Monthly Archives: December 2010

                      On Wednesday morning’s Today programme there was one of those most revealing moments that shows the underlying bias or assumptions behind so much of the journalism. The presenter was faced with the story that Northern Ireland’s water utility had let the public down, unable to deliver water by pipe into many homes following [...]

                 The government’s first resolution for 2011 should be to get inflation down.                 The government’s own budgets show it cannot afford all the inflation it is assuming. 10 departments of the government show increases in spending in published plans  over the five years of this government, but only four show increases after adjusting [...]

           The government today announces new ways to encourage charitable giving. Part of its Big Society message is to promote more generosity by individuals and companies.           The trouble is the past government did so much to nationalise good causes and charitable activity. With marginal tax rates of 52% on the high paid, a growing [...]

                I went to the sales yesterday in my local area. On item after item there was label which said “Made in China”. A few said something different – “Made in India”  or “Made in Indonesia”  or “Made in Korea”.                For just six pounds I was offered a reduced set of Christmas lights. [...]

              The government has said it will allow voters to petition the Cabinet Office website, and arrange for Parliamentary debate of the most popular petitions. Some of my correspondents seem to think this will allow a referendum on the EU, or permit the public to legislate for popular causes which Parliament itself has in the [...]

             At your suggestion, I am inviting your contributions for New Year resolutions. You might  like to share your own. You might also like to propose suitable resolutions for the three party leaders, Messrs Cameron, Miliband and Clegg.

              Backing down over a £13 million cut in a grant to a charity giving books to young children is not going to make much difference to our public spending position. The government plans to spend around £700 billilon this year.              The government’s friends will say it shows wisdom and flexibility. A  not very well [...]

  This is today’s blog  for www.johnredwood.com which technical  problems  stopped me posting. I apologise to readers for the delay. I can also now catch up with contributions – I have been unable to ac cess the moderator’s pages.              I am glad the Conservatives and Lib Dems formed a stable government in May. This [...]

            I trust you have better things to do than blog today. A very happy Christmas to all my readers. I’m off to cook the turkey.

             If Euroland wants to avoid a bleak new year, they need to take some more action to see off future crises. They need a banks strategy and a growth strategy.              Fixing the banks requires looking again at all the weak banks. The Regulators need to work with them in private, and require [...]