Peter Wilby

Society

The thinking: Needed: courage and ingenuity

• 14 May 2007
• 3 comments

Peter Wilby on why education remains the priority

Business

Food for thought

• 23 April 2007
• 1 comment

High-street greengrocers, newsagents and convenience stores have become all but extinct. The reason? Our own impoverished idea of what consumers want

UK Politics

Nanny knows best

• 16 April 2007
• 2 comments

By chasing the efficiency of the private sector, Whitehall has lost sight of how to tackle big problems in a long-term, focused way. But statist Finland could have found the solution to joined-up government

Society

Two jobs versus no jobs

• 09 April 2007
• 1 comment

The effect of lone-parent families on child poverty figures is well understood. But another factor is underplayed: the polarisation between two-wage and no-wage households

Society

How politics became the preserve of the wealthy

• 02 April 2007
• 1 comment

Two decades on, we can see the poll tax protests as the last great popular uprising - the last occasion when Britain's dispossessed spoke with political force

Environment

Carbon rationing: a modern morality tale

• 26 March 2007
• 3 comments

Controlling climate change will require personal sacrifice, fairness and trust. Yet successive governments have insisted on the individual's right to choose. This large bird is coming home to roost

Politics

A small step towards equality

• 19 March 2007

There's one way for Gordon Brown to keep those pesky Labour and union lefties onside, and it's called asset-based welfare

Benefits and headaches

• 12 March 2007

The best solution to the infernal complexities of the benefits system, as any good socialist knows, is to make work more attractive to claimants

Education

What you call a school is academic

• 05 March 2007
• 3 comments

City academies are remarkably similar to the city technology colleges the Tories launched in the 1980s. I have never understood their point

UK Politics

Persuasion is a science

• 26 February 2007

There's a proven formula for getting people to do what you want them to do - and politicians would be well advised to learn it