Monthly Archives: February 2010

It’s time for the two main parties to unveil their messages, draft their pledge cards and tell us their “narratives” for the election. Put simply, Labour are saying their storyline is “We saw you through the recession. Don’t let the Tories spoil it”, whilst the Conservatives are saying “We are in a huge mess of [...]

I think we need some fresh language to get over the significance of the state debt crisis to more people in the UK. There is no state money. State borrowing is taxpayer borrowing. State debt is the taxpayers’ debt. Every time the government tell us the government will borrow more, that means you and I [...]

There is considerable anger about the pay and bonuses being paid by the state owned banks, especially where they remain in loss overall. Labour say they believe in fairness and justice. Where is the justice in high pay and bonuses for senior employees in state aided concerns, when that aid has to be paid for [...]

The headline figures tell you losses have been reduced, and the investment bank has made some money. The full statement also reveals: The bank’s balance sheet has been cut. Gross assets are down by almost £700 billion to £1522 billion. The bank wishes to make a further reduction, taking off probably around £300 billion more. [...]

Money is still easy for the public sector. For all the talk of cuts, tight and tough public spending conditions and the need to rein in, the monetary easing has all been concentrated on providing huge sums of borrowed money for the public sector at interest rates below the rate the market would normally charge [...]

The Uk government now has to pay 1% (100 basis points) more than the German government to borrow ten year money. Today the Bank of England Governor said they might need to do some more quantitative easing. I guess that is an attempt to stop the rot with markets forcing rises in UK interest rates. [...]

There are interesting debates going on within the main parties over how they should approach the last few weeks before a General Election. Should they try to appeal to floating voters, seeking to win over the least convinced voters from the other main party and trying to squeeze the Liberal Democrats, or should they seek [...]

Put on your tin hats. You can expect there to be a lot of flak flying over the question of character. The anti bullying charity will be put under media pressure to produce evidence or back down. Supporters of Gordon Brown will claim he is much misunderstood. There will be lots of heat but probably [...]

Whenever anyone criticises the government for spending too much, for borrowing too much, for putting too much of our money into wayward banks, for hiring to many people into non jobs or for pledging too may spending projects for the future, they are told that every one of these decisions was crucial to see us [...]