Rifkind And Straw.

February 24, 2015 By Malcolm Blair-Robinson

At one level it is rather sad to see the political careers of two grandees in meltdown. At another it is shocking to suppose that this kind of thing still goes on and some of it is apparently within whatever rules these politicians have set up to police themselves. Milliband, seeing a toxic brew steaming […]

MPs On The Make: Not Again?

February 23, 2015 By Malcolm Blair-Robinson

This blog will refrain from passing judgment until after the C4 programme tonight, but there is a general point worth making. It is not whether rules have or have not been broken that causes public disquiet. It is the very idea that members of parliament are able to sell for personal gain the skills or connections […]

Ukraine : US and UK Must Get Real

February 21, 2015 By Malcolm Blair-Robinson

John Kerry has arrived in London to have talks with Philip Hammond in a weird atmosphere in which words like land grab and craven are used to describe the Russians. This blog has always held the Kiev government and its supporters who toppled the previous government a year ago responsible for the chaos now engulfing […]

Steamy Thriller

February 21, 2015 By Malcolm Blair-Robinson

Set in the mid nineteen nineties, this fast moving thriller lifts the curtain on sex, sleaze and corruption in high places as the long reign of the government totters to an end, following the ousting of the iconic Margaret Thatcher. Downfall in Downing Street catches the mood of those times with a host of fictional […]

Greece v Germany: Who Blinked?

February 21, 2015 By Malcolm Blair-Robinson

Both of them. The new Greek government was not ready to default and exit the euro, because it knows that while it has full backing to confront the EU over its bailout terms and the failed austerity programme, it does not have a majority to exit the eurozone. Yet. But if the demands are too steep that […]

How To Grow Without Borrowing

February 21, 2015 By Malcolm Blair-Robinson

Politicians do not like to talk about the fragile nature of the UK’s Economic Recovery. Yet it remains rooted in borrowing, asset inflation, housing costs which are out of control and a housing shortage which continues to grow. It is consumption based in a country which no longer makes things for shoppers to buy, so […]

Greece: Germany is Wrong

February 20, 2015 By Malcolm Blair-Robinson

Germany is overplaying its hand, not for the first time in its turbulent history, and will start to pay a price. Like a calvinist pastor it lectures on the morality of sticking to agreements, paying debts and reforming wayward habits. Very good as a lecture or a sermon. But nonsense when it flies in the face of […]