Monthly Archives: July 2009

There are several different debates going on about the war. There is the question of whether our troops have the right equipment and numbers. Whatever the government may say, it seems clear that the coalition as a whole needs more troops and we need better equipped troops to do the job. Too many lives have [...]

It has proved to be the post that has prompted most replies. Does anyone have the time to extract a list of all the quangos web goers want to see abolished, and send it in? Thanks

Today the Monetary Policy Committee met and concluded that it needs to keep the indicative interest rate at 0.5%. Contrary to expectation it did not announce an increase in quantitative easing. Why? They have been undertaking substantial quantitative easing because bank lending and money supply are not growing as they wish. What a surprise. Over [...]

A large number of well paid politicians and their advisers have flown to Italy to spend time talking and eating. Their communique will tell us that they aim to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, and to limit the increase in the world’s temperature to 2 degrees! There’s precision for you. Why don’t they [...]

The government’s White Paper on banking regulation will be based on a toxic mixture of misunderstandings and the wish to deflect attention from the mistakes the government and monetary authorities have made. The main cause of the Credit Crunch was the boom and bust monetary policies followed independently by the UK and US authorities 2003-9. [...]

Yesterday was meant to be a big day in the Commons. We were all primed for the possibility that the government might offer some concessions to those on lower incomes, following its decision to snatch away the 10p income tax band and leave those on lower incomes worse off. We even heard rumours there were [...]

The British Chamber of Commerce survey this morning contains the good news that confidence levels have risen sharply from the lows of recent quarters. It would be unwise to break open champagne, as we still cannot afford the imports. The survey also shows that “almost all the key balances remain in negative territory, and most [...]

Yesterday I asked Chris Grayling (Shadow Home Secretary) to confirm that he wishes to scrap the new ID data base as well as the cards. He confirmed he did. The Opposition held a debate yesterday to urge the ggovernment to scrap the whole scheme and save some money instead of blundering on with a part [...]