Sir Michael Lyons’ review of Invest NI is both brutal and excellent. This is an organisation, his report suggests, that has weak strategic leadership, poor internal and external relationships and fails to achieve the necessary influence on partner organisations. “Profound changes are needed in the organisation that requires reform and repurposing….. there is considerable room …
It is often referred to as the ‘productivity puzzle’, yet there are some obvious reasons why NI underperforms against competitors when it comes to economic performance and output per person. The whole of the UK, in fact, has underperformed in terms of productivity in the period of recovery since the Great Recession of 2008/9. Brexit …
Austerity in 2010 was a cause of subsequent weak economic output, according to some leading economists. “The UK’s underperformance arguably owes rather more to austerity and George Osborne than to Brexit and David Cameron,” wrote London School of Economics professor Jonathan Portes a few days ago. Portes, a former government economist, pointed out that the …
Dame Pauline Green was the guest of honour at an event celebrating the 40th birthday of CASE – Leicester’s Co-operative And Social Enterprise development agency. At its formation in 1982, the agency was called Leicester Co-operative Development Agency. The celebration took place in the premises of one of Leicester’s oldest trading co-ops, Soft Touch Arts …
Whether you are a unionist, republican, or neither, there is near universal recognition that Queen Elizabeth helped bind the United Kingdom. The challenge for King Charles will be to achieve a similar role. If he doesn’t – and it will be tough for a man often regarded as remote – the prospects for Irish reunification …
Credit union membership and lending has increased significantly in response to the cost of living of crisis. This growth in lending is despite a rationalisation process that has seen the closure of weaker unions, leading to a fall in their total number. According to Bank of England statistics published in August, the number of adult …
Credit unions provide support in cost of living crisis Read More »
Second edition of the book ‘A New Ireland – A New Union, A New Society’ is downloadable here free of charge. Hard copies of the book can be bought from Little Acorns Bookstore in Derry, Hannas bookshop in Dublin or via Amazon. Click on this link to download as a PDF: A New Ireland – A New …
The media are at a crossroads, with fears over the future of some of Northern Ireland’s best known newspapers. Existing trends favouring social media over print newspapers have been accelerated by the Covid-19 crisis, with additional financial pressures from a collapse in advertising revenues. This is an appropriate moment to reflect on the future …
The debate on when, and how quickly, to exit the lockdown has been posed as a choice between health and wealth. But that is the wrong way of looking at it. For a start, the longer the lockdown persists, the more negative the health impacts for some people. There has been an increase in …
Mental health is a global challenge, but poor mental health is at crisis levels in Northern Ireland. That crisis is in part an ongoing impact from the Troubles, Siobhan O’Neill, professor of mental health science at Ulster University, says in the latest Holywell Trust podcast. “We’re seeing a rise in mental health problems in …
Government in Northern Ireland needs reform, but the fact that it works at all is actually impressive given the past, says Jess Sargeant of the Institute for Government, a London-based think-tank. She was speaking in the first of a new series of podcasts produced by the Holywell Trust, which feature opinions from policy experts who …
It is too soon to assess the impact of Covid-19 – but we know it is terrible in health, social and financial terms. The eventual impact will be determined by the virus itself and how governments mitigate it – can a vaccine be developed, and if so, how quickly?; do people who have caught the …