Staff

From the beginning to the end of Neo-Liberalism in Britain

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The financial crash that brought the era of neo-liberalism to an end has now led to the formation of a novel coalition in Britain after 65 years of single-party government. This essay argues that it is important to understand what is special about the underlying economic and social crisis – and how the balance of forces is very different from those that wracked Britain in the 1970s and opened the way to Margaret Thatcher.

The straight row mentality

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My morning survey of the garden reveals that I did it again. The row of early potatoes, finally up, marches straight across the garden until the last four hills and then veers off inexplicably, six inches out of line. I try, I really do, but I am genetically incapable of making a straight row. Yes, I could use stakes and a string but that takes too much time. Who needs perfectly straight rows anyway?

The Peak Oil Crisis: The Deepwater Horizon

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Recommendations stemming from the recently announced independent Presidential Commission on the tragedy will likely have much influence on the course of deepwater drilling and thus the availability of oil in the future. Should the Commission conclude that much tougher regulation is necessary, it is difficult to see how the oil industry, even with its considerable clout in the Congress, can resist the calls for reform. Oil might just become far scarcer and more expensive five years from now than most of us think.

Agriculture as provider of both food and fuel

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In the spring of 2008 food prices rose markedly around the world. Production of ethanol for vehicle fuel was pointed out as one of the causes. My colleague Simon Snowden from Liverpool Management School had just shown that 60% of the price of milk in the UK was directly coupled to the price of oil. We had begun to discuss if it really was ethanol production that had caused the food price rises or whether it could simply be the price of oil instead.

News from the Gulf Spill: Exxon good, BP bad

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One of the most stunning outcomes of the now month-long oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the utter reversal of corporate images it has generated. At once, Exxon — for two decades tarred as the callous, greedy and dirty culprit in the Valdez oil spill in Alaska — is regarded in expert circles as the squeaky clean, state-of-the-art, cutting-edge model of safe, environmentally friendly oil drilling. And BP — which spent tens of millions of dollars under former CEO John Brown successfully branding itself as the green, publicly interested conscience of the industry — is now the poster child of the devil-may-care, dollar-grubbing, environmentally and labor unfriendly oil company.