No Diane Abbott, now is the worst time for rent controls February 5, 2014 It'd be hard to miss London's housing problems. London house prices rose by a staggering 11.6 per cent in the year to November 2013, according to ONS data. Labour MP Diane Abbott has proposed a solution: Just made a speech in Parliament on need for RENT CONTROLS #ifnotnowwhen? #londonhousingcrisis — Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) February [...]
Brussels is trying to bury the City by forcing it to play by warped EU rules February 4, 2014 IN BRUSSELS, you can hear the dull sound of hammer on iron: the EU driving nails into a coffin. There may be plenty of zombie banks in the Eurozone, and an undead currency walking the corridors of the European Central Bank, but it’s the City that Brussels wants to bury first. There were two examples [...]
Against the Grain: Myths and reality of Valentine’s Day: It’s more than just a marketing ploy February 4, 2014 VALENTINE’S Day is almost upon us. Many readers may recall a time when its main purpose was for love-struck teenagers to communicate, anonymously or otherwise, with the objects of their desire. Now it is big business. It is hardly possible to enter a pub or restaurant without being exhorted to publicly display fidelity and love [...]
The frightening reality of the welfare state we’re in February 4, 2014 IF TV’S Benefits Street raised a fuss, James Bartholomew’s The Welfare State We’re In should cause an earthquake. Never mind a few scrounging scallywags, Bartholomew’s book (just republished) gives us the total historical horror of the welfare state in living Technicolor. Bartholomew is a Redbull double-espresso to Iain Duncan Smith’s limp chamomile tea. Forget reforming [...]
Letters to the Editor – 05/02 – Civil service, More cuts, Best of Twitter February 4, 2014 Civil service [Re: Would political appointments to the civil service increase government effectiveness? Yesterday] Public bodies are largely run by people who have an instinctive opposition to enterprise, standards and choice. No wonder senior Tories are now realising that they need to make drastic changes. It would be nice to return to a world of [...]
Politicians are scared of the small state but a positive vision will sell it to voters February 3, 2014 HOW DO you shrink the state when it is dominated by health, education and welfare? The answer is with a positive vision that is much more than just tax cuts. The right needs to craft a compelling world-view of what the economy and society would look like with a minimalist state. The biggest problem is [...]
We mustn’t delude ourselves about the scale of the crisis Britain went through February 3, 2014 OVER the past three years, the debate over the coalition’s deficit reduction plan and the sluggishness of the subsequent recovery has dominated the agenda. On almost all sides, this debate has been framed in a way that implies that, had we adopted marginally different policies, the fallout from the crash need not have been anywhere [...]
Tech resentment in San Francisco is ignoring the real culprit: Government February 3, 2014 RENTS are rising, pushing people on low incomes out of the neighbourhoods they’ve lived in for years. Resentment towards the rich is growing, with the most profitable and dynamic industries singled out for the most ire. Talk of a cost of living crisis, driven above all by the cost of housing, is dominating politics. This [...]
Letters to the Editor – 04/02 – Energy supply, Best of Twitter February 3, 2014 Energy supply [Re: As the International Energy Agency doubts UK shale’s potential, is more nuclear the answer?, Friday] The International Energy Agency was right to say that Britain should not have too high expectations regarding the shale gas revolution. But while it argues that increased investment in new, heavily-subsidised nuclear plants would be more desirable, it [...]
Digital natives are having tech children and creating a tidal wave of disruption February 2, 2014 THE NEXT time you are puzzled by an app on your smartphone, the chances are that your three year-old will have the answer. An astonishing 57 per cent of children aged three to five can operate at least one mobile app, up from 19 per cent in 2012. The third anniversary of the Digital Diaries [...]