Author Archives: johnredwood

I hear that the UK Supreme Court wants more clarification from Parliament over how to judge matters after we have left the EU. The proposed guidance set out in the European Union Withdrawal Bill seems very clear to me. It says that after we have left UK judges no longer have to follow new judgements […]

You would have thought the rest of the EU would be delighted to learn that the UK, the most reluctant EU member of them all, was leaving. It means they are free to pursue economic, monetary and political union without the UK constantly trying to slow it down, impede or stop it, or demanding special […]

Some have made much of the slowing in UK growth to 0.2% in the first quarter of 2017. It picked up a bit thereafter. In the Bank of England’s Inflation Report for August we find the following interesting quote: Quarter 1 growth “slowed sharply to 0.2%. The GDP backcast, which takes into account the revision […]

The Prime Minister has wisely avoided the word Transition in her statements on Brexit. If you envisage a Transition Agreement and a period of Transition, you need first to have an overall Future Relationship Agreement so you know what you are in transition to. It is not inherently easier to negotiate a Transition Agreement than […]

I agree with the government that UK gross state debt is on the high side. It makes a significant contribution to total UK debt. There is a simple way to bring it down. The Bank of England should announce that from next month it is going to reduce the stock of government debt it owns […]

Debt is a young person’s game. In most free enterprise societies older people own most of the wealth. Young people borrow to get started as homeowners and business people. This happens naturally, as it takes time to save, to accumulate assets, to buy a home and to benefit from it going up in value. Most […]

Free societies allow individuals to buy and own property. Communist and authoritarian societies claim all property for the state. Making everyone a tenant of the state gives a state much more control over its citizens. It also usually leads to a crony system, where those who toe the line and are in with those in […]

The Qatari owners of Paris St Germain think footballer Mr Neymar is worth £775,000 a week, according to media reports. They also think it worth paying a lump sum transfer fee of £198 m to secure his services for five years. I suppose they might be right. He would need to stay at the top […]

Last year the Bank slashed its forecasts for growth for the year after the Brexit vote and then had to push them up again. Growth accelerated in the six months after the vote against their expectations of a sharp fall. Today the Bank has decided to cut its growth forecasts a little from the upward […]

Announcing good results for their financial service business in the UK, Aviva confirmed their wish to develop and invest in the UK. At the same time they said “In line with our “Not everywhere” strategy we have continued to reallocate capital….we completed the sale of Antarius in France and recently announced the disposals of the […]