic crisis may not be resolvable by governments or industry... no matter the tools they use.