As the Conservative conference begins, will the party recapture the political initiative? October 7, 2012 YES Alex Singleton It’s easy to underestimate David Cameron and write him off as wishy-washy. But he’s actually one of the most determined men in politics, who will ruthlessly ditch policies that he deems electorally damaging. His reshuffle last month gave a clear indication that he is listening to critics. Some want to write him [...]
Rapid responses October 7, 2012 Dirty subsidies [Re: We just need the political will to reduce destructive energy prices, Friday] Matthew Sinclair’s long rant against climate change policies showed a remarkable ignorance of the economics of energy. As the energy regulator Ofgem has pointed out, the primary driver of electricity price rises over the past eight years has not been [...]
We just need the political will to reduce destructive energy prices October 4, 2012 OUT of all major economies, politicians in the UK have embraced aggressive climate policy in the most starry-eyed and expensive way. No other country has taken on more ambitious targets, done less to protect industry from the consequences or imposed more draconian unilateral regulations. We were the only country to set serious targets in the [...]
Romney’s debate triumph has thrown open the presidential campaign October 4, 2012 IN THE annals of presidential debates, it’s unclear whether Wednesday night’s showdown between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will go down as a classic. The match-up failed to spawn any memorable Reaganesque one-liners, evocations of Clinton-style empathy or knock-out blows. And yet the winner was largely uncontested. Through sheer consistency, Romney emerged as the clear [...]
How the EU could slash regulations and go for growth October 4, 2012 EUROPEANS are shooting themselves in the foot. In the middle of recession, there have been no attempts to roll back the EU’s massive regulatory burden. Yet regulation is just as much an obstacle to recovery as unsustainable debt. The Eurozone’s structural problems can seem hopeless. But there’s plenty of low-hanging fruit and European leaders could [...]
As UK universities slip down world rankings, is private higher education the way forward? October 4, 2012 YES Carl Lygo So how do governments respond to educational demand in a time of austerity, when there’s estimated to be 300m students globally by 2025? Enter the private sector, which provides quality higher education on a large scale. A major plus is that programmes tend to be career focussed, closely aligned to the world [...]
Rapid Responses October 4, 2012 Contract failure [Re: Lessons from the government’s rail franchise fiasco, yesterday] The ownership of the rail system is not the issue at stake. The problem is the unserious attitude that many civil servants take when managing government contracts. There has been a consistent failure to realise that there is a more to business and than [...]
We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix Britain’s trains October 3, 2012 THE announcement of the suspension of not only the West Coast train competition – which covers trains from Euston to the north west – but the whole of the rail franchising programme and a number of the department’s officials, has sent shock waves through Britain’s rail sector. Patrick McLoughlin, the secretary of state for transport, [...]
Here’s a radical idea: Let’s take stock before introducing more regulation October 3, 2012 FINANCIAL services regulations aren’t like London buses, where you wait around for ages and then three come along at once. There’s no waiting around, and they come by the busload all the time. So far this week, we’ve had Ed Miliband threatening to break up the banks, and then the EU’s Liikanen report calling for [...]
Why both left and right must call for an EU referendum October 3, 2012 WHY would we – a card-carrying Conservative eurosceptic City man, and a life-long europhile Labour activist and former special adviser to two Labour cabinet ministers – team up? What project could possibly unite us? The People’s Pledge. The People’s Pledge is the politically independent campaign for a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European [...]