Ed Milliband’s Choice Now that the Shadow Cabinet has been elected, the Labour Leader has to make those chosen into a powerful opposition team, capable of harrying the Coalition in parliament, in the county and across the media. The new team needs to look like a new government in waiting. It must not look like the old defeated […]
National Security Committee This is apparently meeting today to try and decide what to do about the two mega carriers ordered by Labour. Apparently it will cost more to build one than two, such is the compensation package for cancellation agreed by the most incompetent department in the history of government in this country, the […]
David Cameron It was a good Leader’s speech. The Conference liked it. The media liked it. There was a theme of hope and a warning of cuts. This is the point perhaps. Any speech made before the Spending Review is announced in a fortnight is doing no more than marking time. That will change the […]
Mortgage Lending The Council Of Mortgage Lenders has predicted that nearly half the mortgages granted and completed over the last four years, would not have been granted if the FSA’s new and tougher lending criteria had then been in effect. That tells you all you want to know about the origins of the financial crisis, […]
Tax Breaks The Tories are sliding around all over their banana skin and it is now dominating the conference. A combination of Fox and Cameron should help to move the media forward. Politically this is a shrewder move than the hoo ha suggests. Labour is forced into the awkward position of defending the better off, […]
Universal Benefits Yesterday’s banana skin, predicted by this Blog, is fully reported across the media today. I do not understand how clever politicians and bright civil servants get themselves into this kind of tangle. It needs to be sorted out quickly. It is right to take child benefit away from the better off and HRT […]
Child Benefit This is very good news BUT……. This Blog has actively promoted removing universal benefits from people who do not need them. Higher rate taxpayers do not need child benefit, fuel allowance and so on. Anybody receiving over £100,000 a year pension should not get the state pension. First because the country cannot afford to […]
Iain Duncan Smith and Welfare Reform IDS came from nowhere to lead the Conservative Party. It was all a mistake. It was not his finest hour, but if he pulls off the radical reconstruction of the benefit system, so long acknowledged as necessary, but ducked by weak governments who retreated into spin, his finest hour […]
George Osborne and the Ministry of Defence George Osborne has been very rude about the MOD’s financial ineptitude. He is right. This Blog would go much further and shut the MOD down. Regular readers will know that this is not the first time I have suggested this dramatic move. The fact is that we have […]
Michael Gove and Empowering Teachers Michael Gove, who has a had a somewhat rough ride in the early months of the Coalition, is to announce the re-establishment of commonsense practice, empowering teachers to enforce discipline in schools. Teachers will be allowed physical contact when appropriate for order or for comfort. This is welcome news. It […]