Monthly Archives: January 2009

I did not realise how much you have all come to rely on regulatory notices warning you of risks in your lives that our kind quangoland and government now issues for us. It has been heartening to read your palpable sense of relief and enjoyment when I put some on the bottom of my texts [...]

Some Labour figures seem to see this recession as pay back time for past recessions. This was to be the recession that hit the south more than the North, hit higher earning services more than manufacturing. This view is as wrong as it is unpleasant. Today’s news of big job losses at Corus follows hard [...]

I do not believe these arms of the state are “independent”. The BBC has been slave to every fashionable interpretation of British politics and economics the government has put into circulation over the last eleven years. It is ironic indeed that the BBC should now find itself on the “wrong” side of an argument over [...]

This week I attended an Ofcom briefing on their conclusions concerning the future of the media. It made my blood boil. The other MPs attending did not seem short of views on the future of TV and the web, they were not lost for words and several seemed to be well informed. Yet here we [...]

The government would like you to go shopping. They would prefer it if you flashed the plastic, as they want you to go borrowing as well. I have a more modest suggestion. If you think at some point in the next year or two you cannot resist the temptation of an import of two, go [...]

The media are suddenly interested in the blame game, after remarks by various prominent actors trying to lay the blame on someone else. The government has three villains in its storytelling. There are the Conservatives of the 1980s for deregulating (lie); the bankers (they didn’t do it on their own); and the world (apparently the [...]

The NHS Constitution has arrived. I hope you feel better for it. I opened my copy with eager anticipation, having heard so much about it from Ministers and spinners at the public expense. I am afraid it turned out to be a bit of a let down. The first surprise is it does not seem [...]

The news remains dominated by factory closures, reports of poor sales figures, lay offs and company bankruptcies. Ministers continue to find green shoots where the rest of us see a frozen wasteland. Expect more of the same in the days ahead. Today we will hear how car sales have fallen off a cliff. House building [...]

There are still people clinging to the absurd notion that RBS shares have been falling again because the ban on short selling was removed. Figures released show that no short positions were opened against RBS in the first three days after the lifting of the ban, yet the shares plunged downwards. Will these instant experts [...]