Coppola Comment

“Over one million people in Gaza are starving,” proclaims a dramatic headline in the Wall Street Journal. Citing a new report from the International Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a partnership of 15 international agencies and non-government organisations, the Journal goes on to say:  More than a million people in the Gaza Strip, around half of the enclave’s population, are experiencing famine-like conditions, according to new estimates by food-insecurity experts who found evidence of widespread starvation and a sharp increase in child mortality in the war-ravaged enclave.  I expected this figure to be disputed. Both sides in this conflict inflate (or deflate) statistics when it suits them, and each side accuses the other of manipulating the numbers. So Israel’s supporters would probably insist that the number was much smaller and Palestinian supporters would claim it was twice as large. But I didn’t expect an argument about what “starvation” meant... To read on, click here

My post-Budget article for the Radix thinktank considers the future of the State Pension in the light of the Chancellor's changes to National Insurance.  The headline news in the Budget was a 2p cut in the main rate of National Insurance contributions for employed and self-employed people. This was the second such cut, the first being in the Autumn statement. And the Chancellor expressed an intention to go much further. He trailed the idea of abolishing personal National Insurance completely.  These changes will have far-reaching implications for the state pension...  To read the rest of the post, click here .  Related reading: The Fund that isn't a fund