Monthly Archives: July 2011

           Listening to the BBC you could get the impression that the tea party minority in the Congress has the power and the wish to wreck the world’s financial system. We heard stories about how their refusal to vote for a Republican compromise threatened world bond markets, banks and the world economy. A day [...]

              Spending a week on foreign policy has stimulated a lot of replies. Many have commented shrewdly on  the problems the UK faces, and many have agreed we want a new relationship with the emerging United States of Europe.              A few have defended the EU and claimed that we will have to follow [...]

             The UK has arguably fought too many wars. There are limits to how much influence you can have or should want to have  over how government works in distant countries. This period of retrenchment and reconsideration of our role should also be one of reflection on the limits of our power, and the [...]

                  In the post imperial world of the last seventy years the UK has sought to continue in a global role. This has caused arguments. Some have argued that we do need to join a United States of Europe, to have influence over a rising regional power in Europe. Others have said we need [...]

              The UK’s price for agreement to a more centralised Euro area government should be a looser relationship for ourselves with the emerging colossus.              Most British people I talk to want trade, peace and friendship with our continental neighbours. The majority do not want a government in Brussels telling us what to do [...]

             We have seen that the UK’s foreign policy has lurched from wanting a divided Europe with no one power dominating our near neighbours, to accepting the drive to European integration. This has never been put honestly and openly to the British people, who have been told sovereignty and power still rests with them, [...]

              Expect endless economic idiocy in the commentary this week. We will be told that slow growth is the result of the “cuts”. Most will fail to remind us that public spending was up 5.3% last year (more than inflation), and is forecast to rise 3.8% this year (more than forecast inflation). Most will [...]

                 For centuries England and the Uk has stood against any one power dominating the continent. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century the superpower was Spain. England supported the Dutch rebellion and established the supremacy of her navy, protecting these islands from invasion. The Protestant revolt fractured the power of the Habsburgs, who found [...]

               The new arguments over a federal more centralised Europe pose again the biggest question of UK politics. What type of country do we want in the future? What should our relationship be with this new emerging state? Over the next week I wish to examine British foreign policy.               I come to this [...]

Amidst the flurry of press interest on the Euro I did not report this week’s latest figures on  the progress of the deficit reduction strategy. In June public spending  continued to rise, as planned. Borrowing also rose, to £14 billion extra in June 2011 compared to £13.6 billion in June 2010. The cash requirement was [...]