Thatcherism and the origins of the 2007 crisis

The crisis of 2007 affected banks, financial institutions and retailers at a macro-economic level as well as individuals and families at a micro-economic level. Following the acceptance of a crisis the politics of blame began, with politicians, the media academics and the public assessing who (or what) generated the crisis and what could be done to alleviate it. Three broad narratives of blame have hitherto been purported; the first views the crisis as an international crisis, or whose roots stem from the United States, the second suggests that the policies of New Labour generated the crisis and the third traces the origins of the crisis back to Britain’s withdrawal from the ERM in 1992. In this article I present a fourth account which sees the crisis as stemming from the 1980s and the policies of Thatcherism. Specifically I argue that the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme and the Big Bang deregulation of 1986 shifted the labour-capital relationship decisively in favour of capital paving the way for the crisis of 2007. Through doing so I question contemporary policies introduced to try and alleviate the crisis, asking if they will create a new growth model or simply entrench/recreate the model developed in the 1980s

Impacts of Ascophyllum marine plant extract powder (AMPEP) on the growth, incidence of the endophyte Neosiphonia apiculata and associated carrageenan quality of three commercial cultivars of Kappaphycus

Three commercial cultivars of Kappaphycus (e.g., K. alvarezii—Crocodile and Giant) and K. striatus (Sacol) were grown in Semporna, Sabah, for three consecutive growth cycles, each for a duration of 45 days. The study intended to determine the impacts of Ascophyllum marine plant extract powder (AMPEP) on the daily growth rates (DGR), percentage incidence of endophytic Neosiphonia apiculata, and the commercial, quality characteristics of extracted carrageenan from the harvested biomass (i.e., yield, viscosity, and gel strength). Results showed that the performances of AMPEP-treated thalli were significantly different (P < 0.01), in terms of the three major assessment criteria used in this study. Amongst the three cultivars and under the conditions tested, K. striatus was the most resistant to the incidence of N. apiculata, especially when treated with AMPEP. The use of AMPEP as a red seaweed biostimulant for the promotion of thallus growth rate, reduction of biotic stress caused by endophytes, and important improvements to commercially valuable traits, such as carrageenan quality, are encouraging and could be adopted in crop management protocols to assist the industry

One stop shop: backbones trees for important phytopathogenic genera: I (2014)

Many fungi are pathogenic on plants and cause significant damage in agriculture and forestry. They are also part of the natural ecosystem and may play a role in regulating plant numbers/density. Morphological identification and analysis of plant pathogenic fungi, while important, is often hampered by the scarcity of discriminatory taxonomic characters and the endophytic or inconspicuous nature of these fungi. Molecular (DNA sequence) data for plant pathogenic fungi have emerged as key information for diagnostic and classification studies, although hampered in part by non-standard laboratory practices and analytical methods. To facilitate current and future research, this study provides phylogenetic synopses for 25 groups of plant pathogenic fungi in the Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Mucormycotina (Fungi), and Oomycota, using recent molecular data, up-to-date names, and the latest taxonomic insights. Lineage-specific laboratory protocols together with advice on their application, as well as general observations, are also provided. We hope to maintain updated backbone trees of these fungal lineages over time and to publish them jointly as new data emerge. Researchers of plant pathogenic fungi not covered by the present study are invited to join this future effort. Bipolaris, Botryosphaeriaceae, Botryosphaeria, Botrytis, Choanephora, Colletotrichum, Curvularia, Diaporthe, Diplodia, Dothiorella, Fusarium, Gilbertella, Lasiodiplodia, Mucor, Neofusicoccum, Pestalotiopsis, Phyllosticta, Phytophthora, Puccinia, Pyrenophora, Pythium, Rhizopus, Stagonosporopsis, Ustilago and Verticillium are dealt with in this paper