Robin Blackburn's Blog

Argentinian philosopher whose ideas influenced politicians from Latin America's new left

Ernesto Laclau, who has died aged 78, was a renowned Argentinian political philosopher whose ideas about "radical democracy" and populism influenced politicians from Latin America's new left as well as activists around the world. His highly original essays and books drew on the work of Antonio Gramsci to probe the assumptions of Marxism, and to illuminate the modern history of Latin America.

With...

We must act now to build up a social fund so we can pay the pensions of the future

Damien Hirst's famous pickled shark is entitled The Impossibility of Death in the Mind of the Living. Perhaps a butterfly case could represent another thought: The Impossibility of Old Age in the Mind of the Young (and Not So Young). We are living through a remarkable transformation of the human condition as the average lifespan lengthens and the birthrate drops. Those who address this revolution at all usually...

Robert Service reaches a damning verdict at odds with his earlier support for Boris Yeltsin in his history of the catastrophe that engulfed Russia in the 1990s

Russia: Experiment with a People
by Robert Service
414pp, Macmillan, £20

Robert Service has written an informative and necessary book on the catastrophe that overtook Russia in the 1990s. It is a tribute to the author that he reaches conclusions at odds with his own earlier support for Boris Yeltsin, who ruled the country in these ye...

Companies must hand over some of their profits to ensure workers get a decent income in retirement

The Confederation of British Industry is screaming blue murder at the cruel burden of pension fund deficits. It claims they now run at £160bn - partly because this serves as advance justification for the benefit-slashing and lay-offs which its members are planning.

Many leading British companies - Rolls Royce, GKN, BT, ICI, Unilever - have a pension deficit equivalent to nearly a half, or mo...

Last year's modest stock market recovery has failed to rescue defined benefit company pension schemes covering some 3 million contributors which are in deficit to the tune of at least £65bn, according to conservative estimates.

Part of the reason for this is that in the past employers were allowed to take too many "contribution holidays", amounting to contributions worth £27bn between 1988 and 2002, according to the Inland Revenue.

Europe needs reserve funds to help it tackle the costs of its ageing society - and two new taxes could help.

In the mid 20th century, British economists were notable for their ingenuity in thinking up new ways to tax. James Meade and Maynard Keynes, Nicholas Kaldor and Thomas Balogh vied with one another to come up with such imposts as the "excess profits tax", taxes on "unearned income", the "capital gains tax", new types of estate duty and - Meade's favourite -...

The government is missing a brilliant chance to adapt the pension system for an ageing society.

You would think that the government was now impregnable on pensions yet the taunts and charges are multiplying. We have a pension protection fund for occupational schemes, and employees will soon be enrolled in a national pension savings scheme unless they positively opt out. After a reprimand from the parliamentary ombudsman, the chancellor announced in his budget that he had set aside no less than...

To break any Blairite veto and trounce Cameron, Gordon Brown should come to an understanding with the Liberal Democrats.

Gordon Brown is no doubt excessively cautious by nature, but for some years now he has behaved as if bound to his neighbour's most disastrous policies by an invisible chain. The optimistic may think that all this will change once Blair has gone and Brown is himself formally lodged in No 10.

The Blairite veto stems from Brown's fear that an embittered group of Blairistas could...

After all, public sector workers accept less pay in order to get them. Instead, why not ensure everyone has retirement security?

Gripped by a desire to ensure that misery is distributed as widely as possible, the cry goes up to ensure that public pensions are cut as drastically as private pensions in the wake of stock-market swoons.

Not so fast. Cutting public sector pensions is legally difficult, since they were part of a formal contract between employer and employee that cannot be unilateral...

A lively account of how Columbus's voyage changed history

The first attempts at world history too often had a bland textbook feel, or were bee-in-the-bonnet chronicles that reduced history to the impact of a single factor. Such approaches have been challenged by Niall Ferguson's snappy, opinionated, made-for-TV narratives, in which the rest of the world is taken to task for its tardiness in adopting such western "killer apps" as private property, free trade and scientific method.

Char...