There are a great many things in politics and society I care about deeply — the capture of state power by vested interests, the condition of the poor and the sick despite the many billions of pounds spent by the welfare state well beyond our capacity to pay, the injustice […]
Read MorePost Tagged with: "Ideas"
Keynes, Carney and the corruption of capitalism
We’ve come a long way since the Bank of England’s Andy Haldane pointed out that they had “intentionally blown the biggest government bond bubble in history” and that it constituted the biggest risk to financial stability. Yesterday, in his Sky News interview, the Bank’s Governor Mark Carney said that the housing […]
Read MoreWhy localism has disappointed?
Via BBC Worldwide, classic stuff from Yes, Prime Minister: All too true, I imagine.
Read MorePresentation on government policy and the economy, 28 Feb 2014
I’m most grateful to Stupples Chandler Garvey for the opportunity yesterday to present some thoughts on the economy over the next 12 months to local business people. Here are the slides – The UK Economy – the next 12 months:
Read MoreThe Government has exceeded its target to identify 3,000 regulations to be amended or scrapped
Via Number 10, Supporting business: David Cameron announces new plans: In a speech to the Federation of Small Businesses, the Prime Minister will tell the audience that the government has exceeded its target to identify 3,000 regulations to be amended or scrapped. This is the first government in modern history to reduce […]
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Mises’ Socialism and George Osborne’s year of hard truths
Ludwig von Mises’ 1922 book Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis is the definitive refutation of socialism, ie coercive direction of production and distribution by the state. It is the book which persuaded Friedrich Hayek to turn to classical liberalism. He wrote in his foreword, Socialism promised to fulfill our hopes […]
Read More“It is impossible to be a democrat and support the continued existence of the European Union”
In the Telegraph, Peter Oborne reviews Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy by Peter Mair. I have not yet read it. Towards the end, Oborne writes, Like Miliband, Peter Mair comes from the Left. He was an Irishman who spent the majority of his professional life working in […]
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Photos of 2013
Photography reminds me that, despite all its difficulties, this is still a beautiful world: A set of my favourite photos of 2013 is here. It’s been an eventful year in Parliament: my colleague Douglas Carswell provides a good summary. Great forces continue to work themselves out in our economy, society […]
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Book review: Life After The State, Dominic Frisby
Dominic Frisby’s Life After the State catalogues the systematic failure of political power to meet people’s aspirations for it. From the book description: Have you ever had the nagging feeling that the problems the country faces are spiraling out of control, that the government has lost its way and that, […]
Read MoreFor City AM: It’s time to end the cruel delusion of cheap money and reckless spending
City A.M. asked me to comment in advance of the Autumn statement. I wrote: GEORGE Osborne will present his Autumn Statement to a country in the grip of a cruel economic delusion, perpetrated against the poor and the aspirational. Welfare states everywhere are spending chronically beyond their means while papering […]
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