The Comment Matrix: Ed Miliband, white-collar professional jobs under threat and the Rio+20 summit
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Your support makes all the difference.Ed Miliband is wrong about the threat from immigration
Miliband's “short-term, fast-buck culture” does not cohere with the testimony of businesses who say that they hire foreign labour because it is more skilled and productive than the ill-educated, demotivated ranks of UK unemployed.
The vast bulk of new jobs created here since 2000 have been taken by foreign born workers.
(David Blackburn, The Spectator)
Top jobs and family life – why women still can't have it all
I always assumed that if I got a job in the White House, I would stay as long as I had the opportunity to do work I loved. But when my leave from Princeton was up, I hurried home. I still strongly believe that women can "have it all". But not today, not with the way the US economy and society are currently structured.
(Anne-Marie Slaughter, The Atlantic)
White-collar professional jobs will soon be at risk from computers
There is much discussion of the decline in low-skilled jobs through automation with diminished prospects for young people with few skills. But what happens when this creeps up the ladder? What are the consequences when white-collar, middle-class jobs are done by computers? This could easily happen within a decade.
(Rafael Behr, New Statesman)
The Rio+20 summit has been a complete waste of time
Since 1992, nothing has changed on species conservation and climate change. Which makes this conference all the more striking. The final statement has already been agreed and it is full of empty words. Rio+20 should have provided a new spark, but has instead shined the spotlight on global timidity.
(Leading article, Süddeutsche Zeitung).
Euro 2012: the football is great – the TV coverage is appalling
The BBC's padding of its coverage with journeyman presenters and mundane personalities is revealing of its decline. This careless acceptance of mediocrity is a reminder that for all the blather about football as a new religion, a shared national experience, the people's sport is still of little interest to our political and media elites.
(David Bowden, Spiked)
Germany poses an existential threat to the rest of Europe
Nobody should be surprised that Germany has become the greatest threat to Europe. It is too big and powerful to coexist comfortably with its neighbours in any political structure ruled purely by national interests. Yet isn't big and powerful enough to dominate its neighbours decisively, as the US does North America.
(Anatole Kaletsky, Reuters)
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