Monthly Archives: March 2011

               On this site I last reported  public spending up 11% in cash terms in November 2010 compared with the same month a year earlier. I pointed out that the average increase was a more modest 7% from May 2010.  November was a particularly expensive month.               It is good news that the figures [...]

                 We need to raise more tax from the rich to help cut the deficit. That much many people agree. The question is, how do you maximise the tax take from the rich.              In the past when the UK has cut rates of Income Tax and Capital Gains tax the amount paid by [...]

Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): I, like my right hon. and hon. Friends, welcome the two aims of this legislation. The first, to hold a referendum on any future transfer of power, is vital to try to secure some democratic legitimacy for what might happen next. The second, to assert that this House and Parliament [...]

                            When oil prices first soared in 1973-4 they were blamed for the recession and collapse which occurred in western economies. In practice there were other things wrong with the economies then, with banking difficulties and a switch from easy money to tight money at the same time. It is also true that in [...]

                As readers of this site will know, I think the worst errors that led to the Credit Crunch were made by the banking regulators, the Central Bank and the government. It was lurching from too easy to too tight money and credit which brought the banks into stress. It was the decision to [...]

                  This week-end I noticed the public sector is still out and about recruiting. The Business Department wants a Chairman and four Board members for a “Technology Strategy Board”. Couldn’t Business  senior officials do whatever work this is meant to require?  Network Rail wants “Business Change Managers”  at up to £90,000 a pop. “It will [...]

                  It was strange timing for the Governor to give an interview attacking the attitude and approach of the commercial banks shortly after the government had declared an end to the war on banks. The Merlin deal was meant to mark an end to the era of hostility. It was to usher in an [...]

                 There is a convenient assumption amongst the media and many contributors to political debate that Ministers are all powerful. If a problem needs fixing they can fix it. If they fail to, it is wanton neglect or pig headedness that has meant they have failed  complainants.                I am pleased to say there [...]

                  Going into London by car, and finding my way round the centre on foot, I have to run  the gauntlet of large amounts of public spending. I kept a mental note one day last week. On the way out of Crowthorne I had to wait whilst four vehicles with more than  half a [...]

               The Barnsley by election might have been a good time for the Eurosceptics to come out and show their strength. After all, the Lib Dems  were not very popular, a Labour victory was always likely, but the cause of  the by election was not a helpful one for the defending party. In a by election [...]