Economic Recovery in the U.K. and the U.S. There are signs that things may be picking up both here and in the U.S., although there is a long way to go and the path will not be smooth. Something, however, is happening which makes this recovery different and much more difficult for politicians to control, […]
Terrorist Alert Tariq Ali, when answering a question on last night’s edition of Any Questions, made the very simple point that there is no way the terrorist threat will reduce while we continue to pursue our current foreign policy. He is so right. It is also right to maintain the highest practical level of security precautions […]
Boris, Polly and Housing Benefit Both these two have caused a big stir with dramatic words. Polly Toynbee regrets talking about a final solution for the poor, but Boris was less forthcoming about his jibe of Kosovo style cleansing. Whatever the sensitivities of these words, and they are real and many, Boris and Polly have […]
Housing Benefit and House Prices At first glance the Coalition’s proposals seem reasonable and fair, balancing need of claimant against charge on taxpayer. Delve a little and they fly close to a creating a social disaster. It is a complex issue. The problem is that, rightly, unlimited benefit, or benefit at inflated rents, is grossly unfair […]
Breaking Up the Banks Mervyn King has called, again, for the banks to be broken up, so that what we call retail banking is separated from what has become known as investment banking. This blog fully supports the Governor and has advocated this course continuously. There is good reason for this. Well capitalised retail banking, […]
Labour and the Economy If David Milliband had been elected Labour leader, thus keeping alive the concept of New Labour, the current economic posture of the Opposition would serve. The prospects of a return to power would be negligible. But it was not David, but Ed, who was elected, signalling the end of New Labour, […]
Growth Figures These have turned out better than expected for the third quarter at 0.8%. Annualised that would come to 3.2%. Actual growth over the past twelve months is 2.8%. All this is very respectable, but the effect of the cuts is yet to feed into the economy, although those of the past year by […]
U.S. Mid Term Elections and the Tea Party There is something very interesting going on in America. On this side of the Atlantic all people are aware of is the simple fact of elections, in which either the Democrats of Republicans will win the most seats in both Houses of Congress. There is also something […]
WikiLeaks and the Pentagon It is hardly surprising that the Pentagon is up in arms at another tranche of its files seeing the light of day. The MOD follows in its shadow. But times have changed. The Pentagon, as everyone else, has something to learn. We know about revolutions. America was founded on not one but two. There […]
Dr David Kelly The post mortem records have been released. They tell us nothing we did not know already. Neither do they answer questions posed by experts challenging the assumptions made. The issue is very simple. Hutton is a discredited Report, since few who read its conclusions overall, who had also followed the evidence day […]