Robert Gates’ speech in Brussels was remarkable. It sets out an analysis of America’s relationship with Europe and how this will develop, which corresponds closely to views expressed in this blog and in my book 2010 A Blueprint for Change.I have long promoted American disengagement from Europe and from NATO, not because I am hostile […]
All political parties have a left, right and centre. Labour was the same, but with a difference. It had two competing leaderships. One in Downing Street was official , the other in the Treasury was like a rebel government in waiting or a political insurrection. The latest revelations in the Telegraph, which appears to have […]
The Archbishop of Canterbury had made a dramatic political intervention. There will be some who will say that politics are nothing to do with the church, but they would be wrong. Under our constitution, the Church of England is one of the pillars of the state and central to the monarchy. For centuries religion was […]
The answer is, if the crisis is acute, yes very well. This positive answer to a simple question becomes a lot less positive the more routine the diagnosis or treatment required. This is not because people are incompetent. It is because they are being asked to run an infinitely variable facility within the strictures of a rigidly programmed service. I […]
Ken Clarke’s proposals made sense. Among those trying to deal with the problems of the largest prison population in Europe, the cost to the taxpayer of unnecessary trials, the trauma of victims and many other issues, his proposals had wide support. A media centred drama then broke out following a misunderstood remark. Now, following the […]
A bunch of economists, most would classify themselves as left wing and Keynesian, wrote to the Observer yesterday calling for an economic plan B, because growth was too shallow. Each time I turned on the TV news one or other of their number was being interviewed. I listened with an open mind each time. I […]
This blog has never approved of this adventure. Nevertheless it is happening. It is futile to bang on about why it should not be when it is; now we need to see what can be done. William Hague’s Foreign Office has restored its reputation as an independent and important diplomatic force in the world, after […]
There appears to be agreement for another Greek bailout. There is also increasing noise about a coming default, perhaps described by some other spin, but amounting to the same thing. At present it is very difficult to see where the economic activity to get Greece out of its debt morass is going to come from. […]
There is now sufficient evidence from economic data to come to a more sophisticated conclusion about Osborne’s programme than the narrow political ping pong of cut or less cut. Broadly the cut side of the plan is right and on track. The state is too big, many quangos and agencies are either pointless or dysfunctional […]
As problems build up in the Euro-zone with mounting worries about Greece’s ability to avoid defaulting, reports of slow downs and slips abound, including, ominously, UK manufacturing. This is not good news. It comes in part because we have yet to develop our markets in the new expanding economies and are more dependent on Europe […]