Brian Landers

Brian Landers is the author of "Empires Apart", www.empiresapart.com, a history of American and Russian imperialism, 2009, and has been a Board memeber of private and public sector organizations including Penguin Books, Waterstone's, the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Prison Service.

The Co-op movement has announced a "Revolution", but will it develop a politics?

The Co-operative movement has announced a "Revolution" and aims to treble its membership and become a force to be reckoned with. But while it builds on economic success and reasserts its ethics, the politics of the movement remain uncertain.

By Brian Landers

/ 24 Feb 2011

Warning: they want us to pay the private sector to make a profit from NHS

Why does the Health Secretary think that the private sector needs a subsidy to be able to enter the market for services now provided by the NHS? Because public provision is a more efficient way to do things, maybe? But then why get rid of it?

By Brian Landers

/ 28 Jan 2011

Nations must be allowed to go bust, and the nineteenth century histories of Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria remind us that lenders will cope just fiine

George Soros writes in the FT that the EU is making two mistakes: "One is that they are determined to avoid defaults or haircuts on currently outstanding sovereign debt for fear of provoking a banking crisis. The bondholders of insolvent banks are being protected at the expense of taxpayers. This

By Brian Landers

/ 16 Dec 2010

Corporations are only human - at least in law

The legal privileges of the corporation are social, not natural. It is dangerous to slip into the thought that corporations are people. US Justice Brandeis saw this clearly: "Through size, corporations, once merely an efficient tool employed by individuals in the conduct of private business have b

By Brian Landers

/ 2 Dec 2010

Britain's 'Squeezed Middle' defined: 11 million facing a triple crunch

A new report exposes what the UK's working but not well off millions are up against - a triple beating.

By Brian Landers

/ 28 Nov 2010

Fairness and the cost of life for the poor in Britain

Unto those who have, more will be given' may be familiar. But do those who have less actually themselves give to the wealthier? As equality and fairness become key terms in the UK's political debate, we need to think in terms of how people spend not just their income.

By Brian Landers

/ 26 Nov 2010

The pension scandal behind the corporate burqa: the milkman is everyman

A lucid demonstration of how the corporate and financial system robs people of their pensions using one revealing and appalling example that gets no coverage in the UK media.

By Brian Landers

/ 28 Oct 2010