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Given the propensity of the world financial system to crisis, this book explores the radical alternative put forward by Islamic (and Western) theories of non-interest banking. The Islamic critique of interest and early experiments with non-interest banking are assessed against the conventional theories regarding banking, company finance and macroeconomic stability. Whilst the experience of Islamic banking has proved inconclusive thus far, the theoretical model provides a cogent alternative to a financial system made fragile by debt contracts.

On 11 December 1969 representatives of the Governments of Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, and Swaziland signed a Customs Union Agreement, replacing that of 1910.1 Preliminary negotiations had been protracted. Bipartite discussions had begun some six years before, between South Africa and Britain, as the colonial power responsible for Bechuanaland, Basutoland, and Swaziland; but South Africa suspended the talks early in 1965, pending a reappraisal of her relationship with the three territories concerned, made necessary by their rapid constitutional advance, which led to complete independence. Negotiations were not resumed until mid-1968; several quadripartite meetings took place in Pretoria during 1968–9, including one at ministerial level. Eventually the detailed draft of the treaty was agreed.

This paper examines Melbourne's first statutory metropolitan planning scheme in 1954 in terms of its origins, production, promotion and reception. While a cautious trend-tidying template, it represented a landmark in Melbourne's planning history and established permanently a metropolitan planning apparatus at the state government level. Metropolitan planning initiatives in Australia before World War Two were few and far between. The scale of thinking, resourcing and implementation was beyond most state governments with a notable exception being the 1929 report of the Melbourne Metropolitan Town Planning Commission. This was shelved during the depression years but by the 1940s an active planning movement in Melbourne and development by major infrastructure agencies highlighted the need to revisit a coordinative metropolitan strategy and ensure it did not sit on the shelf. The agency officially charged with devising, promoting and implementing a new regional-scale planning scheme in 1949 was the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW), a legacy public utility from the 1890s. The paper examines the grafting of planning functions onto the MMBW and in particular the appointment of E.F. Borrie as Chief Planner. Two intertwined themes thread through the development and eventual marketing of the plan to the wider community and key stakeholders including local authorities and developers. One was an early retreat from visionary planning towards a more politically-pragmatic and business-like incrementalism. The second was the endeavour to secure broad citizen acceptance of the proposals through selling them as necessary common-sense solutions to emerging issues such as employment distribution, transport congestion, and open space provision. Key agents of the MMBW's propaganda campaign were a series of public exhibitions held in 1953-54 along with other public relations initiatives including endorsements from leading planners from overseas. The paper revisits these and other key events in the narrative to establish metropolitan planning oversight on a secure footing in Melbourne. The campaign proved successful. The MMBW was confirmed as Melbourne's regional planning authority in December 1954 and hence became part of the bureaucratic machinery of state government. From that point, planning debate shifted decisively from the general case of for and against to even more challenging and controversial issues of implementation.

Objectives: To investigate types of evidence used by healthcare commissioners when making decisions and whether decisions were influenced by commissioners' experience, personal characteristics or role at work. Design: Cross-sectional survey of 345 National Health Service (NHS) staff members. Setting: The study was conducted across 11 English Primary Care Trusts between 2010 and 2011. Participants: A total of 440 staff involved in commissioning decisions and employed at NHS band 7 or above were invited to participate in the study. Of those, 345 (78%) completed all or a part of the survey. Main outcome measures: Participants were asked to rate how important different sources of evidence (empirical or practical) were in a recent decision that had been made. Backwards stepwise logistic regression analyses were undertaken to assess the contributions of age, gender and professional background, as well as the years of experience in NHS commissioning, pay grade and work role. Results: The extent to which empirical evidence was used for commissioning decisions in the NHS varied according to the professional background. Only 50% of respondents stated that clinical guidelines and cost-effectiveness evidence were important for healthcare decisions. Respondents were more likely to report use of empirical evidence if they worked in Public Health in comparison to other departments (p<0.0005, commissioning and contracts OR 0.32, 95%CI 0.18 to 0.57, finance OR 0.19, 95%CI 0.05 to 0.78, other departments OR 0.35, 95%CI 0.17 to 0.71) or if they were female (OR 1.8 95% CI 1.01 to 3.1) rather than male. Respondents were more likely to report use of practical evidence if they were more senior within the organisation (pay grade 8b or higher OR 2.7, 95%CI 1.4 to 5.3, p=0.004 in comparison to lower pay grades). Conclusions: Those trained in Public Health appeared more likely to use external empirical evidence while those at higher pay scales were more likely to use practical evidence when making commissioning decisions. Clearly, National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance and government publications (eg, National Service Frameworks) are important for decision-making, but practical sources of evidence such as local intelligence, benchmarking data and expert advice are also influential.