Monthly Archives: May 2011

            Spaniards are  understandably fed up with 45% youth unemployment and 20% general unemployment. They have recently directed their anger at socialists in local government. The causes of their misery are the level of the Euro, the EU austerity programme, their over borrowed state and above all their weak banks. These things are the [...]

                   In the year to March 2011, the first year of the new government, current public spending rose by a little over 5% in cash terms. Contrary to all the stories of big cuts to come, it will continue to rise in cash terms for the rest of the 5 year plan.                  There [...]

  Most of the debate about the UK deficit reduction programme is about whether the government is doing too much too quickly. There is another side that rarely gets examined – is it doing enough and is the programme going well? Before critics get to work claiming falsely I want to see  cuts in schools [...]

  On Tuesday a group of Eurosceptic Conservative MPs have secured a Commons debate and vote on the issue of the European bail outs.  They asked me to support their motion, which I am happy to do. The motion argues that there is no Treaty legal base for making EU money available for bail outs. [...]

               President Obama has rediscovered his gift for words following the killing of Bin Laden. He now tells us he believes in democracy, freedom and the right to peaceful protest in the Middle East. What he does not tell us convincingly  is how he thinks the Middle East can get to that happy state, [...]

              I am fed up with hearing that the world will sadly miss Mr Strauss Kahn, and his economic genius.  His supporters in the IMF job say he was so good at brokering a deal to “save” Greece, and was  much needed to do the same for Portugal.              The truth is the first [...]

             Whenever I listen to Andrew Mitchell, the Overseas Development Secretary, I am impressed by his passion to tackle world poverty, hunger and disease. He believes in what he is doing, and he is making important changes at the department.           I welcome his decision to stop giving aid to richer nuclear weapons countries [...]

            The Liberal Democrat Orange Book, written by Messrs Clegg, Laws and other leading luminaries contains some strong language.           Mr David Laws wrote about the NHS. He characterised the NHS as a “cumbersome, centrally directed public sector monopoly” delivering a “second rate state monopoly service” to “passive recipients” rather than to “customers”. He [...]