The collapse of effective government in the United States does not mean the collapse of effective government in America. This is because most of daily life is conducted through, and supported by, the governments and institutions of individual states. The closing down of the Federal government is one thing, but the continuation of all the […]
The much maligned Ed Milliband has succeeded in achieving the biggest change in the dynamics of British politics since Margaret Thatcher. By shifting Labour to the left he has set the Tories free to move to the Right. The centre ground, where both parties stood through the Major, Blair and Brown years, following similar pro-market […]
This blog has been consistently against the notion of an economy fuelled by house price inflation and once again the Tories are taking the cheap ticket to economic recovery and introducing, three months early, their help to buy scheme. This is reckless and cynical, since nearly everybody who can add up a column of figures […]
Apologies to our readers and followers. We had a system failure and have been off line for several days, but everything is now fixed. Watch this space!
The Federal Reserve has given the markets a fillip with its decision to keep pumping new money into the financial system, known a Quantitative Easing. The reason is that the US recovery is not yet secure and unemployment is not falling fast enough. In other words improving but not yet well. It is much the […]
The vote by the British parliament to block the military strike on Syria was described by this blog as historic and has turned out to be so. It caused chaos in Washington, which suddenly realised that without its closest ally it lost the mantle of protector and took on one of aggressor. The American people […]
The Chartered Surveyors were right to call on the Bank of England to keep house inflation at moderate levels, but their suggested rate of 5% per year is too high. House prices are already far too high and must actually fall in real terms over the next decade, if the economy is to enjoy any […]
Some commentators are suggesting that John Kerry made an off the cuff slip, when he suggested the US would call off military strikes if the Assad regime gave up its chemical weapons stockpile, and has thus handed the advantage to the Russians. This is nonsense. First, President Obama has admitted to discussing the idea with […]
Ed Milliband knows that he has both public opinion and the majority opinion of rank and file union members on his side, when he talks of reforming the relationship between the Union movement and its political party. There is certainly a case for modernisation to a model which suits the world in which now we […]
George Osborne claims, with justification, that things are moving up rather than down and there is a slow recovery under way. It is certainly broader based than the ‘no more boom and bust’ model driven into the ditch by Labour, which remains confused about what it would actually do to make things better rather than […]