They Blog For You

Our former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has apparently admitted that the unaccountable quangos he put in place to regulate the banks failed. He's right. His Financial Service Authority spent a decade subjecting every financial institution to a complex web of compliance - so much so that firms had to create entire compliance departments.  [...]

Chloe Smith, Member of Parliament for Norwich North, will today be visiting Business Revolution Enterprise Ltd's new work hub. The aim of the work hub is to provide a flexible workspace in a new generation of working where jobs often involve working from home and 'hot-desking'. Business Revolution also offers users access [...]

               On Monday 11th April we will hear or read the preliminary conclusions of the Vickers Report into banking. A lot is riding on a successful outcome to this important Inquiry.               Politically John Vickers has to say enough to persuade people he understands the anger many feel about the conduct [...]

I set off last Sunday afternoon for a three day visit to Washington and New York. My main purpose in going to Washington was to talk to people in the Obama administration and in Congress about the Balkans (the USA maintains a strong interest in countries like Bosnia & Herzegovina, [...]

                 First we are told that providing a new loan to Greece, or Ireland, or Portugal, creates a line in the sand, prevents the contagion spreading. As each sucessive loan demand showed, that did not work. The incoming tide of debt erased the lines. The contagion spread. The mixed metaphors [...]

I am told that there is a new welcome emphasis on the public’s views at Downing Street. They are taking polling more seriously. It was worries by the public about the Health reforms that lies behind the recent decision to consult again and if necessary to change the plans. I trust [...]

The British public debate is schizophrenic when it comes to excellence, and its ally, selection. Most socialists want the most stringent tests and selection to ensure the leading football and athletics teams in the country only contain the best sports people. They encourage vigorous selection, promotion on merit, tough training [...]

KEVIN Brennan MP, is urging businessmen and women in Cardiff West to come forward and demonstrate their entrepeneurial ideas in a bid to scoop a £50,000 prize.The competition is open to existing businesses as well as those who simply have a fantastic new idea and the winner will not [...]

The BBC’s Robert Peston latest blog seems to suggest that politicians should hand over their power to oversee media regulation to state-regulator, OFCOM.  Instead of those we elect deciding things, Mr Peston appears to want “the regulator’s word” made final, “politicians wholly removed from the decision-making process”. [...]

The Family Justice review has now reported. I am not surprised that it has basically come out with a "business as usual" report. The review panel consisted substantially of people who run the service rather than people who have experience of how it does things. Hence they [...]

                        As a critic of the regulators in 2006-7 I said the banks should be made to hold more capital. In those days they were too heavily geared. The banks were allowed to lend far too much money with far too little capital to pay the losses if some of the [...]

Sombre news from the forgotten war in Afghanistan. Ten years of vast sacrifices in blood and treasure have achieved nothing. A mob is so anti-Western that peacemakers have been lynched. The Afghan Police were impotent spectators. Perhaps this will expose the foolish optimism of Liam Fox. He still believes that an [...]

Yesterday I managed to sneak in the very last question before we ran out of time in the Business, Innovation and Skills questions in the House of Commons.We had been told the previous day by Treasury officials that the Government's flagship policy on employment and small businesses - the national [...]

Gove has established quite a reputation for turning all he touches, not to gold, but to dust.   His Big Idea of course is to raise standards by spreading Academies all over the country and providing incentives for parents to set up Swedish-style so-called ‘free schools’.   It’s true that UK educational [...]

The Department for Transport published a revised business case for HS2 alongside the consultation document that it isued a few weeks ago. The analysis of this case by the HS2 Action Alliance was presented to MPs and their staff today (thanks to Andrea Leadsom MP  for organising the meeting) and you [...]

  No party ever prepares for opposition. Even predictable defeats are a shock and a trigger for prolonged misery. Nigel Fisher’s book ‘How to be in opposition’ is a tale of years of arid futility occasionally enlivened by minor triumphs. Heroes of past oppositions are described for our admiration and encouragement. Neil [...]

I couldn't let the Budget debates pass without putting in a word for small businesses. I want the Government to look at ways to improve bank lending - it is the only real way that small businesses can achieve any sort of decent growth and transform into larger businesses. The [...]

Apart from my regular constituency surgery to deal with problems brought to me by individual constituents, I had two important meetings this Friday. One was a further meeting with representatives from the local campaign groups and local authorities about HS2. You might recall that I convened a similar meeting earlier this [...]

                 I have been looking into high speed trains. I have made three day  return journeys to Manchester and Leeds recently and decided to take the train.  I have been hoping to win some green plaudits!                On each occasion I have wished to be in those cities in time for [...]

Yesterday, I doubt it will have escaped your notice, was the Budget. Despite Labour's wishes and the country's needs, it was a no growth Budget. The Chancellor claimed he delivered a Budget for growth while at the same time downgrading the growth forecast. And even though families are enduring deeply [...]