Whilst most Western capitals have been for a very long time uneasy about the autocratic and repressive style of Mubarak’s government, they have done little to admonish a reliable ally and the only Arab country to have completed a peace treaty with Israel. There may now be a price to pay. Change is coming to Egypt, possibly […]
Commentators refer to greater confidence among delegates that things are on the mend. Maybe, but mended may not mean fixed. George Soros’s think tank head hit the key point, when he said that the banks should not be allowed to fuel another economic boom and that we may have to accept a lower level and […]
This news was bound to come and before we are out of the wood it will happen again. It plays well for Ed Balls in his new shadow economic role and will make for lively PMQs today. It also reveals an alarming lack of grasp among very senior people about the realities and fundamentals of […]
This Blog is now going to set out its stall to rebuild our financial system. No doubt the IBC will be more sophisticated, but I doubt it will be more fundamental. The Banks must be broken into distinct and financially separate arms, for what was once banking, but what is High Street or consumer banking in […]
This is a bad idea. Small government does not mean the State has no role, nor that it should not have assets. The Thatcher revolution which brought about the privatisation of state enterprise was a very good idea, but like many good ideas, it lacked the judgement to know when to stop. Thus we ended […]
It has taken a very long time and a very distinguished Commission to arrive at the same conclusion as a great many did months ago. I wrote about it in my book in 2009 and have been blogging about it ever since. Although we still have to wait until September for the official report, Sir […]
The Irish government is collapsing before our eyes, like some fictional administration in a rather weak soap. The Irish people deserve better than this. Their country is at the point of financial dysfunction, their banks are bust and they are in debt up to their necks. But they are patriotic and determined, they are absorbing cuts in […]
What a performance! He will become one of the most discredited politicians of history and for good reason. It is all very sad. He had such promise and there were such high points, the Good Friday Agreement being perhaps the highest. He then became addicted to war, entirely without any strategic grasp, as an instrument of […]
This story has now really taken off, yet I think it is of much greater interest to the media than to ordinary people. Evidently the police saw an enormous can of worms, involving various levels of spying on celebrities to pick up gossip to sell more newspapers, and thought they had better things to do […]
Leaks and rumours abound. A policeman has been put under investigation. This is clearly a very difficult time for the former shadow chancellor. It also explains his apparent difficulties in that role. There will be some distressing times ahead for him, but he will have a good deal of public sympathy, especially among the grass […]