Monthly Archives: July 2008

There was one really encouraging thing in the Chancellor’s remarks to the Times. He thinks oil prices will remain high. As he’s been wrong on practically everything else, that is very encouraging! It is possible the big falls in the oil price this week will trigger further declines and some unwinding of the substantial “investment” [...]

Yesterday the BBC did move from ignoring the idea of cutting public spending, to mentioning it in pejorative terms. At the same time they started pushing out the government propoganda that the UK exceeding the 40% limit on government borrowing should be viewed alongside Italy where government borrowing is 100% of GDP and France where [...]

Halve interest rates. Cut out waste and undesirable public spending. Sell some public sector assets to raise cash. The government should do all three if it is serious about preventing recession or recovering from the downturn. Money is too tight and interest rates too high, just as money was far too loose and interest rates [...]

After the fiddled figures comes the changed rules. For years we have been served up a diet of changed statistics, altered bases for setting out public spending, a riot of off balance sheet disguises for extra borrowing, and changes in the dates of the famous cycle that is meant to anchor the government’s spending controls. [...]

This morning I awoke to the BBC telling us there are just two choices for the government – relax the rules on borrowing (i.e. borrow more) or put up taxes. What is with these so called independent journalists? Why is cutting public sector waste and undesirable spending never an option for them? How much more [...]

Yesterday was an Opposition day in the Commons, when the Conservative party was able to chose the topics of debate. We used the second half of the day to highlight the robbery at the petrol pumps, and to demand a reduction in fuel duty. The government responded by announcing it would not be going ahead [...]

It has taken years for this government to receive a blistering Report from the Ombudsman making it quite clear there was regulatory failure as well as business error at Equitable Life. When I was the regulatory Minister for Insurance and much of the City in the days when that post was held in the DTI, [...]

I went to a lunch meeting with the Engineering profession on the Lords terrace this week. They wanted to tell us about how to tackle climate change by cutting carbon output. It seemed a pity that on a very sunny day when the sunlight was streaming through the entire long wall of glass along the [...]

Stock markets around the world remain in free fall. It’s not surprising to readers of this blog – there’s plenty to be pessimistic about. There are two big changes underway. The long term change is the shift in economic power from west to east, from an Atlantic centred world to the economies of the Pacific [...]

Welcome to the real world! The government at last admits it cannot switch enough from road to rail because the railways are full, and accepts that congestion is both expensive and environmentally damaging. As an emergency measure they are suggesting allowing people to use the hard shoulder of the motorways at busy times of day. [...]