They Blog For You

The Banking Commission says its key objective is to protect the UK taxpayer from another bailout. At the same time, they suggest a sort of two-tier system within banks, as opposed to institutional separation. Sounds to me like they're proposing the sort of changes I was aiming at [...]

                The week-end press had started to wake up to the private sector squeeze which we have been talking about on this website  for the last year, the squeeze which was even heralded by the Bank of England itself. The high rate of inflation coupled with a low rate of wage [...]

According to the Sunday Times, Republican front-runners for the next presidential election include Mitt Romney, Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin.  If so, then perhaps that's Obama safely back in the White House for a second term.   Fortunately, in America they allow millions of ordinary folk, not just [...]

               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 [...]

Total of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 363    The calamity deepens but hope is on the way. It's nearly a month since the carefully varnished flow of half-truths were emitted from Fukushima. The Japanese nuclear company TEPCO fell into the auto-pilot of 'reassure at all times' mode. All bad news was announced [...]

The Office for Budgetary Responsibility apparently “needs more time to factor in budgetary changes to their forecasts or risks losing its credibility”.  You mean to say that technocratic experts at the OBR, like those at the MPC, don’t always [...]

“Absolutely no bilateral bailout” was the Treasury spin 24 hours ago.  Now, it’s all about how we’re “not writing Portugal a cheque”. Choice words, and technically true.  Next perhaps we’ll be spun a line that this is all just “contingent liability”, as if the £2 – 4 Billion at stake [...]

KEVIN Brennan, MP for Cardiff West, has hit out at the terrible condition of Pendine Road in Ely after Cardiff County Council failed to keep their promise to repair the road surface by the end of the financial year.The road, which is a popular route to avoid traffic on Cowbridge [...]

Treasury officials and advisers are “out of their depth” when it comes to handling the Euro crisis, suggests Peter Oborne.  Apparently, despite all the warning signs for months, none of the top officials have seriously thought through what we might do in the event of one or more member states [...]

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 [...]

Last night I was put through my paces by an audience in Oxford on BBC Question Time. I was quizzed on the NHS, social mobility, arts funding cuts and the AV referendum. You can watch the episode again here . We had a feisty debate on the NHS - unbelievable for [...]

Greece, Ireland, now Portugal ....  Another bailout of the Euro dressed up as a rescue.  Another high interest loan pressed upon European taxpayers, as if that might solve the problem of excessive debt. Over the past year, we have been struggling to save a total of [...]

If unpaid internships are to be discouraged, I presume that the government will now put unpaid Parliamentary Private Secretaries onto the government payroll? Over the past year, an unprecedentedly number of MPs have been made PPSs under the Coalition.  Even quite junior ministers now make use of these unpaid ministerial aides. A internship, or work experience scheme, MPs [...]

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 [...]

Interesting article by Nick Clegg and Iain Duncan Smith on the need for greater social mobility in today's Telegraph.  They are absolutely right to point to the problem.  What bothers me are their proposed solutions, which all seem to be about government doing more. The coalition duo begin their article by accepting that Labour's big [...]

A number of local people have contacted me about Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s ‘Fish Fight Campaign’, and so I thought it would be a good idea to set out my thoughts on the matter here. Throwing dead fish back into the sea is a terrible waste.  It is disruptive to marine ecosystems [...]

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”. [...]

Delyn MP and former Policing Minister David Hanson has expressed his concern at reports that 2,200...

Delyn MP and former Policing Minister David Hanson has expressed his concern at reports that 2,200 of the most experienced Police officers are to be lost due to the government’s huge frontloaded cuts to the police.   North Wales Police is one of many forces across the country that has been given [...]

To get a sense of quite how flawed international Human Rights law is, reflect on this; For a decade or so, democratically-elected Israeli ministers have been unable to come to the UK for fear that they might be arrested and [...]

Unnoticed in the austerity-driven travails following the financial crash lies another tectonic shift.   According to research by the US bank Morgan Stanley, since the start of the ‘recovery’ in 2009-10 total real wages have risen by £105bn, but profits have soared by £330bn.   This is the first time that profits [...]