The Forum

LESS than two months after the bombings in Boston, the media is again filled with disturbing images of an act of savage terrorism.

MARK Carney will arrive as the new governor of the Bank of England at a time when its policy is in disarray, but also when all the levers are in the Bank’s hands. He has a good chance to improve matters.

THE opening lines of the press conference presenting the IMF’s report on the UK economy did not bode well. The IMF’s deputy managing director David Lipton congratulated the government on its labour market reforms.

IT IS small wonder that Ukip’s rise has left the main parties looking bewildered: almost everything they think they know about the anti-EU insurgents is wrong.

JUST AS Woolworths allowed Wilkinsons, Poundland and Tesco to eat its lunch, M&S is putting its fingers in its corporate ears while the likes of Next, Zara and Waitrose at one end, and Aldi and Primark at the other, leach away its customers.

BASED on the high standards of living enjoyed by their citizens, you might think that the governments of First World countries know how to create development. They don’t.

A MONTH from now, ministers will announce whether or not they have renewed the second biggest ringfence in UK public spending: around the schools budget.

ECONOMIC pundits are rapidly dividing into two tribes: the Pessimists, and the Nostalgics. The Pessimists are the easiest to spot. For them, the paradigms have shifted, and the UK is on the wrong side.

MANY dream about the day they can stop working. And the rise of retirement since the Second World War is clearly a defining feature of how developed societies have changed over the period.

IT IS now possible to imagine Britain leaving the EU after a referendum only a small minority of the public really wanted, and through a stark in/out choice the majority of government rejects.

THE Public Accounts Committee offered about as much to the debate on tax avoidance yesterday as a hot air balloon offers transport. No clear direction, not a lot of movement, but a lot of hot air.

THE Bermuda Triangle has long captured the imagination of millions, not least my own. But now the global economy appears to have developed its own black hole, and this time it’s not just a legend.

THERE is one thing that can be guaranteed whenever the Bank of England releases its quarterly Inflation Report – in two years’ time, its central projection for consumer price index inflation is at or very close to the 2 per cent target.

BRITAIN has reached a crossroads. In the midst of global transformation and economic meltdown, we must decide how to survive this brave new world. We have to make the call; are we in or are we out?

SO THE Conservatives have drafted a bill, which would require a referendum on the question “Do you think that the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union?” by 31 December 2017.

WITH all the hype around Google Glass, the computer headset currently under development, you’d be forgiven for thinking the geeks were not just changing the world but our wardrobes too.

THE debate about the EU is often portrayed as political. Who’s in? Who’s out? Who’s switched?

THE last 25 years saw a historic shift from a divided world to a global one. Communism collapsed, and states representing nearly half the world’s population turned to free market principles.

AFTER years of dithering from politicians of all parties, Friday’s report from the Transport Select Committee was a breath of fresh air.

IT MAY sound incredible given the current political debate, but the UK government now spends more as a percentage of GDP on childcare than all European countries except Denmark. Yet the direct costs to parents continue to rise inexorably.

AFTER 27 years in charge of Manchester United and unprecedented silverware to show for it, Sir Alex Ferguson has cemented his reputation as the most successful football manager of all time.

AFTER the First World War, US industry took out far too much credit. The country experienced a nasty credit bubble and prices, including share prices, soared. Does this remind you of economic conditions anywhere else?

THE health secretary Jeremy Hunt said yesterday: “The pull factors are very important if we are to deter people from coming here in the first place.” It is deeply depressing that, with UK GDP well below its 2008 level and no growth last year, the

THERE’s a tendency to be negative about Britain’s economic performance. Rather than “flatlining”, however, our economy has been regaining momentum since late 2011.