Scandals within the NHS have finally made us question the angelic halo of our doctors
Much of the narrative around the health service over the past few years has depicted nurses as angels and doctors as living saints. Soap operas are helpful purveyors of this narrative. Perhaps the most famous is George Clooney as the charismatic Dr Ross in the long running American medical drama ER. Dr Ross, despite the […]
Priti Patel vs. Philip Rutnam: It’s in Britain’s interest that bureaucracy does not win
The reverberations around the resignation of Sir Philip Rutnam, the top civil servant at the Home Office, continue. Priti Patel, the home secretary, is receiving a barrage of abuse. Labour’s John McDonnell has pronounced that he cannot see how Patel could carry on. He raised the possibility that she might be in some way “suspended”. […]
Is the ‘rent-seeker’ dying out?
The concept of the “rent seeker” is one of the most valuable in the whole of economics. The activity of rent-seeking involves obtaining money by manipulating the social or political environment in which economic activity takes place, instead of getting paid for creating new wealth. It is a part of public choice theory, for which […]