Monthly Archives: November 2008

Yesterday in the very short Budget debate we were finally allowed, there were signs of a sensible agreement across the House. Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs united to tell the government it is more important to sort out the banks than to borrow more to reflate. Today in the Telegraph I have set out [...]

The BBC struggled this morning with the Royal Chemistry Society’s Report claiming that modern science students at 16 do not have anything like the mathematical and scientific grounding their parents and grandparents had if they studied the O level syllabus. They accepted the evidence that the brightest modern students achieved very low marks when faced [...]

The collapse of both Woolworths and MFI on the same day was no great surprise. The timing was unhelpful to the government, coming just two days after their announcement of the 2.5% cut in VAT that they presented as the way to stimulate retail spending before Christmas and beyond. Sage retail analysts have been invited [...]

The following press release has just been sent out by Conservative run Hammersmith and Fulham Council in London: Council tax to fall by 3% — third year in a row COUNCIL tax bills are set to tumble by three per cent for the THIRD year in a row at Hammersmith & Fulham Council as a [...]

When Us taxpayers are committing $6 trillion already already to banks and the mortgage sector, another $800 billion is almost petty cash. This crisis has changed attitudes towards sums of money and borrowing levels so fundamentally. Unfortunately, there does have to be a day of reckoning. Borrowing does have to be repaid and guarantees have [...]

Well done to George Osborne for carrying the case for a debate to Parliament and getting us one. Now today we need to show the government how wrong they are to propose a further large increase in borrowing to cut VAT. I am expecting lots more Labour lies, as this budget is not a serious [...]

Days after it has become fashionable for national governments to launch reflationary packages, the EU is drawing up a list of recommended ways of doing it. This may include the ever popular cutting taxes, and the preferred continental route of increasing spending. I wonder how much high cost brain power it has taken to deliver [...]

As I awoke from my slumbers this morning I heard the Agriculture Minister, Jane Kennedy, stumbling to tell us she could not recommend that we buy British. She did ,however, tell us our purhases of certain foods from the UK was rising and she did at least seem pleased about that. At a time when [...]

Today George Osborne tabled a formal request for urgent debate on the Budget,and the Speaker wisely granted it for tomorrow. Nigel Griffiths, Labour MP, raised a bogus point of order, complaining about just how many Conservative MPs had “piled into the Chamber” to suppoprt this request. Nigel, it is called Parliamentary democracy. It used to [...]