Metalinguistic Proposals

This paper sets out the felicity conditions for metalinguistic proposals, a type of directive illocutionary act. It discusses the relevance of metalinguistic proposals and other metalinguistic directives for understanding both small- and large-scale linguistic engineering projects, essentially contested concepts, metalinguistic provocations, and the methodology of ordinary language philosophy. Metalinguistic proposals are compared with other types of linguistic interventions, including metalinguistic negotiation, conceptual engineering, lexical warfare, and ameliorative projects

Congressional Risk Proposals

Dr. Paxman relates how an ambitious environmental agenda supported by the Administration and many members of the 103d Congress was ultimately derailed. He associates this with an apparently ever-growing interest in risk assessment

Rail Privatisation: The Practice – An Analysis of Seven Case Studies

After a brief description of the proposals for rail privatisation in Great Britain, this paper contrasts these with the proposals and experience in other countries around the world. The proposals and experience in other countries contain some elements of the British proposals, however, the 'open access' element that features strongly in the British proposals has never been experienced on any significant scale elsewhere. In conclusion, experience elsewhere may shed light on the likely outcome of some aspects of the British proposals, but other aspects such as 'open access' and vertical separation are still unknowns

Labour's proposals

Election Briefing Note 5 shows how households have been affected by Labour's tax and benefit reforms. This Election Briefing Note discusses further tax-benefit reform that Labour proposes to introduce if re-elected. The first section discusses three "credits" the government is proposing to introduce - the integrated child credit, the pension credit and the employment tax credit. We analyse their likely effect on household incomes and how much each would cost to introduce. The new credits represent developments of tax-benefit reforms implemented in the last Parliament, but Labour's manifesto also contains proposals for "asset-based" welfare, which would represent more of a new departure. In particular, the party plans to introduce two new policies - the Child Trust Fund and the Saving Gateway. Both are targeted towards low-income households and provide financial assistance in the form of assets. This method of asset-based welfare delivery contrasts with (and is intended to complement) the traditional approach of providing social security benefits as income supplements. Section 2 considers some of the arguments for and against the proposed new approach. Finally, we consider Labour's approach to income tax