Yesterday Alistair Darling was arguing on the Radio that Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley did not have investment banking arms and they both went bust, so separating investment banking was not all is was cracked up to be. This reveals an area which has not been talked about of late and which now needs […]
The toughest job in the Government at the moment is that of Andrew Lansley. He is paying a very heavy, but perhaps deserved, price for lack of candour during the General Election and screwing up on the communications for his important reforms to the NHS. The price he is paying is that the Tories are spooked, Cameron is […]
The interim report of the ICB is welcome. The government can now consult and consider. In the autumn the Full Reprt will appear. The government will then decide what to do. Its record for sticking to its guns is beginning to look patchy. Osborne is weak on the banks while strong on the deficit. The Lib Dems […]
It is easy to mutter about the dithering MPC, but the hand of cards they hold is not easy to play. There is a clamour from some quarters (including this Blog) to increase interest rates to combat inflation. There is an equally loud, maybe louder, cry to keep the record low bank rate on hold. The mostly […]
There are at the heart of this military adventure a number of miscalculations. The rebels are not a competent military force. Gaddafi enjoys more support in depth among his population than the West thought. He is a wily and resourceful commander. His forces, with a backbone of mercenaries, have shown adaptability similar to the North Vietnamese, whose tactics neutralised […]
Slowly, very slowly, the truth is beginning to dawn. When borrowing gets out of hand it forms a dark and virtuous circle. Eventually the interest payments are such a drag on the economy that they hold it in stagnation, making reduction of the loans a sheer impossibility. Greece, Ireland and Portugal are already there. Without defaulting, they […]
As the European Finance Ministers meet in Budapest there will be officially discussing baling out Portugal. This is strange when you come to think of it. Portugal is bust (like Greece and Ireland) and needs a fresh start. This cannot happen with the country weighed down by debt, which it will find it hard to service […]
Portugal’s arrival with its begging bowl was inevitable and foretold. Spain struggles on. It may be next. A hard nosed assessment of the state of its banks would predicate that it is next in line. Hovering at the side, it hopes that property assets will pick up in value to the notional figure that its banking […]
It is now clear why Ed Milliband hesitated to appoint Balls to Shadow Chancellor. He is no good. Milliband has been playing well on the economy, voicing anxieties of ‘families up and down the ccountry’ and the ‘squeezed middle’. Having raised the anxieties, you have to offer a plan. This is where you turn to your shadow chancellor […]
This blog fully supports the NHS reforms. It is absolutely essential, in order to create a modern patient focused health service, to put the GPs at the centre, as it their ownership of the patient which will bring a much more logical thread to the way health care actually operates. This is all in my book, […]