Incisive and topical campaigns and commentary on today’s issues and tomorrow’s problems
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The Opposition needs to understand the problems with UK government
The UK public sector is letting many people down and upsetting a lot of voters. Opposition parties in Parliament are good at criticising. They blame Ministers, as our system invites them to do. Opposition parties fail to ask why so many of the failures are in so called independent bodies...Read More »
Blame the Minister, but sort out the system
It is a crucial part of our Parliamentary democracy that we do ultimately hold government Ministers to blame for the many failings of public services and public bodies. We also expect government to intervene or to change the law when the private sector and or too many individuals miscarry.
I still...Read More »
Bond yields and mortgage rates
In July 2022 the UK ten year interest rate was 2%. In early September it was 3% and by the time of the Kwarteng budget on 23rd September it was approaching 4%. It peaked on 9th October at 4.38%. In July 2023 it made another new peak at 4.65% and...Read More »
The Bank of England losses stop a growth policy
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The scale of Bank losses
In the budget figures we were told the Bank of England’s bond buying and selling will end up losing us £102 bn. In its early phases the Bank sent the Treasury profits of £124 bn, so on these OBR estimates there are astonishing total losses coming...Read More »
Bernanke needs to be radical in his review of the Bank of England
Ben Bernanke knows a lot about Central banks getting things wrong. On his watch at the Fed he saw inflation hit 5.6% in 2008 before watching it collapse along with important parts of the banking system. He was there for the banking crash and great recession of 2008-10. He pioneered...Read More »