14 July 2024 | Welcome to my Campaigns and Academia Website
It is an honour to introduce you all to my personal website. I am a UK-based political economist whose research focuses on regional data analysis and labour. My expertise also extends to evidence-based HR. I am a post-holder in the position of vice chair of the Peckham Constituency Labour Party, where I am active in campaigns and membership in the Peckham constituency. I advocate for workers' rights and policy development within the London Borough of Southwark. My independently funded research emphasises the inclusion of labour and immigration to local government stakeholders. I also enjoy critiquing monetary policy. Those interested in my work or seeking research collaborations can contact me via email. Additionally, I offer an online ticketing request service for internal clients associated with the UK Labour Party or Local Government Administration.
UAC-2006.pdf19 July 2024 | Nostalgic Vibes of Africa - UACN's Annual Report (2006)
I stumbled upon a gem on the UACN company website: the '06 Annual Report. Back in those days, I was just a college pup, but that period was a defining one for one of Nigeria's most revered conglomerates. The insights I've gained are pivotal for my upcoming article, which delves into the conglomerate business sector—a field I've come to deeply respect. This respect stems partly from my father's role at UPDC, a trailblazing real estate arm of UACN, which has faced its challenges recently. I'm candid about these issues when talking with my dad and my friends who, like me, spent their formative years in Nigeria before coming to England. UACN holds a special place in all our hearts, both culturally and conceptually. Reading that section of UACN's website was truly enlightening, and I'm excited to share that experience with you.
19 July 2024 | The King's Speech and our next Peckham GC Meeting
Great news, the King's Speech has been delivered by HRH King Charles III and the State Opening of Parliament has now taken place. Miatta has kindly provided our members with an outstanding summary of her week in Parliament (pictured). I must say, I am ever so proud of all the volunteers who gave up their time to support our new PLP members Miatta (Camberwell & Peckham) and Dan (Chipping Barnet). Proud to see that Dan was confident enough to address the House and the new Foreign Secretary David Lammy concerning how our government plans to orchestrate the release of every single Israeli citizen currently held hostage in Gaza. A momentous moment. CLP members shall be having our Peckham General Committee (GC) meeting next week. If you wish to attend please reach out to one of your contacts at Peckham Labour. I look forward to seeing all our old branch executive members and new faces as well. Kindly note that I have been advised to inform everyone that attendance at GC meetings for executives is of utmost importance. The whole team in Peckham are delighted, not only to have contributed to a successful General Election campaign - in my case, before a direct nomination and election into the Peckham Ward executive which took place at last week's ward meeting at St. Luke's Chapel, thanks to Tracy, Sabina, Sunny, and Malc who's leaving Peckham to join Bournemouth Labour - but we are also delighted for our new Labour MPs in Parliament.
23 July 2024 | Barnet: Comparing the 2016 EU Referendum to the 2024 General Election
Chipping Barnet is a ward located in a very plush part of the London Borough of Barnet. Situated around a cluster of Leave-voting constituencies, Barnet's importance to Peckham Labour is as our twinned campaign ward. Our new winning candidate? The charming Dan Tomlinson MP. Peckham Labour were tasked with the difficult challenge of galvanizing voters to turn out and support Labour. Cleo, Miatta, and the whole crew made countless trips via the Northern Line to Barnet to ensure a successful campaign, something we are eternally grateful for. Now, what are the key figures for Barnet? Well, I've crunched the numbers, and boy is there an interesting story to tell.
25 July 2024 | Brit Olympian from Peckham Flies Flag for Team GB at Paris 2024
Noticing the beginnings of a great career legacy is so easy with 24-year-old Kye Whyte - who along with esteemed Team GB cycling teammate, Bethany Shriever, a BMX Gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics four years ago - is going for Gold four years on. All the more resounding when one steps foot inside his elite training environment, the former adventure playground turned professional BMX track in Burgess Park on Wells Way. We all know the legendary names in cycling, the Mark Cavendish's, Chris Hoy's, and Bradley Wiggin's of the scene, who have come and conquered, gracing us all with their great feats of human endeavor as generational talents, and now British cycling as an established sport with a global fan base is relying on the young Prince of Peckham to bring home a cycling Gold. For those new Peckham residents who are old enough to remember the go-cart circuit, adjacent to the adventure playground in Burgess Park, you'll be quietly impressed to discover that Whyte (pictured) is the leader of a new generation of highly-skilled BMX cyclers and racers who call the BMX track their home turf. He may not be flying the actual flag at the Opening Ceremony today, but he still represents Team GB so everyone at Peckham Labour does wish Kye Whyte every success at the Paris Olympics. Good luck, Kye.
25 July 2024 | Peckham Committee Meeting Minutes (Unofficial)
Well, today's affairs were split into two categories. The first was a vote on finance items and nominations for vacant CLP positions; the second was related to an additional vote for the NEC and the Annual Labour Party Conference in September. Finance is pretty mundane, so I'll skip that. Congrats to Yunze Wang and the absent Peter Jennings for being duly elected to the roles of Digital Media Officer and CLP Youth Officer, respectively. Congrats also to Dr. Saba, Cassie, Cllr Hargrove, and Zain who were voted as our four elected delegates for the Party Conference in Liverpool. There's a new role for Sunny in Audit. Thanks to Caroline Horgan (CLP Chair) and Giovanni Fonti (CLP Secretary) for organizing a thoroughly engaging series of votes for the executive. Thanks also to Reginald Popoola who was immense today as an elected teller, he really was the star of the show.
27 July 2024 | Our MP's New Office is Accepting Casework from Constituents
Great news from the Office of Miatta Fahnbulleh MP this Friday. I was lucky enough to bump into Miatta at our Monthly Committee Meeting on Thursday where she highlighted that there would be a forthcoming Housing Conference for the local area, bringing together Peckham residents with councillors, and other interested parties seeking to participate in the housing boom. Our new constituency MP, who replaces former Labour MP and Mother of the House, Harriet Harman, has been busy resolving casework for her constituents and is currently available to listen to and take action in favor of any issues regarding housing, immigration, and benefits being faced by Peckham constituents.
Our MP for Peckham also vehemently defended her voting decision on the issue of the two-child benefits cap. A proposed amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap, which prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for more than two children, was voted down by 363 to 103, leaving Labour with a majority of 260. You may also have heard about the unveiling of the Government's plan to kick off with Great British (GB) Energy, which according to Ed and Miatta's department is a prosperous venture backed by the Crown Estate. Lots of stuff in the pipeline. Have any further questions for Miatta, feel free to reach out directly to her Office, and please do ensure you are a constituent and casework eligible.
30 July 2024 | Bank of England MPC Poised For Decisive Interest Rate Decision
The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, currently chaired by the Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, meets on Thursday 1 August 2024 for it's landmark 450th meeting since its inception in 1997. The current Bank rate is 5.25% - a high not seen since early 2008. I have written several academic articles in the recent past about the specific influence of inflation targets and rules-based approaches to monetary policy, which focus predominantly on how moderately influential the Taylor-rule has been since its conceptualisation by John B. Taylor. The media consensus is for a rate-cut decision, which follows on from the MPC's decision to maintain the base rate at the current level.
31 July 2024 | New Mentoring Program for European LGBTQ+ Economists
The European Committee for LGBTQ+ Economists (ECQE) is launching a new iteration of its mentoring program for graduate students and early-career researchers. They are seeking mentors from academia, governments, and the private sector who can contribute their time to mentor junior colleagues. Note that junior economists could both be a mentor and a mentee, such as by mentoring a PhD student while having a senior economist as a mentor. Mentoring could cover areas such as professional development, research, or LGBTQ-related issues. Kindly note: I am not the point of contact for this program.
03 August 2024 | Parliament Enters Recess as Party Conference Season Draws Near
Camberwell and Peckham's new constituency MP, Miatta Fahnbulleh, previously the Chief Executive of the New Economics Foundation (NEF), has been very active in the community this week as Parliament enters a summer recess for 2024 returning on 2 September. Accordingly, another recess intended for a highly anticipated Annual Conference will begin on 13 September and will end on 6 October. Peckham CLP has nominated and elected Cllr Barry Hargrove and Tracy Julian (as ex-officio delegates) to the Labour Party Annual Conference in Liverpool. Women's Conference will take place on that very weekend, addressing solutions to a key agenda item - a sufficient response to tackling the child poverty crisis. Labour's Rachel Reeves MP will hold her first budget announcement as a female UK Chancellor on 30 October. The first Labour budget since 2010.
07 August 2024 | Launch of the Child Poverty Taskforce in Peckham with Liz Kendall MP
We know that Peckham has several food banks and charitable organisations, such as Albrighton Community Centre for example. But is this enough of a safety net for our residents? Our Parliamentarian's work this week has included a bit of correspondence with Liz Kendall MP, who is now leading the DWP. Long-serving members will recall Liz as one of the dark horse candidates from the 2015 Labour leadership elections along with Yvette Cooper. Liz, who has been invited to a Child Poverty roundtable in Peckham to discuss how best to alleviate rising pressures on families in our community who may be struggling to make ends meet, received this letter:
14 August 2024 | The Joys of Encyclopedic Knowledge: A Short Personal Anecdote
My thirst for acquiring knowledge is not a new phenomenon but harkens back to the mid-90's, when I was first gifted this seven-volume Children's Encyclopedia book set published by Oxford University Press (pictured). The book set covers every topic you could think of in cross-referencing form, each topic covered conveniently in an Index. It was shortly before my 10th birthday that I decided to, with the help of a blank A4 notepad, start what I now call the home geography project. With my mum and, my step-father, keeping tabs on me, I made it my responsibility to learn as many country facts as possible, systematically. These geographical encyclopedic facts are formatted throughout the book set in a cheerfully similar way, which meant it was relatively easy to pick up the nuances of each country. So little old me, couped up in old Camden Estate (Peckham), managed to spend the best part of a good 6 months filling up an entire A4 notepad with trivial facts about everywhere from Jakarta in Indonesia to Kathmandu in Nepal. I knew exactly what I was doing. I didn't want to travel, not really, because to me in some innocuous and rather peculiar way, this task I had set myself was as traverse as life got. In between trips to and fro Primary school, my mother's minder in Ely House (also in Peckham), and home, it was a passionate escape. Where am I going with this? Well, essentially, I just wanted to encourage the ambivalent pupils of this world with a bit of an insight into my website header - a 19-volume collection of Britannica encyclopedias. Don't let anyone tell you that something you are passionate about is impossible. Believe in yourself and have faith in God's reckoning.
VID-20240815-WA0000.mp415 August 2024 | Local Mosque welcomes Peckham MP as Guest Visitor
Businesses and Constituents in Peckham will be eager to know that both the Council and our local MP have taken a strong stance on the threat posed by the potential racist and Far Right, English Defence League (EDL) protests. Miatta has condemned the Muslim attacks via a public statement and has provided an update to everyone on the collective action being proposed. In her statement, Miatta says we must all "resist the forces of division and hate", which I believe is such powerful phraseology to use to convey how important resistance can be as a mechanism in the face of racial injustice. Thanks to Sam and Miatta for this great video clip of our Peckham Parliamentarian being welcomed by a local Mosque, at such a sensitive time for our Muslim communities, and with the backdrop of recent national unrest.
16 August 2024 | IFS Report Demonstrates The Effect of Inflation on Working Families
This Friday, I received a constituency newsletter from the MP for Peckham, Miatta Fahnbulleh MP - which points to the findings of an Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) report on Inflation. The report, suggests, according to Miatta's newsletter (below), that Peckham has been facing a real inflation rate of 29.1% mainly affecting the price level of food. We're grateful to Miatta, who is the former CEO of the New Economics Foundation, for letting us know she paid a visit to Peckham Pantry to see how a real-world organization is dealing with impact on the ground. Peckham will also be participating in a Southwark Housing Summit, which is currently being organized, and which Miatta has revealed will seek to exploit synergies between local and central government stakeholders. Key dates to be announced.
29 August 2024 | Upcoming Peckham Labour BLP Meeting and NEC/NPF Elections
This week, as per my duties in the post of Vice-Chair, I was able to vote for my Labour NEC and NPF candidates (as is our right as active members of the Labour Party). After reviewing each candidate, I am pleased to confirm my vote was as follows: My National Executive Committee (NEC) CLP Rep (Division III) votes went to: ✔️ @AnnBlackLabour ✔️ and @AbdiDuale_ My National Policy Forum (NPF) CLP Rep (London) votes went to: ✔️ @borakwon ✔️ @RezinaChowdhury ✔️ @Sara_Conway3 ✔️ @Rathi Guhadasan. Good luck to everyone and well done all for campaigning as hard as you have done, putting in those countless hours. All the best for the future. There will also be an upcoming Branch Labour Party meeting on 5 September 2024. Please contact our Branch secretary if you would like to attend.
31 August 2024 | Have an Energy, Immigration, or Housing Association inquiry?
Miatta Fahnbulleh MP has duly informed the Peckham Labour Party of her impressive caseload which currently stands at 908 cases since we won a mandate to govern at the 2024 General Election with a landmark majority in Parliament. Across the constituency, with the rise in the energy price cap, HM Government is setting out an ambition to ensure energy bills are not becoming too expensive for households in Peckham. Miatta met with a panel of energy suppliers this week to ensure all is being done to level off the worst impact of the price cap, which is set to rise on 01 October 2024 by 10%.
Read more in Miatta's Friday newsletter.
06 September 2024 | Outstanding School welcomes Peckham MP as Guest Visitor
This week saw the long-awaited end of recess and the pursual of a number of important public engagements by Peckham MP and Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Miatta Fahnbulleh. Miatta gave her condolences to the families of those who suffered tragic personal loss as a result of the Grenfall incident. Given the importance of the Grenfall Inquiry Phase 2 report, the Government has announced its intention to review the Inquiry's recommendations in full. Peckham Labour welcomes these recommendations and will now look ahead to their implementation. Miatta, this past week also informed the Party that she was also graciously accepted as a recent visitor to St. Thomas the Apostle Secondary School in Queen's Road, Peckham.
Read more in Miatta's Friday newsletter.
13 September 2024 | ECB and Bank of England Monetary Policy Decisions
The ECB Governing Council has decided to decrease the deposit facility rate by 25 basis points to 3.50% in a press release published on 12 September 2024, this is broadly in-line with the Bank of England's MPC decision to cut its base rate taken on 31 July 2024. The Bank of England MPC will be meeting on 19 September 2024 to decide whether or not to continue its monetary tightening policy which has seen the base rate reduced by 25 basis points to 5.00%.
14 September 2024 | Harris Academy & London Sport welcome new Peckham MP
Harris Federation schools in London were some of several schools to have received the backing of Junior Minister, Miatta Fahnbulleh MP with a personal site visit. This week, Harris Academy Peckham welcomed a visit from the UK Labour / Co-op MP for an activity session tour (sessions are organised and run alongside @LondonSport). Miatta (pictured), who was elected into office just two short months ago can see the level of enthusiasm there is around regular community sporting events at Harris Academy Peckham, and as an alumnus of the Harris Secondary School myself, I too believe our community should create better protected, and supervised spaces for recreational use by our local constituency.
Read more in Miatta's Friday newsletter.
30 September 2024 | Round up of the Labour Party Conference 2024
Unfortunately, I couldn't attend Labour's conference this year, but as mentioned before, I felt I had to nominate the legend that is Cllr Barrie Hargrove as a CLP delegate to the Conference, given the excitement around the actual national gathering. Still waiting for event reports from Barrie and Cleo (who also attended the Labour Party Women's Annual Conference).
I did however see quite a bit of activity from the likes of Cllr Evelyn Akoto, Cllr Jas Ali, Cllr Stephanie Cryan, the Situ brothers and even Sheri-Ann Brandy. Lots of London Labour social media posts with famous faces within the party. But no news yet from Cllr Hargrove. I might see him at the Peckham Branch Annual Meeting this 03 October 2024 and ask him how it went. The Prime Minister's speech must have been the highlight.
11 October 2024 | The 'Make Work Pay' Employment Rights Legislation Marks 100 Days
This week saw the end of Conference recess. On Friday, I received a weekly update from our constituency MP and was excited to learn how she has been serving our constituents in Camberwell & Peckham. With the Employment Rights Bill, Labour has proposed to transform working conditions (almost unrecogniseably) for those in zero-hour, part-time, and full-time employment. The Renter's Rights Bill proposed by Labour's Government will aim to strengthen existing legislation around Section 21 (No fault evictions) i.e. notices in a move welcomed by tenants and landlords alike. Also, on 11 October 2024, I acted for the 1st time in my capacity of Vice-Chair at Peckham Labour Party and wrote to the newly elected HCLG Select Committee Chair, Florence Eshalomi MP to address some of the issues I felt were not sitting well with me and about the possibility of our Party supporting the Committee's policy briefings into a topic known as Modern Methods. Finally, I enquired into the date of Southwark's Housing Summit.
Read more in Miatta's Friday newsletter.