Conservatism
Same circus if a few different, reshuffled clowns
The brightest clown of the lot, who is, after the reshuffle, now to be in charge of housing, had some all too honest words to say on Mrs Thatcher in 1987 (27 seconds): Remarkable frankness – and a frankness which he has learnt to keep under wraps since – especially as he is now in... Read more
Gaslighter in Chief
Something for which he doesn’t even seem to need a hard hat…... Read more
Brexit has not been done
Given that this Independent report suggests that food distribution shortages will, according to Downing Street, be over by Christmas (is that before or after?) supposedly there is little to worry about with our current intermittent and unpredictable shortages. Mind you at least in saying the problems will be over by Christmas Downing Street admits that... Read more
What about the workers?
The fact that the HMRC thinks that the recent, proposed National Insurance rises could lead to the breakdown of struggling families means at least that somebody is thinking of them, even if, remarkably, it is only the UK’s tax authority. (Government seem to have ceased to take either workers or struggling families into account.) I... Read more
Beware of abstract nouns!
I like the ‘Stumbling and Mumbling’ blog and its author, Chris Dillow has pointed out how, what he calls the politics of abstraction is so undermining.. Personally I’d prefer to call these problems abstract nouns. But they are broadly the same… Thus we had the war on terror – when the only war was actually... Read more
True Red Bus message….
Being of the view that Brexit is a useless disaster, I did appreciate this ‘redesigned’ red bus:... Read more
Traditional lefty economists….
I think that the desire for safe assets should be a factor influencing any fiscal rule.. So says Simon Wren Lewis. To me (but possibly not him) those basic safe assets are a proper functioning state with the rule of law, resources to do things, food to produce to feed everyone and probably some earth... Read more
Northern entitlement…
I just cannot believe that Shapps is tweeting this… ‘Re-purposed’ Northern Rail carriages seem to be fine for the North – I’m wondering would they be equally good as a classroom in Surrey? Or even perhaps, his own constituency of Welwyn and Hatfield? Maybe we could begin to realise that the fact that we have... Read more
Social Care – or not
The announced ‘solution’ to the care crisis really couldn’t be any worse. National Insurance (NI) with its start at a rate lower than income tax and a rate on the highest income of nil is demonstrably regressive. The fact that companies and employers will have to pay this NI as well and just after a... Read more