Monthly Archives: September 2010

I was sent Nick Boles’s “Which Way’s Up” to review. The first couple of chapters was full of loyal support for the Coalition government, and discussion of how Lib Dems and Conservatives had a lot in common. It seemed unremarkable. Then I came to passages on equality. He takes the argument often used by the [...]

The intense public lobbying by all three services, leaked letters and the parade of unacceptable options for cuts amidst a culture of secrecy does not make for a good review. Given the need for a wide ranging debate about the UK’s needs, options and capabilities, it might have been better to have called for evidence [...]

Today we are told that Mr Miliband will show some humility. He will tell us he understands how angry we are that Labour said they had abolished boom and bust. He should wake up and understand that what made people angry was not the soundbite – that was just silly. What made people angry was [...]

Mr Bean lectures the prudent, the savers, that they must go out and spend more. He tells us the whole point of providing practically no return on our desposits and savings is to persuade us to spend more. Doesn’t Mr Bean – or the Bank – realise that the UK has a treble deficit problem. [...]

David Miliband’s refusal to answer the simple question, does he want to be in Shadow Cabinet, is a distraction Ed Miliband could do without. Mr David’s carefully contrived soundbite that he does not wish to distract from Ed’s day and week achieves the opposite of what it says. If Mr David wants to help his [...]

A combination of Corporation Tax, 50% income tax on higher incomes and 28% captial gains tax was always going to put some people off coming to the UK. The question was how many would it also send away. Yesterday one of our large companies, Wolseley, announced it was going to the Channel Islands and Switzerland [...]

Throughout all my time in UK politics public expenditure has grown. It has grown in cash terms, and in real terms after allowing for inflation. Whenever we have had a Conservative government Labour has campaigned endlessly about cuts, and has left the impression that total spending was falling when it was rising. Today we have [...]

It was bound to be Ed, as this site has said throughout the contest. I send him congratulations on his victory. The task ahead is to answer some of the country’s questions about what went wrong in the last five years. Why, for example, did Labour’s very own system for regulating banks and other financial [...]

It was good yesterday to wake up to a front page splash saying there will be a substantial cull of quangos. It was even better to hear that the Cabinet Secretary is launching a leak enquiry, implying it was a serious leak and there is substance behind the story. Labour in Opposition in the 1990s [...]