Monthly Archives: July 2009

When I was a lonely Parliamentary voice saying do not nationalise big banks because the taxpayer could lose too much money, the government told us they would make money on the transaction. I said lend them as little as you could get away with for as much security as possible and make them cut costs [...]

Parliament has broken up for an 82 day recess. Yes, 82 days off. There is no Parliament to go to until the second week of October. It’s the wrong decision by the majority, at a time of crisis in the public finances and a time of economic problems generally. Some Labour MPs say they do [...]

Yesterday the government was in a hurry to get rid of all remaining business, so it can govern for 82 days without a Parliament to answer. In the process it can lead many to ask the reasaonable question, why can’t our MPs do their main job until well into October? The government used its majority [...]

Yesterday in a masterly act of self parody, the government put forward its Child Poverty Bill. Let me share with you its first two clauses, which set the tone: 1. It is the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that the following targets are met in relation to the UK in relation to [...]

The latest surveys are depressing. There are too many empty shops. It is part of the price of economic incompetence, part of the result of the huge boom and bust monetary policy created. There are a couple of other trends going on as well. The advance of the internet means more items are bought online [...]

I have been critical before of President Obama’s failure to close Guantanamo and Guantanamo look-alikes. We now learn that the report on how to close it is to be delayed by six months. Apparently the writers have discovered a problem – that the US has detained people they think too dangerous to let out of [...]

Some of you yesterday in response to my piece on Labour wanted to know about the Conservatives. That’s a sign of the times, when the Opposition is more important news than the government. Some advisers to past Conservative leaders were so much the prisoners of Labour’s spin, that they tried to emulate Blair’s strategy in [...]

Mr Blair in Opposition decided to build a new brand, called New Labour, so he could win an election. His media strategy had two prongs. In the first he trashed the Tory brand, and in the second he decontaminated the Labour brand. Both strategies were designed to tell people “things could only get better”. He [...]