This saga will soon end with an outcome. It may very well be the government loses the fight. If it does it will be shot at from all sides. This will be entirely its own fault for two reasons. The first is that it constantly raised the hopes of an angry people that it would […]
At key points before and after the election in May 2010, the constituent parts of the Coalition variously said: There would be no increase in VAT Child Allowance was safe with them They would vote against an increase in tuition fees Bank bonuses would be curbed The banks must be broken up There would be a […]
At a human level for a small community of innocents, going about their day in the Arizona sunshine in that bustling family atmosphere typical of a Saturday morning, the carnage at the grocery store can hardly be imagined worse. Among the dead is an eight year old girl. This makes a bad thing truly dreadful. The thoughts […]
The word is coming out that after talks with the bankers, the government is resigned that there is little they can do to stop the payments. It will be given the sop of a promise to lend more to small businesses and have to swallow the big payouts which are often disguised as salary increases […]
The fear of a double dip recession is mis-placed, not because there will be one, but because, in the big picture, it does not matter if there is. What does matter very much is not getting the re-modelling of the economy properly completed. Without that there will be no lasting recovery. Moreover there will be […]
The new U.S Congress is assembling, with Republicans once again in control of the House. This time, however something is different. This is more than a swing of the political pendulum in a two party electoral system. It is the re-awakening of an old divide in the interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. It is about […]
Ed’s leadership is in trouble. This is very disappointing for this Blog. We thought him the best choice. Can he recover? Probably. What has gone wrong? That is more complex. First of all I have always been opposed to David. His attachment to the cynical politics of New Labour with its lies, spin, dangerous foreign […]
Grant Shapps, the housing Minister, has made the courageous (politically) observation in an interview in The Observer that house price inflation is bad and we need stability in house prices, which should gradually reduce to represent a smaller percentage of income outlay. He thinks a roof should be seen as a necessity not as a […]
At the start of every new year top quality economic commentators predict which way the economic wind will blow. Some are correct, many are wrong. This Blog will not predict, but it will lay out what has to be done with a must do list, without which, wherever we go, will be in the wrong direction. […]