Long reads etc

In a world grappling with escalating multiple complex challenges, understanding their dynamics and seeking effective remedies in a more granular way is more crucial than ever if we ever want to see systemic change and improvement to peoples' lives. Take an issue such inequality for example, which politicians, theorists, and activists have debated, at times violently, over. The journey to measure inequality has been complex. Traditional methods often focused on either absolute or relative inequality. Absolute inequality deals with the disparity in actual resources distributed among individuals, while relative inequality examines the distribution in relation to society's overall economic structure. ...

In a modern world where technology increasingly intertwines with every aspect of business and governance, the Fujitsu scandal serves as a stark reminder of the pitfalls of a flawed procurement process especially in large organisations, a culture in of unaccountable power Whitehall and beyond, and the lack of adequate expertise in managing complex digital systems to robustly challenge their infallibility when the “computer says no”. The scandal unfolded as it became evident that Fujitsu, a large and reputed contractor, was allegedly deeply involved in a series of missteps and malpractices. This situation arose primarily due to a procurement culture that ...

With our new PM in place the focus shifts from supercharging growth to finding short to medium term savings to balance the books. In truth as we have found dramatically already, the one measure is needed to enable the other:  the interest cost of our debt has reduced because the markets have confidence that the current government will better identify cost savings and possesses the fiscal responsibility needed to deliver them. This in turn could provide the headroom potentially for a pre-election boost to help people feel more positive about their finances, and by extension vote for the Conservative Party ...

The leadership contest we have just witnessed was like the political equivalent of Squid Game but without the bathos. The battle lines were relatively clear and on a 2 by 2 chess board with the degree to which you are fiscally conservative mapped out on the one hand (from being a high spend/high borrowing candidate on one end, to a low tax/low borrowing candidate in the other with high tax/low borrowing and low tax/high borrowing in the middle), and cultural conservatism in the other (from mildly woke and globalist leaning, to full on anti-woke anti-immigration, whether legal or illegal, Brexiteer ...

The following statement is in response to allegations relating to my past work on UK-China relations. In short, it accuses me of having met with Chinese people and organisations, which being from a Chinese background, I am likely to do and have done, some of which may have had links with the United Front and the Chinese government - which is quite likely to happen if you meet people with an official status from mainland China. My interest has always been to foster peace and build bridges between East and West, and in no way to endorse the CCP through ...

As the nation starts to look ahead to the future cautiously, it is time to take stock and reflect on what just happened and to ensure it doesn't happen again, or if it does, to minimise the impact on our freedoms, economy, and health from having to lockdown in future.  If we are really honest, we've just had our Dunkirk, and our battle of Britain, and the D-day represented by the beginning of our massive vaccination programme, which has gotten off to a great start. But many lives have been lost, the population is weary, our front line staff and ...

So here we are again, and it seems not much has really changed since my first post in June 2020. Two strategies are being pursued or championed for how we deal with Covid-19 and its impact on us as a country. The first is to keep locking down partially or fully periodically until we find a vaccine and roll it out. The second is the opposite, to shield the vulnerable and try to go ahead as normal without restrictions with or without herd immunity as an explicit goal, so to safeguard the economy as well as non-covid patient (and general ...

I grew up in Milton Keynes in a tough estate where the slums were relocated from East London in the last century. Whilst I cannot with honesty say the town has developed the kind of urban cultural gritty feel of my beloved Shoreditch, it is certainly a place where the kind of innovation we associate with Tech City is thriving. One ingenious and little known fact about MK, as those of us from there fondly call it, is its network of man-made reservoirs - designed to flood during periods of heavy rain, but which double at other times as places ...

Recently Radio 4 broadcast a programme in their series “A Place Called Home” featuring Lord Wei visiting the town where he was brought up - Milton Keynes. It reflects upon his childhood and the impact of that on his life in politics. Here is a link to the programme.]]>

Lord Wei recently hosted an event which brought together over 40 HR Directors from some of the UK’s leading organisations whom collectively represented over one million employees in the UK. They were there to join in the conversation of how Britain’s employers can help change the way people transition into later life. Starting with the research report ‘Next Steps: Life transitions and retirement the 21st century’, Lord Wei highlighted the impending challenges facing the ageing population; living longer, seeking to live out fulfilled, active and meaningful lives, possible pressure on state provision, decline of skills in the workplace, real personal struggles facing individuals ...