Monthly Archives: October 2010

That headline woke you up. No, I am not about to change my views on the Euro and European government, nor am I about to agree with Ken on matters constitutional. I just think he is making some sense of our overflowing prisons, of our ineffective criminal justice system, and of the need to achieve [...]

Will there be “cuts” when total public current spending is planned to increase by £92.5 billion over the next five years, rising every year during that period? Apparently so. I guess there will be four sorts of cuts. 1. Sensible cuts because we do not need the public sector to do certain things. The end [...]

Mr Jememy Hunt has stirred up a big debate over family size and benefit incomes. He is saying people need to take responsibility for their own decisions, whilst his critics say that the state must act as the insurer of last resort whatever choices people make. In the end it comes down to what the [...]

David B Smith’s latest figures show the following shares of government expenditure in the economies of differing UK regions:( the characterisations are mine) Very high spenders, low overall incomes and performance Northern Ireland 80.9% Wales 76.9% North East 73.5% High spenders, better incomes and performance North West 64.6% Scotland 61.4% Yorks and Humber 60.5% East [...]

It was good to hear the scientific establishment today concede what some of us have been saying for a long time – that changes on the sun can have an impact on our climate. I look forward to sun variations being included in models forecasting changes to earth temperatures. In the meantime two commonsense policies [...]

On Tuesday at Conference I spoke to a Policy Exchange audience about taxation. I explained that we needed to maximise receipts from existing taxes to help bring the deficit down. I argued that current rates of CGT and Income Tax will not do this. I reminded people about the work I did, and the Adam [...]

I hope David Cameron will move us on from “cuts” and constant reminders of the deficit crisis inherited from Labour. I think all with ears to hear know the financial inheritance was dire and the country was fast running out of credibility to carry on borrowing. Those that disagree are not about to change their [...]

I think the government has done enough to warn people that they inherited a mess in the public finances, and that tough decisions have to be taken. As readers of this site know, the deficit reduction programme hinges on collecting large extra sums on tax revenue, which in turn requires reasonable levels of sustained growth. [...]

I have been reading Michael Ashcroft’s account of the work he and his team did in the marginal seats in the run up to 2010 election. It is not much like the press accounts I have seen of it. Far from laying into former colleagues, or complaining that the Conservatives did not win, he provides [...]