Confident that the old British Rail was overstaffed, the new train companies downsized their drivers’ roster and cut back on training, on the assumption that it would be cheaper to poach drivers from rival companies than train their own. The union has as firm a grasp of the laws of supply and demand as [...]

In the afternoons I would take a book to my bedroom before taking a nap, but often I found myself just thinking about what on earth I would do if I wasn’t a professional footballer. What other life could I lead, how else could I get through the days and provide for my family? [...]

At a rough guess – which was all that was possible in the considerable crush – there were 20 television crews, 50 radio reporters and more newspapermen than most right-minded people would care to consort with in a lifetime, let alone a single gathering. Only two of this assembled throng were English who did [...]

Well, you can shilly shally around with the argument, but the reality is that global financial markets operate like a cleverly organised cartel.On the surface it looks like a viciously competitive snakepit, but in fact they all charge much the same and the net effect of most securities and currency trading is to skim [...]

So we need a campaign that young people can directly relate to.” She said the Aardman T-birds were “humourous and enduring” and would appeal to all ages.What was unsaid yesterday was that if the new creatures proved popular, it will be the end of the chimps after 46 years’ service to the tea industry.Apart [...]

His publications are reflective of this applied sociological imagination. His great skill was in communicating complex multidisciplinary ideas to a wide practitioner audience, without being patronising. Detractors often confused such scholarly synthesis with simplicity.He was a prolific writer and publisher, and his books sold well. The Social Context of the School (1967), Contemporary Research [...]