BP There are now many threads to this. First let us deal with what the tabloids call anti-British rhetoric. This is the American style to round on people to blame. They do it with each other and they do it to outsiders. It is their culture. Their history shows them on the one hand generous, caring, […]
Cameron in Afghanistan I fear we can expect nothing new or bold or radical from the Prime Minister’s visit to one of the most corrupt regimes in the world, for whom our native blood is constantly spilled in a fruitless endeavour to enable its authority to fuction outside a few fortified enclaves. This enterprise can […]
Child Protection Another review has been ordered into the way Social Services carry out the function of child protection. I have no doubt that there can be improvements in the operating practices of social workers to give them more time with children and less time with paper. This is welcome because so far I do […]
Health I suspect that it will be Health and Education which cause, in the long term, problems for this coalition government. Both have got off to a doubtful start. Eduction is sidetracked by the desire of a few parents to set up their own schools and all schools being invited to become Academies pronto, without a […]
Cuts – The Sums There has been a curious reluctance of politicians to offer a joined up explanation of the task ahead. It may be daunting but it is doable. Using current estimates total government expenditure this year is expected to be around £650 billion. Total revenue is projected at somewhere under £500 billion, leaving a […]
Getting Real There has been a strange period over the last twelve months when politicians of all parties tried to pretend (or knew no better) that if your expenditure is way above your income and you borrow every month to pay the bills, the solution is to borrow yet more still. This flight of financial […]
Big Bang Instability The argument developing over whether BP should withhold its next dividend payment while the oil spill crisis is ongoing highlights the underlying structural faults in our financial system following Big Bang de-regulation in 1986. Evidently the BP dividend accounts for something like 17% of all pension payments in the UK. This is […]
Oil Spill President Obama and the American people are very angry. They are watching more or less helpless as one of the most important and interesting Eco systems is damaged and part destroyed by events unfolding under the sea which should not be taking place and should never have happened. There are rumours of corners […]
Cumbrian Horror It is impossible to imagine the shock, grief and trauma of the people of one of the most beautiful and peaceful parts of England, as they struggle with the consequences of an armed taxi driver rampaging on a mission of death, including his own. The whole country is now focused on this picturesque […]
Three Cheers for Michael Gove. But…. As regular readers of this Blog will know, I do not like aspects of Michael Gove’s education policy. In particular I believe there is a role for LEAs to run schools with full control of their budgets and I am not convinced of all aspects of the set up your own […]