Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

Opinion is divided as to whether the MPC was right to leave interest rates at the present level. This Blog is of the persuasion that it has made a mistake.

The arguments for holding rates at this historic low are well known and well rehearsed. The problem is that our inflation rate is back to the old problem of the U.K. economy; we have a higher rate than our trading partners and our competitors. This means that our costs are rising faster than theirs and can only be resolved by further devaluation of the currency which in turn puts up the cost of raw materials and energy.

This is a bad place to be and sooner or later the Bank of England has to act, or risk losing the ability to control  the issue by the use of interest rates at all. For the last five years inflation has been ahead of its target. Whatever may be the risks of a slowdown, possibly overplayed anyway,  a signal that things will not be allowed to get out of control, by a quarter point rise now, would reassure that the Bank has the will and cohesion to act. The risks are considerable and growing, of a real inflationary surge, demanding much more punitive action. We have been there so many times before, I cannot think why it is we are drifting that way again.

There is a plus and a minus today for and againt the government. Michael Gove has introduced the new English Baccalaureate. This brings this country in line with countries in the world which have much higher educational standards than our own, for whom the idea of a core of academic skills which will  lift the human condition, sits very easily with the opportunity to pursue and practice vocational and artistic subjects which will lift the human spirit. It is perhaps a little tough to apply it retrospectively, but doing so reveals how much there is to be done.

On the minus side the death of a little girl from swine flu is a heart rending reminder that last year the whole vaccination business was so much better organised and so much more effective. It is clear to all but the government where the fault lies. It is with the Health Secretary. If Andrew Lansley is to successfully carry through his excellent and much needed reforms of the NHS he will have to do a lot better than this.

The Coalition needs to remember the people will respect and grudgingly support an efficient government with whose idealogy they disagree. Everyone walks away from an inefficient government whatever its stripe.

The President of the United States, in what may be remembered as the greatest speech of his Presidency thus far, spoke to and for all Americans. Cynics and opponents will find fault, but this President has demonstrated, again, that he ranks among the greatest and most poetic orators of his county’s political history. 

It an atmosphere charged with emotion, grief, anger and suffering he sought to comfort, uplift and heal. Barak Obama, the first black President, came to office at a time when the age old split in American political culture between North and South, urban and rural, big and small government, individual and state, was opening up again. The policies he pursued to bring the U.S. back from the financial brink served to exacerbate the rift and fire up the Tea Party. Hatred seeped into the polemic of political debate, righteousness was paraded as a vulgar adornment, not practiced as a gentle humility. Words like those used by the President yesterday can inspire and heal. Whether in this case they do, will depend on whether the United States yearns to be healed and is willing to be, once more, inspired by him.

This Blog wishes all Americans well.