Cameron right to back strivers – but words aren’t enough October 10, 2012 LET us hope David Cameron actually means what he says. His speech to the Tory party conference yesterday was the best he has made in years. He outlined a different vision for Britain, appealing to the strivers who want to work hard and get on in life, a crucial audience whose disenchantment with the Tories [...]
Osborne should move fast and make Tucker next governor October 9, 2012 FORGET about speeches to the Tory party conference, or even the forthcoming Autumn Statement. George Osborne’s biggest decision of his entire chancellorship will be who he appoints to be the next governor of the Bank of England. No other unelected job in the UK comes with so much power: the governor is not just in [...]
Osborne’s employment incentives idea is no game changer October 8, 2012 FOR once, the government managed to unveil a policy yesterday that had not been pre-leaked. George Osborne’s latest plan combines two ideas: it seeks to better align staff and employer incentives; and to make the labour market more flexible. Employers will be able to make new job offers conditional on – and offer to existing [...]
Fiscal crisis won’t go away until taxes and benefits balance October 7, 2012 IT is good news that George Osborne and David Cameron have decided not to impose crippling tax hikes on property owners. There will be neither a mansion tax nor a wealth tax, while council tax will be frozen and – most importantly – homes won’t be revalued. This latter move would have delivered huge tax [...]
Outside prime London, house prices are falling back to earth October 4, 2012 IT is one of the most important economic stories of the past few years and yet the one that is least talked about. House prices in virtually all parts of the country excepting prime London have collapsed. It’s hard to believe if you live or aspire to live in Kensington, Richmond or another prosperous location, [...]
Lessons to be learnt from government’s rail franchise fiasco October 3, 2012 THERE are several lessons to be drawn from the government’s West Coast franchising disaster. For a start, it is hard to see why any government would want to take on Sir Richard Branson and his incumbent operator, Virgin – his PR skills are so superior to anything the government can muster that the final outcome [...]
Miliband’s speech: Powerful rhetoric but muddled thinking October 2, 2012 IF standing up and delivering a lengthy speech fluently and without notes were all that it took to become Prime Minister, Ed Miliband would be a shoo-in after yesterday’s performance. Modern Britain – and especially the politically engaged minority – has in common with ancient Greece an exaggerated respect for rhetoric, delivery and articulacy. On [...]
A strange kind of green shoots: Welcome to the New Normal October 1, 2012 GREEN shoots in the economy are a bit like beauty: they are in the eye of the beholder. Such is the confused, contradictory state of the British economy that one can just as easily be bullish or bearish, depending on which facts one chooses to pick out. For every piece of good news, one can [...]
Ed Miliband needs to stop distorting statistics September 30, 2012 IF you want to know why I find it hard to be optimistic about Britain’s economic future, look no further than the political parties’ annual conferences – this weekend it was the turn of the Labour party to pander to prejudice and envy and advocate policies that will end up retarding growth, reducing job creation [...]
Time for MPs to summon statisticians over endless revisions September 27, 2012 IT is hard to know whether we should believe anything we are told by our statistical masters. Originally, we were informed that the economy shrank by 0.7 per cent in the second quarter; then that it fell by 0.5 per cent; yesterday this was revised down to 0.4 per cent. The big picture hasn’t changed. [...]