BP Lockerbie and Cameron’s U.S. Visit There is something rather ugly about the United States sometimes. It is the most vengeance driven society in the civilised world. This is curious because Americans are among the warmest, kindest and most generous people anywhere. It is just that there are moments when things get out of hand. […]
The Big Society I struggle with this. In the election people did not connect with it. Now it has moved from a hustings aspiration to a trial run in in five areas. Having heard Cameron’s speech I begin to see a little more clearly what he is talking about and what his vision is. I am […]
The Special Relationship There is a lot of talk in the press and by informed commentators on the media about the Special Relationship on the eve of David Cameron’s U.S trip. The trendy ones argue that it no longer exists or that it is not as strong as it was because America is more of […]
Iraq and Afghanistan News of another bomb in Baghdad with very considerable loss of life among Sunnis reveals how utterly un-normal is Iraq, still without a government more than three months after the election and with no deal among the parties in sight. An agglomeration of three tribes thrown together in a so called country after the […]
The Role of the State The Tory party has always been the party of a small state, while Labour has used the enlargement of the state to secure its social reforms. In 1945 this took the form of nationalisation of industries and public utilities; after 1997, following the dumping of clause four, nationalistion was off […]
U.S Banking Reform The legislation passed by the U.S Congress is the biggest piece of news in the world today and will set the foundation for the rebuilding of the Anglo-Saxon financial model. It is not likely to make popular headlines as few will understand its complexity. This blog will help you with the implications. American […]
Difficult Issues The Prime Minister had little option but to condemn the sympathy phenomenon for Raoul Moat, but troubling issues remain. Most gratifying, though, is the extraordinary courage and lack of bitterness shown by P.C.Rathband. Whatever flows from this tragic chain of events, his commitment to overcome the dreadful legacy of Moat’s violence should shine […]
Lending Controls Lord Turner has signalled that there will have to be a return to income based lending which ensures that the borrower has both sufficient income to pay the loan and also have enough money left over to live. The era of ignoring income, or having no formal controls, relying on house price inflation to take […]
Tributes to Raoul Moat The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has expressed disappointment in the level, 17000 at the time of writing this, of supporters of a tribute website to Rauol Moat on Facebook and the flowers and other tributes outside his home and at the spot where he shot himself. This raises profound issues which should […]
Deeper Recession New figures from the National Statistics office show that the recession in the U.K was worse than at first thought, going down from peak to trough 6.4%. This compares with 5.3% for Euroland and 3.8% for the U.S. In other words we did worst. When I was researching for my book 2010 A Blueprint For […]