Shows / Hrkn to .. Thought for the Week
Hrkn to .. Thought for the Week
Each week we reflect on key issues, drawn from a wide range of areas: economics, politics, the environment, matters of physical and/or spiritual life, and, often, the search for a more egalitarian form of capitalism — including opportunities for young people from all backgrounds to achieve their potential. We've published these commentaries as a written record since August 2017, and as an audio podcast since March 2022. Visit https://shareradio.co.uk for more
Episodes
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Delivery is indeed the challenge
Government inaction is rooted in Civil Service reticence. It's not a recent phenomenon; it inspired 'Yes Minister' forty years ago, much to Margaret Thacher's…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Government Bond markets risk autumn meltdown
If buyers of government bonds fear potential default, they require significantly higher yields to offset that risk. For bonds already issued, that means much…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: The Frontiers of Science
The rate at which scientific discoveries such as electricity, flight, radio communication and computing have been made has been accelerating since that great…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: The solution for today’s Gordian Knots
The Gordian Knot is an ancient Greek legend of an immensely complex knot ‘so tightly entangled that it was impossible to see how it was fastened’. Whoever…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: In Loco Parentis
It's a long and lonely road for over 100,000 young people in care throughout the UK. Local Authorities and foster carers do everything possible to help with…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Celebrating the Individual
Herd mentality among humans is amply demonstrated in family, sport and business, but collective self-interest becomes more threatening in politics and…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Setting Limits
Our fast-moving world throws up continual challenges; genetic modification is among the latest, and we continually need to contend with the rights and wrongs…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: No Country for Young People
Italy is not alone in experiencing a massive fall in its birth rate over recent years: so has the United Kingdom. Lowering the voting age to 16 is all very…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Cash or Shares — or neither?
The debate over Cash ISA limits and the need to re-invigorate public interest in UK stock market investing has re-awoken people's ongoing approach to risk and…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Individual Freedom & Ownership — for all
A comment article in The Times last Friday was headed, 'Starmer and Reeves must change to survive' — but which way? The backbench Labour MP uprising called for…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: The Linguistic Poverty of Love
The English language does a real dis-service to Love. How can we use the same word to show our appreciation of ice cream as to define the nature of God — and…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Global Assembly for Faith
In ancient Roman religion and mythology Mars was the God of War but, judging by the fact that almost all wars in our modern age have their origins in disputes…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Has the rush for economic stimulation obscured joined-up thinking?
The Chancellor was like a person sitting on the cliff-edge of colossal public debt last week, convinced that her massive 'investment' commitments can overlook…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Why Attitudinal Transformation Matters
Author of 'Capitalism in the 21st Century' Thomas Piketty proposes an unconditional 'inheritance' endowment for all young people on reaching 25 years of age…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Bearing down on Spending
On 11th June UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves presents her Spending Review against the backdrop of a gargantuan public debt liability which is costing the UK…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Capitalism in need of a Moral Compass
Vladimir Putin has the audacity to claim moral superiority over western democracy: for the full story of complicity between Russia's leaders and the the…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: The Art of Conversation
The definition of what is art and what is science is a key part of academic life; the former being a matter of subjective opinion, albeit developed with skill…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: The Fallacy of Male Headship
Male dominance has tracked humanity throughout our evolution from the animal world, but it's now presenting an existential danger as our ability to threaten…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Change requires delivery, not just policies
Nigel Farage's stunning electoral success last Thursday exposed the chronic failure of state-centred socialism and the policy vacuum at the heart of the…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: New Ideas to tackle Climate Change
Climate change deniers may be in the hot seat across the Atlantic, but there is still a real determination to tackle global warming here in the United Kingdom…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Matters of Consequence
News of Pope Francis's death early on Easter Monday shocked everyone after his Easter blessings to those in St. Peter's Square on Easter Sunday. Tributes have…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Bonds across Humanity
Bonds can cement obligation, and the rising yields on long-dated U.S. Treasury bonds are currently closing down Donald Trump's options for bullying the world…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Everything, Everywhere — All At Once
Donald Trump may think he's a deal-maker, but he's more likely to turn out to be an economy-breaker, putting the U.S. dollar's role as the world's reserve…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Why ‘Non-Experimental Evaluation’ Matters
Outcome assessment is vital for all new initiatives, particularly political, but traditional academic research, which is sequential in character, is not good…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: End of the Road for Universality
When Clement Attlee introduced welfare universality to post-war Britain, he was aiming for a more egalitarian society. Seventy-five years on we can see not…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Monopolies provide no answers
Abolition of NHS England reverses the de-politicisation of the health service, but it leaves intact all the inefficiencies of being a monopoly: thereby…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: BRICS in the Ascendancy
As the United States descends towards economic turmoil as a result of its new-found isolationism and unreliability, the BRICS group of nations (including…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Stepping Forward — Together
Isolation and insecurity as a result of reducing levels of in-person contact are causing problems in all walks of life, but particularly for young people in…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Humanity's Stupidities
The 2025 Doomsday Clock is set at just 89 seconds before midnight by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, but it's not just the potential for nuclear…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Calling for Tech Philanthropy
Sam Altman, the tech entrepreneur who built OpenAI and its ground-breaking ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence functionality, correctly says that increasing…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: The Consequences of Currency Manipulation
Whatever you may think of trade tariffs, there is no doubting the massive trade imbalance that has developed between China and the United States over the past…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: How Tech could lift the Debt Straitjacket
Both the Office for Budget Responsibility and Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, have warned of serious consequences for public finances if…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Dishonesty on a Pedestal
More than seven million people tuned in for the explosive finale of the third series of hit BBC series 'The Traitors', an entertaining romp through the…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Wealth and Autocracy
This week is a real watershed, as we move from Biden to Trump. Joe Biden sounds a clear warning in his farewell address, setting out the risks for democracy…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Insuring Risks Unknown
The past year has seen a litany of climate change disasters of which the wildfires in Los Angeles are the latest. Yet Americans still supported Trump's call to…
- Hrkn to .. Thought for the Week
Thought for the Week: Democracy threatened by impoverishing the young
Turnout at the 2024 general election was 59.7%, the lowest at a General Election since 2001, and 7.6 percentage points lower than in 2019. We are all keenly…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Should leadership be based on strategy or circumstance?
Leadership inspires and is transformative in character: it's hard to see how reacting to circumstances can achieve this outcome. The leadership given by Jesus…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Short-termism — Democracy’s Achilles’ Heel
Food banks are very busy at this time of year, and Trussell, which co-ordinates and supplies 1,400 of them in the UK with 36,000 volunteers, is particularly…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThe real merit of individual ownership is responsibility
Dame Julia Hoggett is Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange, and featured in a half-page interview in The Sunday Times Business last weekend. She is a…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: A Matter of Life and Death
Matters of life and death featured strongly in the House of Commons last Friday. thanks to Kim Leadbeater's Private Members' Bill on assisted dying — it's…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: The Woes of the Church of England
A fortnight ago Justin Welby announced that he would resign as Archbishop of Canterbury following the Makin report's criticism of the Church's handling of…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Tackling Child Poverty with Inter-generational Rebalancing
Gordon Brown and Ruth Kelly set out a comprehensive plan to tackle child poverty with the Child Trust Fund. We've learnt a huge amount from putting it into…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Walking into the Unknown
Last week we focused on UK government debt: but it pales into insignificance when compared to U.S. national debt. Donald Trump has radical plans to apply tax…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: The OBR should analyse generational impact
The yellow-shaded column is the OBR's forecast for borrowing in 2028-29 as at March this year; the blue-shaded is their latest forecast. Is this really…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Democratising Copyright
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft has called for an overhaul of copyright legislation to recognise the broad span of human creativity. It is indeed time to…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Busy Times for The Share Foundation
With the '50% matured' stage for Child Trust Funds being reached at the end of October, The Share Foundation hopes the Chancellor will announce introduction of…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week — and beyond: Nobel Committee sets out existential threat to humanity
Five countries were recognised as nuclear weapon states under the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: UK Budget on the Horizon
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves presents her first Budget on Wednesday 30th October after a major spending review. Her election commitments on tax rates and the…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Inter-generational Logic
UK Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson describes our current system for financing higher education as 'the worst of all worlds', and she's right. The…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: How shifting priorities risk our future
In our fast-moving world, priorities are often distracted: issues which require long-term focus often lose out as a result. Unscrupulous marketeers are well…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Could Justin Welby hold the key to peace in Ukraine?
In a House of Lords debate on the continuing conflict in Sudan, Archbishop Justin Welby called for a long-term plan towards peace building. The need for that…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Falling birth rates unsettle the Vatican
Pope Francis calls for more focus on children, suggesting that in many countries pets take preference. If the hard-won values of gender equality are to benefit…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: “I’m 22 years old — where’s my CTF?”
The oldest recipient of a Child Trust Fund turned 22 on Sunday 1st September, but the great majority of those allocated by HMRC (due to no action by the young…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: The Art of Communication
Building the art of communication is essential for a successful adult life, and the performing arts provide a great way to develop confidence and…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Time
What does time mean for you? A busy diary, rushing people, stress and anxiety — 'never enough hours in the day'? If so, there's plenty of that to watch on the…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThough for the Week: Global stock ownership requires global investment platforms
While Hargreaves Lansdowne accepts an outcome driven by Private Equity, Abrdn attempts to shrug off the high price it paid for buying its retail investment…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Summer at Last?
It's been a long wait for summer this year, and we need to search for glimmers of hope as we approach the new political/economic/academic year. One such is the…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Inter-generational injustice requires wholesale reform
David Willetts set out the challenge of inter-generational injustice 14 years ago in his book, 'The Pinch': but the problems have got worse, not better, during…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: Usurping God
‘God is on my side', Trump told his re-vitalised Republican Party following the attempt to assassinate him. Bob Dylan's 1964 song 'With God on our side' told…
Hrkn to .. Thought for the WeekThought for the Week: One Human Family
Sport is not only a good way to celebrate national identity but also a great way to celebrate human convergence; football is one of the best in this respect…
