Monthly Archives: August 2011

                  There were 738,414 empty homes in the UK in 2010 – there will be around the same number today.  Yet I read we are short of houses, and need to build more houses. I wish today to deal with some of the myths in the housing debate.    Myth One: The south-east is selfish, [...]

         Many of you want a simple solution. You say you just want the Uk to pull out. You say we just need an In/Out referendum, and the public will do the rest. If it were that easy it would have happened by now. You need to ask not what do you want, but what [...]

                    The Sunday Telegraph and ConservativeHome published this week-end an important ConservativeHome survey of Conservative members’ opinions. There were 1348 replies to the survey, which included MPs and MEPs as well as Association members and volunteers. (There is a link to the ConservativeHome website on this blog’s links for those interested – http://t.co/pxGZBgm)                 [...]

            I welcome your establishment of a new group dedicated to reversing ever closer union. We need new thinking, new energy and new names in the cause. I also understand your wish to define new language and a new position for a new Parliament.              It seems to me this will in part be [...]

                The Bernanke speech on friday was not so much nuanced as non existent. The guts of it came down to the statement that the Fed would have a longer meeting to think it all through again on 20-21 September. The conclusion was:           “The Committee will continue to assess the economic outlook in [...]

                   Jealousy is a mean minded emotion. There is too much of it about in the UK debate. So many participants think the answer to our problems is to find people with more, and take it off them.                   Many politicians belong to this school of thought. Councillors usually put up the Council Tax. [...]

              The pictures from Tripoli are bitter sweet. For every picture of someone happy that the dictator has been pulled down and his cruelty limited, there is a picture of lawlessness. We see  more deaths and injuries, and  apparently indiscriminate firing of a wide range of weapons.              The sooner the transitional government establishes [...]

                Amidst all the talk of billions and trillions the truth is often a casualty. Few in the public debate seem to grasp the overall numbers, or see how the adjustment to lower borrowing will in due course be made by forecast higher tax revenue. It might be helpful to set out the Uk [...]