National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)’s Post

📣 Over the next days, we'll be sharing sections from our List of Demands, outlining key aspects for a better future for the EU from the perspective of workers and consumers. We start with Section 1, which contains demands for a more democratic and social EU. Find the full List of Demands in the comments below ⬇

Christmas is coming, and I'll admit, local government reorganisation isn't likely to be top of many people's agendas right now, but it remains critical for the delivery of local democracy and local services. This is a good article by Martin Kettle in #TheGuardian about the Devolution White Paper. His view: more top down than bottom up, but with some worthwhile proposals, although implementation will be a challenge. Well worth a read.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO LIKE AND SHARE. I plan on running for the Senate in the next Federal Election. (Please share this if you like it and please press the "Like" icon. It will ensure wide distribution.) The reason for this is my grave concern with the present trajectory on which Australia is travelling. This dire situation indicates there is something fundamentally wrong with Australia's system of democracy and Government. Put simply, Australia is governed by mediocre people. Because of the fact there is no true independence between the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary, these people have the power to interfere with and destroy the livelihood of Australians. This they aptly demonstrated during the contrived COVID medical emergency. At https://lnkd.in/ghZNUX8S I deal with reforms and initiatives that I believe would improve the quality of elected representatives. Further to this, I have now given two speeches at a number of venues and these may be found at: https://lnkd.in/gj--uPJG and https://lnkd.in/gjsvVgcX The first speech deals with the significance of the Constitution and how the various Constitutions pertaining to the Federal, State and Territory Governments are defective. This presentation provides guidance as to what I feel a Constitution should contain and the form it should take. The second speech deals in detail with why there is no real separation between the three branches of Government and how this may be remedied. Put simply the Governor General and the Governors of each State should be elected by the people as should the Attorney General. The Governor General and Governors should then be empowered to select their deputy and the secretary and deputy secretary of each department. In this regard, they may select anyone from anywhere in the world; it being critical that Australia have the best people possible occupying those positions. These appointments would be approved by a joint sitting of the Legislature. Should an impasse occur, the matter has to be referred to the people by way of a plebiscite for resolution. The manner and timing of elections, including Citizens' Initiated Referenda and Plebiscites should be determined by an Electoral Council elected by the people. Politicians should not be allowed any say in this at all for to do so is tantamount to entrusting the children to a pedophile! Unless we take the power from the politicians, confining them to representing their constituents and ensure the Executive is led by people competent to efficiently run the public services required by the people of Australia, this country's future looks extremely bleak.

Our pre-election update is out today. Includes: 📊 Unchecked UK and @MoreinCommon polling (spoiler: highest level of support for protections yet!) 📢 Our regulation messaging guide with New Economy Organisers Network (NEON) 📚 Manifesto analysis - which party is doing the best job of capitalising on pro-protection mood in the electorate? Read on to find out!

📢 Did you catch our founder Sir Michael Barber's coverage in The Economist this week? "What governments should do is endlessly debated; how they should do it is almost completely ignored. In his book "How to Run A Government", Sir Michael Barber, a former New Labour adviser and perhaps the most effective aide of the past half-century, set out a rule of thumb: Policy is 10% and implementation is 90%. " 🔗 Read the full article : https://lnkd.in/gfVMeWBb

Yesterday’s #EU2024 European Parliament election results are a wake-up call. Democrats must work together to deliver what Europe needs to tackle the challenges of our times. industriAll Europe reiterates a very basic fact: there is no national solution to transnational problems. We need European solutions! To do that we need a social, fair and future-proof Europe which delivers concrete solutions for EU citizens wherever they live, that has workers’ rights and good industrial jobs in a democratic Europe at its heart. https://lnkd.in/excXK_8r

To understand today’s discontent with the European Union, it may help to look at the recent elections generationally rather than ideologically. It has shocked some observers that in France, the National Rally, descended from the hard-line National Front that Jean-Marie Le Pen founded in 1972, drew so many votes from the young: 28 percent of those under 35, more than any other party. Among voters under 25, the National Rally took 25 percent, tying for the lead. In Germany the nationalist and anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany more than tripled its vote among voters under 25, to 16 percent from 5 percent, since the last E.U. election five years ago. Although at 46 a young leader by European standards, Mr. Macron is almost two decades older than the National Rally’s 28-year-old leader, Jordan Bardella. When the modern European Union began with the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, Mr. Bardella was not yet born. The world looks different to him and his contemporaries than it does to those who cling to fond memories of the early 1990s. Back then, Europeans embodied environmental advocacy, self-actualization, self-expression and other values described by the University of Michigan political scientist Ronald Inglehart as “post-materialist.” Europeans actually used that term. They were proud of it. Today, European politics — and French politics above all — is crudely materialistic. The most explosive issues of the past few elections have been purchasing power, the price of diesel, the age of retirement and the shortage of housing (often taken by migrants awaiting asylum hearings). Europe’s preoccupations are closer to the 18th-century world of bread riots than to the 20th-century one of Save the Whales. https://lnkd.in/efJdUkm2

🚨NEW RESEARCH 🚨 The challenges facing the country and the new Labour government are daunting. From broken public services to a sluggish economy, with an electorate worn down by the cost-of-living crisis and a chronic breakdown of trust, the period ahead will be marked by difficult decisions in a fiscally-constrained environment. Taking the public on this journey will not be easy. Our Citizens’ White Paper, produced in collaboration with Involve, sets out why, when and how the government could embed citizen involvement in national policy making to tackle the complex and potentially divisive challenges facing our country and deliver on the Prime Minister’s promise to restore trust in politics. Find out more ⬇ https://lnkd.in/eJzSs5hX