Our property tax system is in dire need of reform: we need radical solutions such as automatic Council Tax revaluation or a national property tax based on property values

With the recent news that first time buyers have little prospect of owning their own home in the next five years, it is clear that our housing system is in need of reform. Mark Stephens of the Joseph Rowntree Housing Market Taskforce argues that our current system of Council Tax is outdated and unequal, and proposes some radical reforms that may go some way to diminish the cyclical effect of the housing market

Wikileaks and Freedom of Speech: Can self regulation work?

Mark Stephens is right when he says that the current controversy around Wikileaks marks a key moment in the evolution of media responsibility and freedom. Legal matters – starting with the extradition hearing of Julian Assange this week – will move rather quickly even though it is going to take some time to work through the broader implications. Stephens says that the case engages article 10 of the European Convention – the right to free speech – but it remains to be seen how and if such a freedom could be invoked in Assange’s defence. Ultimately, there will be a question of balancing Assange’s speech rights (along with our right to know) and the rights of others such as citizens and soldiers that may have been endangered

Housing Theory: Impoverished, Ethically Speaking

No abstract available

How housing systems are changing and why: a critique of Kemeny’s theory of housing regimes

This article critiques Kemeny’s theory of housing regimes to explain housing systems change. Power balances mediated through institutional structures are underlying causes of housing regimes in Kemeny’s schema in which the design of cost-rental sectors defines whole housing systems. However, the distinctive “unitary” systems Kemeny identified in Germany and Sweden are breaking down as economic failure prompted reforms to wider welfare systems, whilst mature cost-rental sectors were unable to maintain supply without subsidies. These mis-specifications in the theory have been exacerbated by the rise in unorthodox monetary policy. As poverty rates have risen, so the boundaries of possibility have shrunk, rendering “housing for all” approaches problematic and heralding more acute policy trade-offs. Nonetheless, policy choice and institutional differences counterbalance forces of convergence. Understanding system change requires theories of the middle range to be extended upwards to capture high-level forces of convergence and downwards to capture institutional detail that explains the difference

Losing Lift and Creating Drag! The Effect of National Mediation Board Execution and Railway Labor Act Court Decisions on the Collective Bargaining Process in the Airline Industry: A Union Perspective

This comment will: (1) contrast the divergent statutory bargaining provisions implemented in the RLA and NLRA, (2) discuss how the NMB\u27s application of the RLA combined with court interpretation of RLA provisions negatively impacts labor unions\u27 leverage in the collective bargaining process, and (3) suggest potential solutions to balance the negotiating dynamic in the airline industry while still serving the legislative purposes enumerated in the RLA

SOT: A rapid prototype using TAE windows

The development of the window interface extension feature of the Transportable Applications Executive (TAE) is discussed. This feature is being used to prototype a space station payload interface in order to demonstrate and assess the benefits of using windows on a bit mapped display and also to convey the concept of telescience, the control and operation of space station payloads from remote sites. The prototype version of the TAE with windows operates on a DEC VAXstation 100. This workstation has a high resolution 19 inch bit mapped display, a keyboard and a three-button mouse. The VAXstation 100 is not a stand-alone workstation, but is controlled by software executing on a VAX/8600. A short scenario was developed utilizing the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) as an example payload. In the scenario the end-user station includes the VAXstation 100 plus an image analysis terminal used to display the CCD images. The layout and use of the prototype elements, i.e., the root menu, payload status window, and target acquisition menu is described

Study on Housing Exclusion: Welfare Policies, Housing Provision and Labour Markets

This is a six country comparative study of the relationship between housing, welfare states and labour markets. The study employs both quantitative (using EU-SILC) and qualitative data