Monthly Archives: March 2010

One of the big advantages of a first past the post system of government is the electorate can sack an administration they do not like or is failing. The continental systems based on PR make it very difficult if not impossible for electorates to choose a government. The political parties and leaders do that once [...]

The new Independent Authority has reached ts conclusions on what expenses MPs should be allowed to claim. There are some improvements for the taxpayer – no full fare first class travel, a lower amount for rent of a second home, and fewer extra items for that second home. Mortgage interest is disallowed. Last night we [...]

Labour want to nationalise care for the elderly. They think it would be their latest big idea, another large spending pledge which they hope will win them votes. Even they have recognised that in this climate people will ask “How is it going to be paid for?” That led them into the trap of the [...]

Listening to the Chancellor tonight on Channel 4 I wondered which economy he was talking about. It couldn’t have been the UK one which the Labour government has done so much to damage. He told us they had “made the right judgement calls”. Does that include the decision to tax pension funds, or to sell [...]

It is good fortune that no less a person than Mr Blair himself will shortly tell us in a speech that Mr Cameron is not his heir. In typical Blair style he has of course already told us by leaking his own remarks in advance of bothering to tell his chosen audience. The phrase “heir [...]

The banks are unpopular with the public for a variety of good reasons. They are the whipping boys of the politicians for less good reasons. The government has every wish to blame the whole economic crisis on greedy bankers, to suppress the role of incompetent government, regulators and central bankers. The public hates the banks, [...]

There was a good cartoon in the Telegraph yesterday – the main party leaders not wishing to pull the Excalibur of spending cuts out of the stone. Public budgets are well defended by lobby groups, BBC journalists, underemployed senior public sector executives and even by many MPs who seem to think it their job to [...]

The Labour machine is in overdrive to get out the message that things are getting better, and can only get better with more of the same. In practise, things are being arranged for May. Interest rates have been kept artificially low by printing money. That has to stop for good sometime after the election. Interest [...]

The EU got it right the first time. All those member states in the Euro do need a single economic government. They are limping towards it, crab like and dishonestly. Countries like the UK that have stayed out of the Euro need to stay out of the many moves to economic government, and should use [...]