They Blog For You

Arising from the dross and trivia of the national newspapers today are some beacons of truth. Julian Glover in the Guardian says the unsayable. "Afghanistan is already yesterday's war, though it is still to be tomorrow's defeat".  The Independent escapes from the current events of the day, to remind us of a [...]

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.  [...]

                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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

It is scarcely possible to overstate the gravity of the charges against Murdoch’s organisation over the criminal offence of phone hacking.   There is undoubtedly a great deal more to be exposed, but we already know that phone hacking was rife at News International (N.I.) on an almost epidemic scale, that [...]

               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 [...]

  What’s the point?  One Millionaire David Cameron is married to a millionaire. He earns a good salary. What point is he making by ‘celebrating’ with a Ryanair no frills trip? The only things that make flying bearable are the frills. Why the self-flagellation? Who is he trying to impress? Most people would regard [...]

Rarely can a Budget have disintegrated so quickly.   Dixons have just announced sales falling by 11% over the last 11 weeks, and are now cutting capital expenditure by 25%.   Oddbins goes bankrupt.   The former Asda boss has predicted a “long-term trend of trading down”.   HMV has just issued its thrid [...]

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 [...]

  My pre-election expectations range from realism to pessimism. I anticipated the results of all my six General Election results except the last one in 2011 and the first one in 1987.  I could have lost both. Today's poll on the Assembly Election is an extraordinary one.  The only worthwhile analysis was [...]

As has often been said, the banks have a policy: privatise their gains, socialise their losses.   However we should have a different policy: make the banks pay for what they have done and restructure them so that they can never do it again.   Fat chance of course that anything like this [...]

There have been discussions about whether there is a domestic precedent whereby the right to talk to MPs about issues of public interest is protected by parliament. This already happens in Australia.The following case from the parliamentary journals in 1699 is exactly that. John Kelly provided information about [...]

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 [...]

As the first pilot schemes for getting claimants off Incapacity Benefit and into work have judged that 70% were fit for work, the real attitudes of the Tories towards unemployment is becoming painfully clear.   Their Work First model of active labour market policy is defined by increasingly punitive approaches to conditionality [...]

  Paul Maynard the new Tory MP for Blackpool was on the next table to mine in the Terrace Cafeteria at lunchtime today. I noticed that he was shuffling some papers with intriguing pictures of power stations. He told me that he was speaking in today's final adjournment debate in which [...]

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 [...]

I was recently provided with some particularly alarming statistics on low birth weight babies. After yesterday's post on child poverty I'm sure you're all thinking that it's always doom and gloom around here but I can't help but want to desperately draw people's attention to these figures so that appropriate [...]