Month: January 2012

 

           Over the last quarter UK output fell by a small 0.2%. These preliminary figures are often revised upwards later. For the year as a whole the economy grew at just 0.8%.

           All this was well known and forecast. We have been talking here about the need for a stronger growth strategy for eighteen months, and clearly as the government recognises more needs to be done. What is far less well known is the fact that the government sector is still adding to the expansion, whilst industry and some private sector services are dragging the figures down.

            In the last quarter the  government sector was up 0.4%. Business and financial services were unchanged. Production and construction fell. For the year, government and other services were up 2.5%, business services and finance were up 2.1%, whilst production industries were down 2.6%.

           Perhaps all those who have been talking of the massive state cuts might like to explain how this results in a continued expansion of the state sector relative to manufacturing industry.

 

            There are popular cuts in spending. The government has done some work to reduce the degree of regional government in England, but it should do more. Many of us would be cheering in the aisles if the government said it could no longer afford any regional government, and rolled it all up. It could leave local matters to Councils, and English national matters can be decided at Westminster.

              Many of us have no regional loyalties. Indeed, we do not even know which region they want to cajole us into. Is my region Thames Valley? Or is it Rest of the South-east?  Is it the South East?  Is it Home Counties?  Is it part of ancient Wessex? Why does my region usually exclude London, where we have strong links and contacts, but may include Thanet and East Kent, which is a long way away?

                It is said the further away from London you go, the stronger the sense of regional identity. I do not myself find Exeter is keen to accept a lead from Bristol as part of the wider South-west, or Plymouth happy to genuflect to Exeter. Liverpool is not a natural subject of Manchester. The senses of City and local identity are usually much stronger than the EU’s regional identities they are seeking to impose.

                    On Monday  night I was invited on to Scottish BBC (there is no equivalent English BBC of course) to talk about English nationalism. I tried to explain that English nationalism is fuelled most of all by the EU. It is our sense of injustice and anger over the way the EU wishes to balkanise England, and wipe it off the face of their maps, that does more than anything else to propel English feelings. The interviewer was not of course interested, as he was seeking to define English nationalism as a response  to Scottish nationalism. He could not grasp that is not how most of us in England define it for ourselves, but as so often the BBC was uncomprehending and uncaring of the English viewpoint.

 

               I reported here my question of the cost of HS2 this Parliament to Miss Greening.  She told me they would “only” be spending £200 million this Parliament on preparation work. By the standards of  recent government  spending, that was reassuring for three and a half years.

             Today I received a letter. It told me the total cost of HS2 “is expected to be £32.7 billion…..Of this the cost of the scheme this Parliament will be around £750 million”. She had apparently recalled the cost of land acquisition, not all the consultancy and planning costs.

 

           Restoring democracy to the UK requires the following steps:

1. Hold an early referendum on Scottish independence. I suspect the Scots will vote to stay in the Union. We can then get on with planning a stronger UK democracy.

2. You could then  create symetrical devolution. MPs elected to the Union Parliament could meet in their respective capitals two days a week to transact devolved business, and three days a week in London to transact Union business. London would be the capital of England as well as of the UK. Doubtless the Scots will wish to keep their double manning with different Scottish representatives for the Scottish Parliament. This should require rethinking the pay and rations of their MPs at Westminster,once they do not participate in decisions on England.

3. Renegotiate our relationship with the EU, and put the result to a vote of the UK people to answer the question if they wish to stay in the EU on the revised terms.

4.Complete the abolition of all English regional government

5. Abolish more quangos

6. Complete the reform of the Lords

7. Strengthen the Commons further

 

I will be writing in more detail about each of these in turn in future posts.

 

 

 

 

            The Lib Dems seek to differentiate themselves from the Coalition’s policies. I have no problem with that. The two Coalition parties are different, and need to offer choice to the electors come another election.

              What suprises me is how they wish to be different. They think a benefits cap of £26,000 is too mean, when a large  majority of the electorate and a majority of their own voters think it is an important improvement in our welfare system.

              They think the UK should not stand up to the EU, but should go along with more or less any further transfer of power, tax imposition and other humiliation the EU should want to visit on us. Around 80% of the UK public disagree with them.

               They want a mansion tax , to tax people who live in the more expensive parts of the country, regardless of their incomes, mortgages and circumstances.

                Put this altogether and they end up with just 9% support in the latest polls. No amount of banker bashing rhetoric seems to work to make them more popular, but then they are in government and are paying RBS executives large sums whilst losing  they lose  taxpayer money. No amount of pro EU rhetoric seems to lift their poll ratings. Nor, I suspect, will voting for more benefits for people not in work as these matters are put before the Lords.