Mervyn King has warned that higher fuel prices will push inflation to 5% before the end of the year. Normally this should be alarming news and, as this blog as often argued, presage a rise in interest rates. That is not going to happen, because higher interest rates would mean a stronger pound. The industrial […]
Like many, I listened to David Willets, the Universities Minister, explaining on the radio this morning that the Government was thinking of allowing rich parents to buy their offspring places at the best universities. This peculiar proposal was, among other things, to help with the the establishment of better social mobility. By the time I […]
The Tories will feel happy with the elction results. They did much better than expected and the No campaign, which they backed, won a landslide. Their happiness may be misplaced. Their gains were largely at the expense of their coalition partners in the south, the Lib Dems, who also lost out to Labour in the […]
I have long believed that Constitutional Reform was necessary to modernise our democracy. I look to something beyond just the voting system. Modernisation of the Monarchy, the House of Lords, the Church of England and the way Parliament functions are all on my Agenda, which goes as far as a Written Constitution, but stops short […]
Yesterday will be seared into the Lib Dem psyche as its worst day. Black Friday. Defeat on every front. Humiliation is not too strong a word. The biggest blow is the massive rejection of electoral reform, one of the pillars of the party’s raison d’etre. Some are already suggesting the party has received a mortal blow. […]
The Tories, who were braced to loose 1000 seats and actually have a net gain of over 50 so far, have done very well. Labour, with a net gain of 700, have done well considering it is only a year from their election defeat, but nothing like as well as everybody, including opinion polls, suggested. They have, […]
It is rash to comment on a blog like this one, before the outcome is known in an election. However a trend has developed which is very interesting. The Lib Dem vote has crashed back to the level of past times when it was never enough to be more than a nuisance. The Tories are […]
William Hague made a rather off balance return to government as Foreign Secretary. First there were personal issues and a departing aide, then one or two uncharacteristically lacklustre performances in the Commons. People began to wonder if his heart was in the job. Maybe he wondered also. He shows increasing signs of not only finding […]
The general view is that interest rates should stay on hold a while longer. This blog has supported those who think a small rise is overdue. Especially we disagree with the economists and politicians who want to slow the cuts as well as to hold interest rates down. However there is a case emerging for […]
The time before the country votes in only its second national referendum can now be measured in hours. The opinion polls are thus far united in giving the NO camp a commanding lead. It is possible the polls are wrong, that YES people will all vote, whereas NO people may not, the undecided will all […]