Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Six of the Best 718

Old St Pancras
"Officials took me through the cost-benefit analysis used by the Department for Transport and the Treasury to assess the viability of transport projects. This was almost exclusively an economic test and projects were judged by the economic value they created. In short, projects in parts of the country where the economy was strongest were more likely to score highest." Andy Burnham explains why the North of England misses out on public investment.

Oliver Newham briefs us on Sheffield City Council's war on trees.

Victoria Coren Mitchell attacks the government's failure to curb the spread of fixed-odds betting terminals: "Punters lose and lose and lose. And when they disappear, or kill themselves, or their child is taken into care and they start self-medicating with drugs instead, someone else steps blindly up to feed the monster. So, if you’re only allowed four per shop, open more shops!"

Instead of penning children in and shrinking pizzas to fight obesity, let children play outside with their friends says Rob Wheway (a name familiar from the old Liberal Party.

The alt-right misunderstands the 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche just as the Nazis did before them, argues Sean Illing.

Hannah Booth interviews those who were there the day the Beatles came to Old St Pancras churchyard.

2 comments:

Rob Wheway said...

Hi Jonathan

Thanks for the mention. It's a hard hitting article saying that NHS and Public Health England have gor it wrong. Obesity is an environmental problem not a disease

Their solutions would be unacceptable for penned in therefore obese zoo animals. They prefer to give money for treatments and therapies to their mates (whoops sorry - stakeholders) rather than change the environment

Link to the article is

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/aug/22/fight-child-obesity-let-children-play-outdoors-more-with-friends

Rob

Jonathan Calder said...

Thanks, Rob. I do link to your article in the post.

You may be interested in a book chapter I wrote some years ago.