Huge gulf between rhetoric and reality in 21st century 'social Europe'

The all new Social Europe website is now live with more functionality for our readers. We have merged the Social Europe website and Social Europe Blog to have all our content in one accessible place and still offer as much interactivity as possible. In addition to our traditional PDF version of each journal issue, our articles

Spain likes shovelling debt under the carpet where it hopes no one will notice. I've blogged before about the debts of Spanish provincial authorities (click the Spain label below). Now we learn that big power groups have recently stepped up pressure on the likely incoming Spanish government to tackle a deficit they accumulated by selling power at regulated tariffs too low to cover costs for 1...

After several questions about how to subscribe to our quarterly journal Social Europe (see www.social-europe.eu) I just want to mention a few points that might not be as known as we thought. This is the Blog of the quarterly e-journal Social Europe. The journal itself is only available as pdf from our website www.social-europe.eu and

So what is the current state of the UK economy? Well, the current economic statistics do not look promising: A record 200 people a day declared bankruptBaugur - the owner of Hamleys, House of Fraser and Mappin and Webb - goes into administrationFord cuts 850 UK jobs amid 30% sales plungeManufacturing output declined at its fastest rate since 1981 in DecemberThe U.K. economy plunged further into re...

Aaargh! Stop, the pain, the pain…. Jonny Porritt is still claiming that the creation of jobs by various green schemes is a benefit of such schemes, not a cost! Big emphasis in his campaign on jobs – and I've no doubt that's going to become a huge issue here in the UK too. The Prime Minister himself

Tensions and political extremism could increase to dangerous levels unless rising joblessness is tackled, warns the EU's top employment official as Europe's politicians balk at giving more power over social policy to Brussels

Harpy Harperson: evil old witch, destroyer of livelihoods and all round shitbag. As Brown becomes ever more unpopular and embattled, Harriet Harperson—destroyer of jobs, evil old bag and target of insults—has made an important statement. She told the BBC's Today programme: "I don't want to be prime minister and I don't want to be leader of the party." Good: now you know how we feel. An...

Time for Americans to look to Spain - you will see the future and it is green -ish! "Every “green job” created with government money in Spain over the last eight years came at the cost of 2.2 regular jobs, and only one in 10 of the newly created green jobs became a permanent job, says a new study released this month. The study draws parallels with the green jobs programs of the Obama a...

The jobs market grew at its fastest rate for three months in November but remains delicately poised, according to a closely watched survey