Blog
Graduated benefits
While writing a blog piece on the Establishment, I wanted to include statistics for the number of MPs, civil servants etc. who graduated from Oxbridge, Russell Group or any university, and how the subjects they studied compared with the…
Stepping back
Lots of comments about how exchange rates and equity-price movements show that the UK is (a) doomed or (b) well-placed post-Brexit. Movements and values over a few days tell us nothing except the climate of hope or fear in those few days…
The worst form of government
An anti-democratic mini-meme developed amongst some of my liberal friends in the build-up to the EU referendum. For some people, democracy is a virtue and governance structures that provide more direct democratic accountability are…
Letter to my employees about the Brexit referendum
All, The CBI think that bosses should inform employees about Brexit. http://news.sky.com/story/1697273/bosses-told-to-warn-workers-of-brexit-risks This patronising suggestion is typical of the Confederation of Big Business, and of a Remain…
Talking Balls
Is Ed Balls a knave or a fool? On Newsnight, he just compared eliminating the deficit in four years to paying down a mortgage in short order. Let's consider the form that analogy should take if it were to reflect reality. Having engaged in…
Promote industry. Bag a banker.
Boris Johnson is quoted in MoneyWeek as having said to Management Today: "To the banker bashers I say, what's your economic model? We can't ignore and hate the bankers. What would that achieve? Show me how reducing financial services boosts…
Wet or dry
I'm feeling a little damp. Or at least, feeling like I look a little damp to others. I've found myself on what many would perceive as the more moderate, centrist side of the argument several times recently. I think I'm a “fractional…
Plus ça change
Maybe they really were the good times. The last few years didn't feel like it, but at least the Government was subtle enough in its winner-picking that I would have to explain how its targeted measures were really supporting losers. Now…
Rich people's benefits
Can we nail a fallacy that is becoming received wisdom, regarding the uncompensated withdrawal of child benefit payments to higher earners, as proposed under the UK government's Comprehensive Spending Review? The rhetoric claims that it is…
Foreign posting
I have a post on the subject of student loans for higher education on the IEA blog, under the heading Academic interest: the free-market case against subsidised student loans.
Borrowing and spending our way out of debt
One feature that distinguishes the current financial crisis from earlier ones is how widely the problem is spread. We have had bigger public debt than today, but never with so much private sector debt. We have had leverage-fuelled bubbles…
Cant and DECC
I was contacted recently by someone who was studying the renewable heat sector. They asked: We read your blog on Picking Losers and I guess the question is, given that DUKES Table 7.6 gives the existing renewable heat total for 2009 as 96…
Good plumbers and bad bankers
You may be interested in an article of mine at the Cobden Centre website. Received wisdom is that governments should try to ameliorate the impact of the economic crisis by setting interest rates artificially low and penalising prudence. The…
A business unlike any other
According to Angela Knight, Chief Executive of the British Bankers' Association: "A bank is like any other business - if its fixed operating costs go up then so does the price of its product." Angela has provided a nice illustration of how…
DECCadent action
Imagine you are a politician, elevated after the recent election from shadow to head of a department. You have quite a bit of experience shadowing your department, but to be fair, you haven't had access to all the information and resources…
Enlightenment time?
The economic debate is coalescing increasingly into two camps: those who think that the Government can prevent a further economic correction through deep spending cuts, and those who think that the Government can prevent a further…
A thousand thieves
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss. (-Robert Heinlein-) When there's a single thief, it's robbery. When there are a thousand thieves, it's taxation. (-Vanya Cohen-) HMRC, King Gord's tax collectors…
The end of meddling?
Eric Pickles has announced that he will abandon plans to charge people for their use of waste collection services (the "bin tax"). He will use the "carrot" of rewarding people with vouchers for the volume of recyclable material they produce…
The value of freedom
Attended an enjoyable IPN book launch this evening, for Matt Ridley's -The Rational Optimist-. It sounds well-worth reading, to keep our current troubles in perspective. Met a couple of interesting guys whose sites I wanted to point you at…
Freedom for the elite
The following is one key point of the Queen's Speech proposals, from the front of today's Telegraph: Academy schools introduced in England and Wales under plans to free outstanding primaries and secondaries from local authority control. So…
The beginning of the end
If the faint-heartedness of the cuts announced today* doesn't demonstrate the difficulties that the new British government will have when it comes to more difficult decisions, and that businesses and individuals will have in investing in…
Who are the lying, snivelling bastards?
The energy companies? Our central bankers and Treasury representatives? Or both groups? In America, prices fell in April, led by reductions in the cost of fuel and other energy. From The New York Times: -"Consumer prices over all fell in…
The Role of Law
Sometimes you find an error in a book so early and brazen that you barely feel the need to read further, and if you do, everything after that is diminished by the awareness of the author's bias or irrationality. A classic example is Marx's…
The aggregative delusion
On -Question Time- tonight, there was yet more discontent with the politicians* claiming that "the people had voted for a hung parliament". It is becoming a well-trodden but sterile debate for most non-politicians to point out that none of…
Game over. Inflation wins
I hope to examine this in more detail later. But I wanted to get on record as soon as possible that the events of the last 48 hours have taken a decisive turn in the battle between inflation and deflation. Commentators backing one or other…
Back in harness
I should have explained sooner the latest sustained silence on this site. Frustrated by the dishonesty of all the main parties with regard to the economic challenges that we face, we formed a new political party (Freedom & Responsibility…
Bureaucracy for beginners
What do they teach these people on Oxbridge human sciences courses? First the Cameroons demonstrate their ignorance of what it is that is holding British business back (clue: it isn't that it takes 14 rather than 7 days to register a…
Judge Dreck
As reported on the Environment Agency's website: -A series of civil sanctions will give the Environment Agency the discretion to avoid the time consuming and costly process of having to take businesses that commit certain types of offences…
The Ignoble Prize for Economics
The Real World Economic Review is taking votes for its Ignoble Prize for Economics, "to be awarded to the three economists who contributed most to enabling the Global Financial Collapse (GFC)." The shortlist is outstanding, and indeed many…
Why liberals lose
I have been lucky enough to be involved in several discussions recently in small, ostensibly-liberal* groups including some leading figures in public life and other fields. They were all private gatherings, and some were under Chatham-House…
The route to sound money
In a speech reproduced at the excellent Cobden Centre website, James Tyler argues for the introduction of a free money system (i.e. independent, private issuers of currency). This is part of the ongoing debate between sound-money advocates…
The simplistic, aggregative economics of our intellectuals
A couple of months ago, I sat next to a leading economist, reputedly of the free-market variety (though our conversation led me to doubt it). I suggested to him that GDP was not a good indicator of the health of the economy. He said he…
Classic Bloomberg headline
This is presumably one in a series. Look also for: Gideon Gono freed from caps on money issuance European Union freed from caps on economically-suicidal legislation Lloyds Bank freed from caps on market-dominance Energy suppliers freed from…
A Christmas thought
I think we in secular society are missing God. Too many people have an inflated estimation of human understanding, power and impact. They think that our economic activity can be understood and controlled to everyone's benefit by a few…
Merry Christmas, Google
GoogleAds has been pleased to inform me that they are donating $20 million to charities on our behalf for Christmas. I've got an idea. How about GoogleAds cuts its charges by $20 million, and we'll each decide which charity we'd like to…
The biter bit
In this week's MoneyWeek (best economic journal out there at the moment), an article by Simon Wilson on the risk of a "City exodus", prompted by Darling's special bankers' bonus levy, included the following sentence: -"The confusion over…
Corpulent Antisocial Irresponsibility
The latest Economic Affairs (the quarterly journal of the Institute of Economic Affairs) arrived today. Its leading topic - Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) - reminded me that I never published the short talk I gave at an EU…
Clean and Secure Energy Obligation?
Some friends of mine in the energy sector have been excited by a new report by Dan Lewis on Securing Our Energy Future. This report does indeed make some excellent criticisms of current energy policy, but I'm afraid it does not follow (as…
BA - The Final Solution
Just a thought: has it reached the point where the best thing that could be done with BA is to break it up and close it down? Is it worth less as a going entity than the sum of its parts? Is it effectively a bed-blocker to making better use…
Typical Scousers?
I love Liverpool. But sometimes you wonder if they go out of their way to maintain outsiders' perceptions... From DEFRA's Waste Strategy Annual Progress Report 2008/9. That's three incidents per Scouser. As usual, the problem has been…
Playing China's game
See this article for evidence that (a) for the Chinese, Copenhagen (and climate-change generally) is about getting as much out of the developed countries as possible without committing to any major effort on its part, and (b) Chinese media…
EEC/CERT/CESP/Warm Front
These programmes¹ are examples, like the EU-ETS, where government intervention hands commercial advantage to the VILE (Vertically-Integrated Large Energy) companies, to little beneficial effect. The VILE companies point to the fact that…
Schumpeter wins, we lose
I've been angry for years about the level of economic ignorance amongst politicians, civil servants, journalists, financial professionals, intellectuals, the public, and, above all, the mainstream economics profession. Though every…
Mandelson's latest 'winner' in pension fraud?
I can't beat the beautiful job Richard Tyler did in yesterday's Telegraph on a classic example of winner-picking under our Lord and master's revived industrial policy, so I'll just quote bits of it. Click the links to read the articles…
The Economist is dead. Long live The Ecommunist
-The Economist- just published its suicide note. Unusually, it has done it well in advance, in the full flush of health and optimism. But it has nevertheless committed itself fully to a course that guarantees its eventual demise, or at…
Sign of The Times
A couple of small stories on the property market recently have illustrated the extent to which the media seem to have given themselves the job of talking up the market. For a brief while, -The Express- stood alone in its determination to…
Crisis demonstrates need for industrial policy, says President
From the Socialist Republic of Britain's Telegraph Agency: In the time of crisis Belarus Britain attaches a special significance to the development of industrial giants, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko the Board of Trade Peter…
The limits of the laws
There is something rotten in the rugby world, and it's not Dean Richards. The sanctimonious twaddle being spoken on the subject of Harlequins' "bloodgate" by commentators and former professionals is nauseating. Rugby, they would have you…
The national sub-prime borrower
Here's a bemusing statistic to follow on from the earlier post. -Question:- Given that the US federal deficit is expected to be $1.8 trillion this year, taking the total national debt to $12.8 trillion, by how much does the US government…
"Austrian economics invented after WWII" says lefty blogger
The left tend to enjoy a smug, patronizing sense that their views are the product of great intelligence, altruism, and encyclopaedic knowledge, while the right owe their views to ignorance, prejudice and a brutish love of money. But for…
Tax hiatus or deficit problem?
It is becoming popular amongst Keynesians (and perhaps some monetarists too) to suggest that Western governments do not have a deficit problem, they just have a hiatus in their tax receipts. Government's job, therefore, is to help the…
Securing the UK's Energy Future (for us)
One thing leads to another. The APPGOPO report covered in the previous post refers to the first report by the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil & Energy Security (ITPOES) on "The Oil Crunch: Securing the UK's Energy Future", which has been…
Total Economic Quackery
The All Party Parliamentary Group On Peak Oil (APPGOPO) has released a report backing Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) as "the fairest and most productive way to deal with the oil crisis and to simultaneously guarantee reductions in fossil…
Posting elsewhere
I have a post on the effect of the Government's plans to increase by a huge amount our use of intermittent wind power on future prices and availability of electricity on the Institute of Economic Affairs blog.
The nuclear magic bullet
A virtue of -The Economist'-s focus this week on the vulnerability of our energy systems, regardless of whether they have got everything right (and there's plenty that's good as well as some that's bad) is that it has brought attention to…
Lucas - I'm sorry you misunderstood me
Is it me, or is Robert Lucas's apologia for modern, mathematical macroeconomics in this week's -Economist-, effectively saying that their models are pretty good at predicting the economy will carry on in the direction it's currently going…
How to make a bad argument for a good idea
There are lots of good arguments for a carbon tax. Trust -The Economist- to come up with a bad one. "A tax on carbon is hardly going to stop the lights going out in a few years, but it would provide a floor price for power, giving investors…
Energy ≠ Electricity, Part 963
It's -The Economist-'s turn to be hit repeatedly with a big stick on which we have painted the inequation: Energy ≠ Electricity. Their leader, "How long till the lights go out?" is on an important subject and makes quite a lot of important…
Thresholds of pain
The Government and the opposition parties believe that climate-change and energy policy should revolve around identifying the technical solutions and their potential, calculating what each of them needs to encourage their deployment, and…
Merton doesn't Rule, OK
One way that politicians and civil servants have tried to drive the uptake of renewables is through the application of what became known as the Merton Rule (after one of the first councils to introduce the measure) to planning policy. The…
Attack or surrender in the battle of ideas
In the long run, it's ideas that matter. And they aren't all equal. Truth is not subjective, and neither are right and wrong. Political tactics and novelty may seem all-important to the chattering class, but expedient can never make wrong…
Poor consumers
Speaking of the IEA (see previous post), Richard Wellings, their excellent Deputy Editorial Director, has posted a piece on their blog, on the recent slew of climate-change policies and targets from the Government. It is mostly well-judged…
The remorseless decline of tribal socialism
My copy of Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell's book, The Plan, arrived today. Haven't read much yet and don't agree with all that I've read, but all the same, if you haven't got a copy, you should. It's well worth the read, and more right…
Judged and found wanting
This week's Spectator includes an article by Elliot Wilson about nuclear power and Barbara Judge, one of the great-and-the-good, chair of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (amongst many senior roles), and wife of Sir Paul Judge (he of The Jury…
Growth
Many of the more delusional, socialist contributors to the Claverton Energy group of energy fantasists (as I labelled them previously to their founder member's apparent offence) are persistently and vehemently opposed to "growth". See, for…
Wind in the sails of our patronage state
According to the Guardian: -"The government will today demonstrate its willingness to exert influence over Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group by announcing £1bn of lending to wind farm developers whose schemes have been…
What a waste
According to David Kidney, Energy Minister with responsibility for fuel poverty, the Government has -"spent £20 billion helping people in fuel poverty since the year 2000"- (it's near the end of the interview). At 3.5 million, the number…
Stepping marginally
Here's a graph from the Renewable Energy Strategy, of a type that the Government has been growing increasingly fond, as it steps up the complexity of its efforts to calculate outcomes and costs of support policies: The first and most…
Tripe and baloney
For connoisseurs of government tripe on energy and the environment, the last couple of days have been like a banquet. The releases of the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan, the Low Carbon Industrial Plan, the Carbon Reduction Strategy for…
Constant as the wind
The Government intends to rely on renewable electricity to meet the largest part of its renewable-energy targets, and for wind and other intermittent generators to supply most of that renewable electricity. To be precise, they have produced…
Old Hat
Just came across a post on Richard Murphy's blog (via Bishop Hill and Tim Worstall, who have both been laughing at a more recent contribution from him) that claimed to show that cutting public-sector jobs would cost the government more…
That's not a pensions crisis. Want to see a real pensions crisis?
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a drinks party for a Climate Campaign organized by the Conservative Energy & Climate Change team. The crowd was amiable enough - mostly pin-striped types with a leavening of tweedy country squires and the…
Hedonic losses
One of my new socks has a hole in it already. That's no surprise. Nowadays, at least one of each pair that I buy usually develops a hole within weeks. Or I buy size 10-12s and within a couple of washes, they are down to a size 8 (I am a…
Temporary lacuna
Sorry I've gone quiet again. Although I work in the energy industry, my greatest passion (policy-wise) is the perversity and cruelty of welfare policy and the overwhelmingly negative effect it has on our economy and the wellbeing of those…
Devaluation or deflation - are these genuine alternatives?
The choice for countries like Latvia, whose currency-peg to the Euro is crippling their economy and which have borrowed heavily in Euros, is routinely presented as devaluation or deflation. Either they must allow their currency to float…
Consultation on the IMS&ER of the EUEEUP&ELF Directives
I have just received the following invitation from AEA Technologies (energy bureaucrats who have separated but not divorced from the greater bureaucracy, and who are "managing" this aspect of the "Market Transformation Programme" for DEFRA…
Construction as leading economic indicator
The core business of our family company is producing aggregates (sand and gravel) for the construction industry. I focus on our energy activities, and don't have much to do with gravel, so wouldn't normally comment on it. However, what I…
Jury Trial
Just a quick follow up to my post on the Jury Team. It seems the British public have no more taste than I do for people who stand for everything and nothing. At a time when independents should benefit, and the Jury Team had had a fair…
The Money Hole
Superb satire from The Onion: In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?
The Department for Picking Winners
The press seem determined to ignore a crucial aspect of Peter Mandelson's accumulation of power. They are very interested in the symbolic and honorary aspects, such as the award of the titles of First Secretary of State and Lord President…
Sun stroke
I have been in France for a couple of days, visiting a potential business partner's sites. They have plans to install a huge area of photovoltaic (PV) panels at both sites. In both cases, they claim that the PV will pay for the cost of the…
Responsible to whom?
From the BBC's live blog of Gordon Brown's press conference yesterday: 1705 The prime minister says he "will not waiver and will not walk away". He adds: "I admit there have been full mistakes made and I accept responsibility…
Finishing the job
Staying to "finish the job" has become the favourite excuse for failures clinging limpet-like to their jobs. Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown have both used the excuse in the last couple of days. And many of our failed bankers and other…
A parliament swept clean of ideas and principles
Something is starting to bother me about the MPs' expenses scandal. I do not defend those MPs who have taken advantage of the lax rules that they instituted. They should go. But it is starting to feel to me that, for most people, this is…
Freedom and Responsibility
I recently heard a former central banker (not British) tell the story of a conversation he had with a Non-Exec Director of a bank, who had formerly worked for their government's finance department. The central banker asked the Non-Exec if…
Scotland - land of the unfree
Does anyone need more evidence of the need for England to devolve from the socialist Gaelic republic than the episode of Question Time from Dunfermline just now? I have nothing in common with most of the audience and the panel, and would…
Environmentally vulnerable
Mental illness is no laughing matter, so I hesitate to take the piss out of the following. On the other hand, it's hard to know whether to laugh or cry when you see something like this. You can fill in your own punchlines about the mental…
All shall have prizes
Just came across this lottery-funded scheme: You'd think, with a name like that, this would be a spoof, or at least an ironic reference. But apparently not. They appear to be "serious". Is this the apogee of the New Labour philosophy?
Inverse learning
Renewable energy has a number of benefits and disadvantages. The most significant of the benefits are the avoided carbon emissions and the energy-security benefits. The latter is more debatable - diversity is undoubtedly the key to security…
In the land of the quangocrats
Spent the morning at a Regen SW workshop on the Heat and Energy Saving consultation. Before we got to the main course (a presentation by the DECC civil servant responsible for the consultation), we were treated to an hors d'oeuvre from…
Replacing the state with charity and community action
This is a mantra of the right. Martin Vander Weyer voiced a fairly standard version in today's Sunday Telegraph: -Those reductions of state provision will be met in part by a reinvigorated voluntary sector, to which the retired and unjobbed…
Renewable redistribution
It was a miserable budget. Lots of people got screwed. The main ones will be picked up by the commentariat. Let me add to that list a group who many might imagine had done quite well: renewable developers. But didn't Darling throw lots of…
More Tory spend-save
It's not true that the Tories don't have any policies. They have a policy for each of us. Do you want lower taxes? They support that. Do you want more public investment? They support that too. Worried about the national debt? They are…
More from Mark "externalities are internal" Wadsworth
Further to the earlier post about the dumbest economic argument in the world, the perpetrator (Mark) has now published the results of his poll, which asked "-Who is best placed to decide what to build on any particular plot of land?-" He…
Hot air freight
Carbon-capture and storage (CCS) is already one of the biggest political lies around. The Government is poised to grant permission to the development of several coal-fired power-stations, so long as they are "CCS-ready". They don't actually…
Cleggover blunders again
Martha Kearney just nailed Nick Clegg (again). This time he's claiming he knows how much money will be brought in by removing various tax loopholes, but doesn't know how many people will be affected. He then comes up with a figure of 1…
Hoover: Austrian or interventionist?
Following an interesting debate with Paul Halsall on Austrian economics and the possibility of economic calculation in a socialist system, Paul posted half the text of an Anatole Kaletsky article in The Times, which made various spurious…
Another calamitous consequence of Callamity's time at Ofgem
There is much talk in energy circles of the "capacity gap" - the shortfall between operating capacity and demand that may arise as a result of the imminent closure (mostly within 6 years) of many of our coal-fired and nuclear power stations…
Sir Callamity McCarthy - a real villain of the depression
Fingers have been pointed in the direction of many different culprits for the critical condition of our economy. I am surprised that they have not been pointed more frequently at Sir Callum McCarthy. We don't need to swab him for gunshot…
What Callamity did next
I should have known better than to think that politicians and civil servants would have learnt from Callamity's disastrous tenures at Ofgem and the FSA. In fact, he stepped straight from the FSA into a job as a Non-Exec member of the…
More evidence that it's terminal for Labour
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and then... Polly Toynbee, discussing Labour's and Gordon's failings on Newsnight tonight, was unusually reasonable and realistic. Has she reached the acceptance stage of dealing with Labour's terminal…
Callamity's rewards
In his last year of "service" at the FSA, after his failure had already become plain (with the collapse of Northern Rock), Callamity McCarthy was paid over £480,000, an 11% increase on the previous year. What is he being paid now for his…
Callamity, Part II
Great timing. I blogged last night about the mind-boggling incompetence of Sir Callamity McCarthy. I wake up this morning, and what does the FT have on its front page, but an indictment of the behaviour of the FSA during Callamity's reign…
Are the Tories spending or saving?
On the front page of today's FT is the headline: "Osborne warns of big spending cuts to come". But in a speech yesterday, he announced 10 measures that should be implemented in the Budget to "kickstart a green recovery". Just his first…
Government auctions - good or bad?
I have been having a debate with Paul Lockett on Tim Worstall's site, which I have found very interesting and illuminating. The topic was the TPA's green-tax-calculator, and what it said about costs of carbon in this country. I claimed that…
Carbon tax petition
Nick Monether of Greenfields Consulting has launched a petition on the No.10 website, to press the Prime Minister -"to Adopt a Carbon Tax ratified and harmonised with the EU and the G20"-. As the petition explains: -"The tax payer and/or…
I'm quite proud of this
On 7 April, I posted an article comparing the car-scrappage schemes with Bastiat's broken-window analogy. The following is the leader from today's FT: Great minds think alike.
Dollar or Euro votes?
Noticed this poster at a tube station today: My immediate thought was: none of your bloody business. (After a moment's additional thought, perhaps I should moderate that to: none of your bloody business between the two on the right, and…
Is this the dumbest economic argument in the world?
-What is market value other than "the community's valuation of the external costs and benefits of the activity"?- External costs and benefits are, by definition, costs and benefits that are external to the market value. If they were within…
More political funding from Gordon's Investment Bank
£150m (almost half the total cost of the scheme) for the M80 PFI scheme in Scotland £500m as a starter for the M25 widening, with possibly more to come. It is not clear how these projects meet the EIB's objectives, but very clear how they…
From this week's MoneyWeek...
Good call. Indeed. Heavily over-priced at that.
Gordon's Investment Bank
The European Investment Bank (EIB) "has 6 priority objectives for its lending activity": Cohesion and Convergence Support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) Environmental sustainability Implementation of the Innovation 201…
The Socialist Utopia
From the English Eclectic blog of Paul Halsall, a socialist historian, in somewhat self-deluding response to Iain Dale's suggestion that we might have to cut public spending: 'I would expect that within less than 10 years we will have the…
Scrappage and broken windows
Henry Hazlitt, in his marvellous Economics in One Lesson, cites Frederic Bastiat's exposition of the broken window fallacy. The fallacy is that vandals breaking a shopkeeper's window have benefited the economy, because the glazier will get…
Right-to-Move-Out, not Right-to-Move
ConservativeHome's ToryDiary reports on a Right-to-Move policy to be announced tomorrow by Grant Shapps. Under this scheme, "good social tenants can demand that their social landlord sell their current property and use the proceeds, minus…
"Falling emissions in declining economy" shock!
Preliminary data released today (as reported in EurActiv, and picked up by OpenEurope) indicates that emissions from the sectors covered by the EU-ETS fell 6% in 2008. Naturally, the pro-EU-ETS brigade have hailed this as evidence that the…
The 14th century solution to moral hazard
Just looking something up in Peter Spufford's -Money and its Use in Medieval Europe-. Came across the following passage, which seems to have relevance to the modern day: -In Barcelona, from 1300, book entries by credit transfer legally…
Government ≠ Country
Alistair Darling, explaining that the downside of reduced bonuses in the City is reduced tax revenues, said (on the Andrew Marr show this morning): -"that's why our income as a country has gone down"-. No Alistair. That's why your income as…
'There's no shame in going to the IMF'. Oh really?
What does it mean if a government has to go to the IMF for funds? The government couldn't run a balanced budget. The economic outlook was so poor that there was little prospect of the budget coming back into balance over a reasonable…
McKillop vs Myners
Much too late, but I had to get it off my chest... Why do all the journalists and opposition politicians seem simply to have accepted Tom McKillop's version of his discussions with Lord Myners about Fred Goodwin's pension? One of them is…
The public-choice incentives of the economics profession
I am a supporter of and enthusiast for the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), the leading free-market think-tank. So I was shocked to read, in what I think is the best post I have seen on Guido's site, that the IEA's Shadow Monetary…
What to do about MPs' expenses:
Besides each candidate's name on the ballot paper should be their declared annual budget. The successful candidate's budget will be raised from local taxes. There will not be any indexing. There will not be any expenses or other allowances…
Tax sovereignty
Tim Worstall covers the efforts by Dan Mitchell to persuade the American government to step back from its efforts to clamp down on tax havens. This is picked up and expanded at Sounds in the Hickory Wind (nice blog, added to the blog roll…
What do we mean by bureaucracy and red-tape?
It occurred to me, as I wrote the last post, that we have a problem with terminology. I am sure I have been as guilty as David Cameron of lazily attacking bureaucracy. And attacks on red-tape are commonplace amongst the right. But the left…
The post-bureaucratic age?
I've just been reading David Cameron's article in last week's Spectator, which presents the idea that they will "usher in a post-bureaucratic age" as the Tories' big idea for the next election. A post-bureaucratic age will presumably need…
Has Brown united the country?
Plenty of people hated Maggie, but plenty of people admired her too. Jim Callaghan and John Major may have been failures, but this was tempered by a sense that they were decent men trying, however ineffectually, to do the right thing. When…
Time-travelling economics
BBC journalists were reporting last night that Gordon Brown, who is apparently an avid student of history, was explaining how it was important to reach agreement at the G20 on a broad, fiscal stimulus, or it would be like 1933, when failure…
The prudential cost of the financial crisis
-"Borrowers have been warned they face higher mortgage rates for up to nine years as banks hit customers with the cost of tighter regulation."- So begins the lead article in the Money section of this week's Sunday Times. The problem, it…
Smoke and solar mirrors
A member of the Claverton group of energy fantasists (of which I am amused to be a member), posted the following article not only to the other members, but to Ed Miliband, Mike O'Brien and Joan Ruddock. See if you can spot the flaw…
Government "achievement"
We know that what follows is typical of how they see the world, but rarely do we see it spelt out so clearly. In the recently issued consultation on a Heat and Energy Saving Strategy, the Government details (p.13) "What we have already…
Name our Tea Party
There is a movement developing in the States to send tea-bags to senior Democrats (including the President) and to hold local "Tea Parties", in reference to the Boston Tea Party, in objection to the massive Obama programme of bail-outs and…
'Ere mate. Can you spare a few billion for a wind farm?
Classic example of corporate rent-seeking in the Business section of today's Sunday Times. In the past week, the Renewables Obligation (RO) Order 2009 has been passed. This converts the previously (roughly) technology-neutral RO into a…
Disintegrating our oligopolies
Privatisation became the totem of the 1980s efforts to move our economies away from the disastrous, increasing socialism of the previous century and more. I propose that the equivalent focus of policy that is needed today should be…
How government stimulus works
My company is in a very immature sector. It is probably not an exaggeration to say that no company in the sector is making a profit at the moment. Those of us in the business are ploughing money into it in the belief that it will become…
The Jury Team
Sir Paul Judge was on Andrew Marr's show this morning, promoting his new party of independents, the Jury Team. I have posted the following on their website: -If I vote for my local Jury Team/Independent candidate at the next election, what…
Make work doesn't work
Charles Steele has posted a brilliant, accessible explanation on his Unforeseen Contingencies blog of why the stimulus and "make work" plans of most of the major governments are based on bad economics. I can't do it justice in a sentence…
Hot air on green gas
For numerous reasons (some set out on other posts on this site), heat is a huge, vital, yet ignored sector of our energy systems. It is responsible for nearly half the carbon emissions from the energy sector. It is the reason we are so…
EU economics: boost the economy by using today's money to pay for white elephants in five years' time
Attention focused on the renewables component of Obama's stimulus plan today. But the Americans aren't the only ones using the credit crunch as an excuse to plough vast sums of public money into their pet projects. The European Commission…
Scottish pots and Swiss kettles
Gordon Brown wants us to make a mental connection in some way between our financial troubles and the competitive tax regimes in countries like Switzerland. I have just come back from Switzerland, where we are looking at investing. The…
Killed by state greenery
Bishop Hill has a shocking exposure of how local government in the fire-hit regions of Australia prevented locals from taking actions that would have reduced the risk to their properties and lives. However, a word of caution. There will be…
The 1920s - the previous NICE decade
John Prescott has just repeated, on -Newsnight-, the Labour party's favourite myth, barely challenged by the opposition, media or academia. According to the myth, the Labour government ran the economy successfully for the decade preceding…
"Do nothing" conservatives
We might have done nothing. That would have been utter ruin. Instead we met the situation with proposals to private business and to Congress of the most gigantic program of economic defense and counterattack ever evolved in the history of…
UFOs, apocalyptic visions, and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme
Prices in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) have hit new lows in Phase 2 (just over €10/tCO2). The mechanism became worthless in Phase 1. It looks likely to do the same in Phase 2 (as some of us predicted). It is not providing…
British bullshit for British voters
The latest spate of humbug surrounded the "British Jobs for British Workers" strikes. Even the application of the term "strike" was a piece of humbug. The protesters didn't work there, so how could they go on strike? This was secondary…
Western standards of trade and investment
In this week's Spectator (3 Jan), Robert Salisbury, reviewing Michael Stuermer's book "Putin and the rise of Russia" says "We have an interest in a stable and peaceful Russia and, even if we cannot hope to impose our own ideas of government…
Russian gas and the big political lie
The dispute between Russia and Ukraine is yet again demonstrating the bleeding obvious that our Government manages to ignore because the big energy companies would rather look the other way. Our Government, opposition politicians, most…
DFS next to go bust?
How desperate do you have to be to set "wood pellets" as one of your keyword combinations in Google AdWords, if you are in the business of selling furniture?There is nothing in your product range that is remotely related to wood pellets…
Dependable wind
Bishop Hill has rightly pointed out that the current weather is casting the Met. Office's claims of technical superiority in a bad light. But let's not limit it to the Met. Office. It is also making a monkey of wind fanatics. The current…
Popping back in from time to time
The credit crunch and weakness of the Pound have made the Swiss project a remote prospect. As this cannot be a full-time occupation for now and we are short of management resources for our other investments (in the UK), I have volunteered…
Valuing economic activity
On Radio 5 this afternoon (5 Jan), Seb Coe said something like "It is often forgotten that, between now and 2012, the Olympic preparations will make up around 5% of economic activity in the capital". It is one example of a common refrain in…
Wood pellets
Not the most exciting thing, but Google resolutely refuses to notice the website for Forever Fuels, the business I am running and trying to promote. We don't get listed at all under a search for wood pellets, even though we are the UK's…
Cap-and-trade - a steaming dish of tripe and baloney
I've been beating a fairly solitary path on this for a while, and in the process making myself unpopular with the major players in the electricity industry (which provides another clue to the huge rent-seeking potential of cap-and-trade…
Pissing into the wind
My policy of paying no attention to the news had been going well, and then the boss decided that we simply had to respond to an article in -The Times-. So it's temporarily back to banging my head against a brick wall, as you may have…
Sorry, and goodbye for now
Apologies to the regular visitors to this site (both of you), for the abrupt termination of posts, and then the more recent disappearance altogether (a technical hitch that went uncorrected because I wasn't paying attention). A combination…
Review of the Papers, Friday 28 September
Government Thousands of five- to seven-year-olds are still being taught illegally in classes of more than 30, according to Government figures released yesterday. An annual census of state schools published by the Department for Children…
Benn sees the light
The government has made a sensible choice on the issue of light bulbs, I believe. The headlines ran that traditional light bulbs will be phased out by 2012 - but the key here is that the initiative is voluntary. Supermarkets and energy…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 27 September
Government Gordon Brown has vowed to close any tax loophole that benefits private equity, in an attempt to allay Labour concerns that he has been too generous to the "super-rich". The prime minister was challenged on Wednesday at the Labour…
Heard it all before...
The new Brown government is doing an incredible and shameless job of presenting a whole new load of ideas as though the past ten years were a massive mistake that was none of their doing. In the same way we don't vote for a Prime Minister…
The Government got it wrong, wrong, wrong
Ed Balls has finally admitted that the government has got it wrong on education over the past ten years and that their pledge to have their three main priorities as education, education, education has been a total failure. At least, he…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 26 September
Government An independent exams watchdog is to be created in an effort to limit the annual debate about grade inflation and "dumbing down", the government will announce today. Ed Balls, the children's secretary, will announce plans to…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 25 September
**Government ** The defence secretary is today set to announce that British troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are to receive a 25 per cent cut in their council tax bills. Des Browne will tell the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth…
Review of the Papers, Monday 24 September
Government Executives at high-profile companies cannot rely on being bailed out of emergencies by the government - in spite of the precedent set by the state's help for Northern Rock savers - Alistair Darling warned on Sunday. "No…
Darling u-turns
Apparently “-No government should ever be in the business of protecting executives who make the wrong call or bad decisions-,” or so said Alastair Darling at the opening of yesterday's conference. But isn't this exactly what he did little…
Clean hospitals? What a novel idea
Yesterday Gordon Brown made one of the most ground breaking, novel, ingenious, brilliant promises any politician has ever made. The saviour of the NHS promised us clean hospitals for all. Yes, that's right - while the rest us having been…
Review of the Papers, Friday 21 September
British ministers are refusing to cooperate with the US criminal investigation into allegations of corruption against BAE, Britain's biggest arms company, the Guardian can disclose. More than two months after an official request for mutual…
1.4 million people can't be wrong
Another day, another report telling us that the government has wasted £43bn of taxpayers' money on the NHS. This time the source is... the patients themselves! And not just a few disgruntled ones either. 1.4 million of them were surveyed…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 20 September
Government The first comprehensive official analysis of the impact of migration on public services and British life will be published next month, Liam Byrne, the immigration minister, promised yesterday. The study, by the Migration Impacts…
Big Daddy wins again
Government consultation are a bit like the old Saturday afternoon wrestling, with the government playing the role of Big Daddy and the rest of us the enormous, yet hopeless, Giant Haystacks. Everyone knows who is going to win, but we have…
That NHS upgrade system - it's not very good, is it?
Security breach on Government's £12bn upgrade computer system shocker! So the new computer system in the NHS isn't a tight as Fort Knox or even as secure as the flies on John Prescott's trousers it turns out. What a surprise. Amusingly…
Not worth the paper they are signed upon
The Times is reporting that town halls would be forced to take action over petitions with more than 200 signatures under new proposals to devolve power to voters. This is Hazel Blears' big idea for making councils act on demand of the power…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 19 September
Government Town halls would be forced to take action over petitions with more than 200 signatures under new proposals to devolve power to voters. Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, is to publish a consultation paper detailing new…
Government to underwrite all risk from now on
So the Government has promised that it will guarantee Northern Rock savers by underwriting £28bn of deposits? Darling has, in theory, just nationalised the savings industry - yet you get the distinct impression that he is making this up as…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 18 September
Government Fifteen government departments and agencies, including Whitehall's biggest spenders, face the threat of legal action for failing to carry out their duties under race equality legislation, according to a final report from the…
Teach them to learn, not teach
Education, education, education. I wonder how many blog entries I have started with those three words over the past year? Incredible as it is to believe, but it was education that was the single biggest issue the Labour government was…
Judges to be formally assessed
What is the best way to improve the performance of our judges? Well in typical New Labour fashion it seems the answer is to set target levels and dumb down. It is being reported that judges’ performance in court could well be monitored by…
Review of the Papers, Monday 17 September
Government Britain could be sent into an economic spiral profound enough to undermine confidence in the economy and in Gordon Brown's Government, economists have warned amid evidence that the crisis at Northern Rock has deepened. Experts…
Review of the Papers, Friday 14 September
Government A scathing report by MPs has condemned the "disgraceful" accommodation in which Britain's armed forces are living and said the situation can only be fuelling the retention crisis. The blunt report from the Defence Committee comes…
What is the NHS for?
The very reason we have an NHS is to ensure that those in society who may not be able to afford the luxuries in life can at least have free (at the point of use) health care that is of the same quality to that every one else gets in society…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 13 September
Government Companies are struggling to find skilled staff as thousands leave school with a poor grasp of the three Rs, Tesco's chief executive has claimed. Low standards of literacy and numeracy among the young has left the economy exposed…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 12 September
**Government ** The country's top police officer will today urge a new blitz on red tape and form-filling after the first review of policing for a generation. Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, is expected to blame…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 12 September
Government Firms such as McDonald's and Vodafone could have their staff training schemes accredited by the government, John Denham has said. The innovation, universities and skills secretary called for an end to the "outdated" distinction…
The Health system is archaic and broken beyond repair.
More bad news for Alan Johnson. It really is starting to pile up for him - though that is what happens when you are Health Secretary. Sir Derek Wanless, an advisor who was one of the Brown's men who were behind increasing the NHS budget…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 11 September
Government Thirty-year-old train carriages are being brought out of mothballs by the Government to try to ease the rail overcrowding crisis. Inter-city trains, whose heyday was the late 1970s, are making a comeback with four operators…
Review of the Papers, Monday 10 September
Government Plans for the world's first personal carbon trading scheme, in which people buy and sell their rights to produce pollution, are unveiled today. The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA) is…
Policy Announcements, Monday 10 September
Government Gordon Brown has defended his decision to hold down this year's public sector pay rise, saying he does not want a return to "boom and bust" economics. The prime minister told the TUC in Brighton that financial discipline was…
HIPs Episode 1007
The first casualties of the HIPs fiasco have already fallen. It is being reported that many of the first packs have to be scrapped because they have been deemed invalid. It is also reported that other packs are being held up because local…
Fan the flames to put the fire out..?!
It is getting to him - and so soon too. That is to say Alan Johnson is already suffering from his role as Secretary for Health as it makes him come out with bizarre policy suggestions. The latest one sounds as though it should have come…
The Government Lied to us all. Allegedly.
Do you ever get the feeling that the government is pulling the wool over your eyes? It seems they can never be straight about how much money they are going to take off you to spend on their latest social experiment or landmark building…
Intermission
Haven't had time to post for the past few days, thanks to preparing our response to the latest in the never-ending stream of consultations the Government has been running to make it look like they are listening, before proceeding to do…
Dave, National Service and the end of societies ills
Vote Dave! He has come up with a sure fire, water tight, can not fail, genius idea to save the future of this country. It won't be long until we leave our front doors open again, teenagers will stop their underage drinking, boys will stop…
Government in poor value for money shocker!
Government in poor value for money shocker! This time, however, it is a "-master class in bungling-"! Edward Leigh MP, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has described the Single Farm Payment Scheme, introduced two years ago…
Missing the point on investment... again
The education debate has rumbled on longer than usual it seems this year in the aftermath of the annual GCSE/A level dumbing down standards debate. One of the reasons, I suspect, is that the mass investment from the Labour government is…
MTAS strikes again!
Despite reports last week that the NHS has gloriously balanced the books and managed to hoard £1bn of public money to "reinvest" in the health service, there are reports that Junior Doctors are being short changed by £500 a week due to…
Pricing the future
There was a flurry of triumphant snorts on Friday when some libertarian blogs picked up a post from earlier in the month, which had commented on the recent paper by William Nordhaus on carbon-pricing. The ASI got it from voluntaryXchange…
Tax reduction priorities
Mark Wadsworth (whose blog is one we recommend in our blogroll) managed to get a long (by their standards) letter published in yesterday's FT, criticizing John Redwood's focus on reducing corporation tax, when in Mark's opinion greater…
The French "right" and competition
GdF is an energy company, Suez operates in the energy and environment sectors. They want to merge. The French government is intervening to tell Suez that it must divest itself of its environment division if the merger is to go ahead. Why is…
Lies, damn lies, and government statistics
I listened this morning to Nick Ross and James Brokenshire (Tory spokesman on Home Affairs) arguing about crime statistics on Radio 4. Brokenshire claims that the statistics show that violent crime is on the increase. Ross accuses him of…
Fixing the energy market
The Institute for Paternalism, Protectionism and Regulation today published a report on Energy Security. It is, in the most part, a rehashing of received wisdom, without understanding or insight, but one phrase in the Executive Summary…
What are they so worried about?
Picking Losers usually focuses on the British Government's failed attempts to introduce policy to make our lives safer, fairer and better - the consequences almost always being that they create more problems than they solve and blow a whole…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 30 August
David Cameron said last night that the level of immigration to Britain was too high and placed unacceptable pressure on public services and housing. The Conservative leader had previously been reluctant to speak on immigration, a subject…
Easier exams means bad doctors
The Daily Mash has really hit the nail on the head today. Yesterday I wrote about the incredibly stupid idea of encouraging more people to take up science at GCSE by making the exams easier. Today the Daily Mash reports: -Brain surgery…
Crime Policy isn't working
Do you think the Government's crime policy has come a little unstuck? Or perhaps it never worked in the first place. Either way, you'd have thought they would think something was up from this example alone... Thirty one prison sentences…
Capitalist pigs of the media
Tim Worstall picked up yesterday on George Monbiot's rant against "neo-liberalism" and its promoters in the Mont Pèlerin Society and elsewhere. George names a large number of participants in the global conspiracy to promote the view "that…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 29 August
Government Plans for 3m new homes in the UK will be dealt a blow on Wednesday by an official report recommending a lower rate of housebuilding growth for the south-east, the region at the heart of Gordon Brown's plans to increase home…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 29 August
Government The government has unveiled new regulations which will see graphic images placed on tobacco products as part of the latest drive to put people off smoking. The 15 images - chosen after a public consultation and vote - include…
How about ruining the economy and taxing the hell out of everyone?
Why don't the Tories just shut up about the environment? Probably because it was only thing that they haven't been absolutely panned for talking about so far. They have been falling apart at the mere suggestion of education and Europe is…
Educayshon, Educayshon, Educayshon
As the education dumbing down debate continues where one side argues that exams are getting easier while the other suggests that teaching is getting better, it seems that the Joint Council for Qualifications is looking to resolve the debate…
This is what they call research in the public sector...
What better way for our council workers to spend our council tax than to clock up 200,000 miles around the world to pick up tips on increasing bills for homeowners! At least the trip will pay for itself - though I think I'd rather they'd…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 28 August
Lib Dems The Liberal Democrats have set out plans aimed at making Britain carbon neutral by 2050. Included in the 10-point plan to be debated at next month's party conference are measures to improve the rail networks and increase lorry…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 28 August
Government Large businesses are subjected to an excessive number of tax investigations with only small sums of money at stake, according to a National Audit Office report. Despite an attempt to focus more closely on high-risk businesses…
Cap-and... oops-nothing-to-trade
Cap-and-trade mechanisms scored early successes when deployed within national boundaries against pollutants like SO2 and NOx. That success led politicians and economists to think that the approach could be extended to all emissions, and to…
Review of the Papers, Friday 24 August
Government The Government is likely to miss its latest target for cutting back greenhouse gas emissions by a wide margin, a report said yesterday. Instead of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by at least 26 per cent by 2020, as it pledged…
Picking a loser for education
The FT reports today: -Students at UK grammar schools outperformed their private-sector counterparts for the first time this year, grabbing a higher proportion of top GCSE grades, results revealed on Thursday.- Yet further proof that…
Government target horror story
Government targets are often classic examples of picking losers. The intentions are almost always spot on, but the result is aiming for a target for all the wrong incentives. For example, crime is too high - set the police a target to get…
The real lesson of the Tories' campaign on hospital closures
The Times reports that the Tories' hospital campaign "was in disarray last night". One can pontificate on whether the campaign was the right point of attack (no), whether the mistakes are serious (in credibility terms, yes), and whether the…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 23 August
**Government ** Householders may be charged to dispose of their rubbish through the use of prepaid waste sacks or wheelie bins with microchips. The Local Government Association (LGA) said yesterday that people may also have to pay…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 22 August
Government The true economic benefits of the Heathrow expansion have been vastly exaggerated, according to an independent investigation into the White Paper on the third runway. The claim of a potential £7.8bn benefit to the economy, used…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 22 August
Government Troublemakers causing or contributing to alcohol-related crime or disorder can be excluded from places such as a town centre or village green for up to 48 hours by police, under a new power coming into force today. The new…
Blundering on with HIPs...
The latest HIPs calamity is reported today. It is becoming apparent that some mortgage lenders are refusing to accept a crucial part of the reports. Solicitors, mortgage lenders and even some HIPs providers warned that many homebuyers…
Because life's not risky enough in Indonesia?
The government of the cash-strapped Indonesian island of Sulawesi, which is prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and storms, is considering buying - from a "former fertiliser exporter and vodka salesman" - "floating nuclear…
And the MTAS fiasco continues too...
Despite former secretary for Health, Patricia Hewitt, saying that while MTAS was about no doctor would be jobless, more than 10,000 trainee doctors could find themselves without posts within weeks. In order to hand out as many jobs as…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 21 August
Government Thousands of newly qualified nurses are facing unemployment because of hospital cutbacks, with vacancies at their lowest for 10 years. New National Health Service figures have revealed how difficult it is for nurses…
Mickey Mouse degrees
How do you fancy an outdoor adventure with Philosophy? How about some fashion buying? Some Aromatherapy and Therapeutic Bodywork? A bit of lifestyle management? Not got a clue what I'm on about? Believe it or not you can do all these…
Quangocracy - euthanasia or liberation?
Not for the first time, I have been scattering observations on an issue, in comments dotted around the place, rather than pulling the strands together for a piece on here. This time, the topic is the rising cost of the quangocracy. As a…
Daddy!
Are they by any chance related? (Picture of Ted from US DoD via Wikipedia, and of Dave from today's FT. Or is that the other way round?)
Review of the Papers, Monday 20 August
Government Family doctors have been warned that unless they agree to open at evenings and on Saturdays, private companies will be contracted to take over their practices. A letter sent to local NHS organisations has ordered them to improve…
HIPs - implementation judders on
The government has announced that HIPs will now apply to all three bedroom houses earlier than expected - September 10th. This has meant that anyone who thought they had bit of time before any October deadline has, once again, been shafted…
Bloody hell!!!
Can we finally stop pretending that cap-and-trade and our other half-baked "carbon-pricing" mechanisms aren't simply offshoring our carbon? Global coal production has increased by one-third in 3 years (and by over 50% since the turn of the…
Planes, trains and automobiles
Tim Worstall has challenged, in a recent post, the logic of the DfT's suggestion that Air Passenger Duty (APD) needs to be increased further to take full account of the contribution of aviation to carbon-emissions. By Tim's calculations…
Osborne finds 14 billion new ways to waste our money
George Osborne has welcomed the report of John Redwood's Economic Competitiveness Policy Group, which identifies £14 billion that could be saved by cutting red tape and bureaucracy and recommends tax cuts of £10 billion, as "the most…
Was that tax cuts or no tax cuts?
So John Redwood has spelt out the future of the economy with a raft of tax cuts. So John Redwood has spelt out the future of the economy by promising that a Tory government will ensure the stability of the economy before committing to any…
Review of the Papers, Friday 17 August
Government Rail regulators were last night threatening to put the brakes on huge fare rises. Amid public anger over fare increases up to 30 per cent on some routes, the Office of Rail Regulation has agreed to define what increases should be…
Policy Announcements, Friday 17 August
Government The government has said it will extend its Home Information Pack scheme (Hips) to cover three-bedroom homes in England and Wales from 10 September 2007. Hips are intended to speed up house sales, but critics say it makes the…
Pickles' rubbish economics
Here is Cameroonian Conservatism in action. If people are inclined to avoid paying for goods, get taxpayers to pay for them, so they appear to be "free" at the point of consumption, in order to reduce the temptation to commit unlawful acts…
The Government cop-out
We have, to a certain degree, an anti-social drinking problem in this country. The solution? Ban it. But what are the real causes of this problem? It doesn't matter - ban it. We are told today that nearly 200 MPs now want the…
What the..?!
From today's Times: "-Police are being sent skateboarding in an attempt to cultivate a “cooler” image to improve their relations with young people. Hampshire police are sending officers to workshops, attended by up to 30 youngsters aged…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 16 August
**Government ** The Ministry of Defence has given security passes to 38 employees of the arms giant BAE, allowing them to go in and out of the ministry's headquarters as they please, it has been revealed. The disclosure has triggered…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 16 August
**Conservatives ** A Conservative policy group is to recommend raising charges for foreign lorries to generate £10bn for road improvements, according to reports. John Redwood's economic competitiveness review group, which reports on Friday…
One in four is an A, but at what cost?
It's that time of year where we mock the students who have worked hard for the past 12 months for being handed A grades on plate. Gradually over the years, there is more and more truth in the accusations that standards have slipped with…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 15 August
Government Private nurseries are being forced out of business due to an oversupply of places created by state-funded nurseries and day care centres, it was claimed yesterday. As more government-funded centres are provided, some areas have…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 15 August
Conservatives The Conservative Party is preparing to commit itself to setting up "turnaround" schools for badly-behaved pupils. Discussing a policy programme focused strongly around pupil discipline, shadow schools minister Nick Gibb told…
More un-needed "investment"
In another example of the government seemingly having more money to spend than sense, private nurseries are being forced out of business due to an oversupply of places created by state-funded nurseries and day care centres. The Government…
Tax & Spend
It is being reported that in the first few weeks of government, Gordon Brown has announced a total of 40 government initiatives at a cost just shy of £40bn! A pretty hefty sum in just a few weeks - confirming that his grip on government…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 14 August
**Government ** Gordon Brown has announced more than £39bn in government spending since he became prime minister, revealing the extent to which a new era of cooperation between No 10 and the Treasury has allowed him to dominate the news…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 14 August
**Government ** A one million pound cash boost to support rural tourism in England was announced today by Culture Secretary James Purnell. He confirmed the funding at a meeting of tourism chiefs in London. £750,000 will be given to the…
Shifting the goal posts
As has long been known, Britain is highly unlikely to meet its renewables targets of 20% set by the EU for 2020. So how do our civil service advise ministers to sort it out? "Wriggle out of it"! A briefing leaked to the Guardian has said…
Review of the Papers, Monday 13 August
Government Government ministers have been told that Britain has no hope of meeting its commitment to renewable energy and should consider ways of wriggling out of it, it was claimed last night. A ministerial briefing paper said that Britain…
Policy Announcements, Monday 13 August
Government Communities Secretary, Hazel Blears, today announced that Entec - a leading environmental and planning consultancy - have been asked to draw up new planning rules that will ensure the system is doing more to encourage the use…
Government targets corrupt police work
While on the subject of government targets, there are according to police figures on-the-spot fines for crimes such as being drunk and disorderly, destroying property and shoplifting are being issued at a rate of one every three minutes…
Review of the Papers, Friday 10 August
Government The Ministry of Defence has imposed a ban on members of the armed forces using modern technology to communicate about their experiences. Soldiers, sailors and other members of the armed forces will be barred from blogging…
Policy Announcements, Friday 10 August
Government The government has unveiled new proposals to use innovative design to tackle crime. Four UK designers will join the Design and Technology Alliance and work with the Home Office to make products harder to steal. Home Office…
The dark side of HIPs
Home Information Packs. A completely useless, expensive pieces of government bureaucracy. And now it seems they were devised, in part, by a man with a clear conflicts of interest - according to a National Audit Office study. It had…
The great big PFI scam
Private Funding Initiatives (PFIs) - the best way to finance a major project at the same time as keeping the risk away from the taxpayer. In theory. The latest example of where the taxpayer always gets shafted in the end is the new build…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 09 August
Government Taxpayers may be landed with a multi-million pound bill because of a Government decision to rebuild schools using private money, according to MPs. Half the Government's flagship £45 billion drive to modernise school buildings…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 09 August
Government The government has announced a crackdown on advertising by about 1,000 gambling websites operating from overseas. Regulations being laid in Parliament on Thursday mean that when the Gambling Act 2005 comes into force on…
It's not charity if the Government makes you pay for it
One of David Cameron's big ideas, perhaps the biggest in his "sociocentric paradigm", is to rely on the voluntary sector to deliver more of the services currently provided by government. It seems, though, that this is less a big idea, and…
The perils of climbing a ladder
There is a very amusing story in the Times today about the Health & Safety nutters. It concerns Lancashire County Council and its efforts to improve road safety. The council has tried to install some electronic speed indicators which are…
RIAs - Regulatory Impact Assessments or Results In Advance?
The Adam Smith Institute blog pointed to the new publication on Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIAs) from the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) a couple of days ago, but this is a sufficiently important issue that I didn't want to simply let…
Note to David Cameron re International Development
Cc: Iain Dale, Andrew Mitchell, George Osborne and anyone else interested in really helping the world's poorest, rather than token gestures and photo-ops Read this, and then ask yourself whether the lessons you learnt from a brief trip to…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 08 August
**Government ** Humans are to blame for carrying the foot and mouth virus from laboratories in Pirbright, investigators into the outbreak in Surrey believe. The initial, inconclusive report from the Health and Safety Executive says there…
Is Jonathan Porritt Britain's most irritating man?
I can't even be bothered to explain why - I think he just is. Anyone else agree?
Education stagflation?
A lot of commentary today on the results of Key Stage 2 tests of 11-year-olds' abilities at the "Three Rs" (Reading, Writing, Maths and Science). As a statistical observation, the problem appears to lie particularly with the Writing part of…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 07 August
Government London's economic prosperity could be put at risk if the government holds back on funding Crossrail and further delays plans to build the multi-billion-pound rail link, the Mayor of London warned on Monday. Ken Livingstone said…
Poll Result
Last week's poll asked whether the Environment Agency executives deserved their whopping bonuses this year in light of the recent flooding throughout the UK. Only 2% of you felt that they should have their bonuses withdrawn. 19% of you felt…
BBC - The Broadcasting Bollocks Corporation
Home Planet today, Dr Lynn Dicks, pronouncing on the relative merits of recycling and landfilling, in terms of energy-consumption and carbon-footprint, said: "Various people have looked at this from the point of view of greenhouse gas…
A record breaking exam year! (Again)
In just a couple days the nation's sixteen year olds will be receiving news of how they have done in their GCSEs and the following week it will be the turn of A-level students. It is traditional, therefore, this time of year to tell all…
Review of the Papers, Monday 06 August
Government Royal Mail was yesterday embroiled in a new row over bonus payments to a senior executive amid continuing industrial action by postal workers over pay and working practices. Post office managing director Alan Cook was yesterday…
Policy Announcement, Monday 06 August
**Government ** The government has set out a national strategy aimed at tackling dementia. Currently, there are around 600,000 people with dementia in England, costing the economy over £14bn per year, and the amount of sufferers is set to…
DfT logic
The Department for Transport is to publish a consultation report it commissioned on cutting the death toll amongst younger drivers in the autumn. The major proposal is increasing the age limit for gaining a full driving licence to by a year…
LibDem magic - it will be so because we say so
Last Friday, the LibDems launched "new transport polices to create a zero carbon transport system by 2050." And no one noticed. Not even their website, which carried the press release, but doesn't seem to carry the document, -Towards Carbon…
Sun King Ken
SUMMARY: Ken Livingstone's solar panels for City Hall are nearly ready to switch on. They cost something over half a million pounds, and could reasonably be expected to deliver around 75 MWh a year (not enough for 20 typical houses). For…
The Carbon Trust
If you had a load of money you wanted to invest in a project, how would you go about ensuring that you made as much return for as little risk as possible? Chances are you'd seek some sort of professional advice. Now suppose that someone…
Review of the Papers, Friday 03 August
Government The government has awarded more than £1m to fund seven projects, described yesterday as having the potential to make a "significant" difference to the environment. They will receive the money from the Carbon Trust, an independent…
Policy Announcements, Friday 03 August
Government The schools secretary has hailed rising exam results but said the rate must now be increased. Writing in the Times Educational Supplement on Friday, Ed Balls said a recent slowdown in improvements among 11 and 14-year-olds must…
Weather updates
Following my report of predictions of floods for London and a worse-than-average hurricane season, there has been some refinement in both regards. Piers has updated his forecasts for August (attached), though this has not resulted in any…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 02 August
Government A battle has broken out within the Department of Health and much of the rest of the National Health Service over whether the new health and social care regulator should assess the quality of commissioning undertaken by primary…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 2 August
**Government ** Health Secretary Alan Johnson today endorsed the offer of an improved pay package worth £52 million which will see enhanced pay and training opportunities for NHS staff but which keeps this year's pay increases in line with…
One man and (not) his dog
This isn't the most critically important story I've ever posted about, but it does demonstrate the knee-jerk mindset of our legislators and government agencies. It is reported today in the times that Animal Health, the agency responsible…
Junior doctor change over runs smoothly/was a complete shambles
So, depending on who you believe - yesterday's changeover at the NHS was either a smooth transition with no problems whatsoever or it was a complete shambles. My cynical money is on the shambles. Fortunately, I was not hit by a car nor…
You, the customer, the loser
Two government bodies - Ofgem (the electricity and gas regulator) and the Energy Savings Trust (EST) - are consulting simultaneously on what to do about green electricity tariffs, those electricity-supply deals, like NPower Juice or…
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil
As hospitals wake up to the change over of 30,000 young doctors today, one hospital in particular will be welcoming back a Raj Mattu after five years. The significance of this? Well Mr Mattu has been serving a five year suspension from…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 01 August
Government Growing concern about the role of the private sector in public services reform was raised by the CBI on Tuesday after comments by the new work and pensions secretary in an FT interview. Peter Hain said that big prime contracts…
Measuring targets
The justification given by the Environment Agency for the bonuses taken by their managers is that they had achieved 42 of their 45 performance-related targets. There has been much debate about whether the bonuses were appropriate in the…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 31 July
Government Unmarried couples who split up will be given the right to make divorce-style claims for financial support from their partners, under final recommendations unveiled today. The Law Commission has concluded that couples with…
Poll Result - And the new poll: The Environment Agency Bonuses
It seems Picking Losers has an overwhelming readership that are either staunch believers in the right for the individual to choose or you are a bunch of hippies. 61% of you voted to legalise cannabis regardless of the harm both physically…
HIPS - Luvly Jubbly
T minus one day until the HIPs story continues and it looks like the Labour Party and its members themselves will be cashing in from the chaos. The Telegraph reports that they are set to make thousands of pounds after the party teamed up…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 31 July
**Conservatives ** David Cameron has set out his party's ideas on improving school discipline in a bid to refocus the Tories on policy. In the speech to the Policy Exchange think-tank on Tuesday, the Conservative leader was attempting to…
D-Day at the NHS
Following up another long running story that will go "live" tomorrow is the big doctor change over. Thanks to some brilliant planning at the DoH, 30,000 junior doctors will all change jobs at once tomorrow. It will mean that many patients…
The return of HIPs
You didn't think I'd forgotten had you? In two days it will be the belated launch of the Home Information Packs. The watered down, meaningless, poorly thought out, incompetently implemented scheme will going live on 1st August for all…
The cost of war
The going rate for a serving soldier who comes home from war suffering from "permanent severely impaired grip in both hands" is a £16,500 one-off compensation payment. Probably just as well for the tax payer given the thirst for war…
Review of the Papers, Monday 30 July
Government The former head of the Environment Agency has said he would have given up his bonus if he had been in charge during this month's floods, increasing pressure on the current directors. The management were already facing growing…
Policy Announcements, Monday 30 July
**International ** US President George W Bush and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown have pledged to forge a strategic relationship based on values shared between both nations. They met at Camp David, near Washington, their first meeting since…
In vino veritas
Changes to EU rules may put many British winemakers out of business, The Observer reported yesterday. Britain being an inhospitable country in which to ripen grapes to their full sugary concentration, British winemakers often add sucrose or…
How green is your house?
An eco-house in Pembrokeshre with a minimal carbon footprint is to be demolished because planners judged that it "failed to make a positive environmental impact", The Times reports. Of course, carbon footprints are a lousy way of measuring…
London flooded or Miami wrecked? More bad weather on the way
Piers Corbyn, the man who has successfully forecast, weeks or even months ahead, much of this summer's extreme weather events, has issued a warning of further heavy rainfall on 5th-9th and 18th-23rd August. He also warns that there is a…
Blowhards at The Economist
Time was that the first questions that -The Economist-, confronted by a proposal, would pose were: "is it a good idea?" and "is it economic?" No longer, under the regime that has ruled there for the past eighteen months or so. They really…
Review of the Papers, Friday 27 July
**Government ** A squeeze on capital spending on schools, hospitals and other public infrastructure could be in prospect as billions of pounds worth of private finance initiative projects are poised to come back on to the government's…
A great day to bury bad news!
While we're on the subject of MP finances, the Tories have taken a very cynical view of the government and its attempts to bury bad news - such as MP wages and expenses rising by 5.5% or the 8% rise in the cost of private cars by government…
MP's expenses and the FOIA
Our 646 MPs are an expensive bunch, aren't they? MPs' salaries work out at £54.9m a year. A further £95.48m pays for MPs' expenses and staff which is a rise of £4.973m over the previous year. Of the £95.48m, £57.9m goes on staff and their…
The "stunningly complex" benefits system only benefits the crooks
Another recurring story on PL - the benefits system. Anyone who can get their head round the complexities of this system deserves a few financial handouts and tax credits. It seems those who control it are not up to speed, they have been…
The man who invented the Euro
I am much obliged to Paul Nollen, with whom I have been having a discussion about the Basic Income concept, for pointing me at Bernard Lietaer. Here is how Professor Lietaer's Wikipedia entry begins: Here is what Professor Lietaer has to…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 26 July
Government Defence companies and politicians were furious last night after the Prime Minister axed an organisation responsible for promoting Britain's arms exports. On a day of major announcements, Gordon Brown said that the Defence Export…
£50k a day on consulting about what exactly?
Home Office Watch Blog has pointed me in the direction of this interesting piece on Computing.com. Computing pursued a Freedom of Information request with regard to consultancy and the new ID card system. It turns out the government has…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 26 July
Government Alex Salmond has said he will soon publish a white paper on Scottish independence. The Scottish first minister, who heads a minority nationalist administration, told the BBC on Thursday that he would press ahead with the plan…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 25 July
Government Farepayers will nearly double their contribution to the cost of running the railways by the middle of the next decade, the government said yesterday. A big expansion in rail capacity, including 1,300 new carriages and an…
The Rail White Paper
Once again, yesterday's rail white paper has left me asking - what exactly is this government's policy on climate change, carbon emissions and transport? In order to increase capacity of the railways, commuters will be forced to pay yet…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 25 July
Government The Ministry of Defence will have its budget increased by nearly £8bn over the next three years. In a statement to the Commons, defence secretary Des Browne told MPs that the added investment was part of announcements ahead of…
PMQs & Climate Change
In today's PMQs, Ming Campbell asked the PM, with specific reference to the recent floods the following question: "The Prime Minister was responsible for the establishment of the Stern report which as he will recall pointed out the severe…
Centrist politics - stealing or sharing clothes?
Andrew Pierce, Assistant Editor of the Telegraph, reviewing PMQs on Radio 5Live today, was laughing at how Brown had once again stolen the Tories' clothes (this time, on border police), leaving Cameron "standing naked at the dispatch box…
Will Darling's Derrière follow Brown's Bottom?
Interesting post over at Bearwatch, on the recent purchase by the UK government of a huge quantity of US securities, and the risks to both the American currency, and to British reserves as a knock-on effect. As we all know now (and some…
The DfT's big heart
The Department for Transport (DfT) announced this morning that "Yorkshire commuters [are] at [the] heart of strategy for rail growth". Cleethorpes and Northallerton stations will be refurbished, bottlenecks around Leeds and Manchester will…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 24 July
Government Drunken yobs are turning town centres into "no-go areas" after dark, often behaving like "an occupying army loose in the streets", a leading MP says today. Edward Leigh, the Tory chairman of the Commons public accounts committee…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 24 July
Government The transport secretary has set out plans to spend billions of pounds to ease overcrowding on trains. Ruth Kelly said £10bn would be invested by 2014 to increase services and make trains longer as she outlined the government's…
Another little money spinner
The unrelenting attack on the motorist continues and it is TfL that is leading the way. Soon they will be charged £50 for even the briefest of swerves in to cycle lanes - and the cameras are watching be warned. Now given the streets of…
ASBOs
Another government policy has been exposed for its ineffectiveness and its lack of proper analysis in to the problem before implementation. The Commons public accounts committee has reported that ASBOs are being handed out with little…
Throwing away money and in the wrong direction
Economists from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) have slammed the government’s new grant system to be introduced next year to university students. The reforms are aimed at attracting the poorest students to university by handing out…
The poll result and this week's new poll
Last week's poll asked whether the £20 marriage tax credit that the Tories have been floating as an idea is a pointless money waster, so little as to be an insult to the institution of marriage or a good, effective promotion of marriage…
The latest Independent distortion on climate-change
Most of the papers have been responsible enough not to attribute the latest bad weather to climate-change, but guess which one is the exception? The Independent's lead story today is titled "After the deluge - scientists confirm global…
Review of the Papers, Monday 23 July
Government Gordon Brown is under mounting pressure to order GPs to open evenings and weekends after business leaders said that £1 billion a year was being lost to the economy because of their inflexible surgery hours. The Confederation of…
Happiness
The latest publication from the IEA landed through the letterbox yesterday (I can't say plonked or thudded, because the IEA publications are always of eminently digestible proportions). It is on one of the most important subjects of modern…
Minimum wages
So wrote Ludwig von Mises in his 1929 book, A Critique of Interventionism. He could have been writing of the state of our political and academic debate today. The Sunday Telegraph reports that "Gordon Brown is drawing up plans to vary the…
Lessons from Rwanda
A couple of months ago, I suggested that the claims for the benefit of the Tory trip to Rwanda might be inflated. In the current mood of dissatisfaction with David Cameron, much of the media and many private commentators are making cynical…
Energy crops - fact and fiction
The excellent Bishop Hill has spotted an announcement by ScottishPower that they are looking to contract farmers to grow energy crops for their Cockenzie and Longannet coal-fired power stations. I can shed (I hope) a little more light on…
Who's in charge at the Ministry of Health?
Remarkably, the Department of Health have just announced Ministerial responsibilities in the department, some three weeks after they were all appointed. If it takes them this long just to sort out who is doing what job, is it any surprise…
Review of the Papers, Friday 20 July
Government The independent status of city academies could be undermined by the increasing trend of local authorities to act as "co-sponsors" of the new schools, an evaluation of the scheme by PwC said on Thursday. The annual independent…
Policy Announcements, Friday 20 July
Government Consumers will have stronger protection from rogue estate agents and traders as a landmark Bill becomes law. Measures in the Consumer, Estate Agents and Redress Act will: make it compulsory for all estate agents to belong to an…
More nuclear problems
Tim Montgomery at ConservativeHome thinks "support for nuclear power" should be a core Tory value. I think, if picking a technological winner like that is a core Tory value, that contempt for Tories should be one of my core values. I am…
ConservativeHome has competition
Welcome to a new blog - ToryHome - that has been setup to put the Cameroonian perspective on stories in the news. It appears to have some relation to Chad Noble, the dormant Centre for Progressive Conservatism, and satiresearch.com. You may…
Government - burning our energy as well as our money
The Government thinks that we should be using energy more efficiently. They are right. So guess which sector increased its consumption of electricity the most in Europe between 1999 and 2004. Industry? Households? No, it was the "tertiary…
The arrogance of power
Yesterday bgprior asked, in the comments to my post about scrapping targets, why did this announcement come from Treasury? And well he might, it seems the department it concerns is playing a different tune. Ed Balls (Secretary of State for…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 19 July
Government The new Children, Schools and Families Secretary set himself on a collision course with the teaching establishment yesterday by pledging that national testing and school league tables were here to stay. Despite growing pressure…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 19 July
Government Jack Straw has told MPs they have a chance to "finish the job" of reforming the House of Lords, while ruling out legislation in this Parliament. Giving a statement to the House of Commons, the lord chancellor proposed further…
Government funding of Transport projects: Metronet
So TfL are going to pile in £750m worth of public money to the tube network to stop it grinding to halt as a result of the collapse of Metronet. Tim O’Toole (MD of LUL) has said he expected the taxpayer to plug any financial gaps left by…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 18 July
**Government ** A bonfire of government targets to ease red tape affecting schools, hospitals and town halls will be ordered tomorrow as part of a sweeping reform of public services, the Guardian can reveal. Most of the 110 Whitehall…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 18 July
**Government ** The work and pensions secretary has set out plans to further reduce unemployment. Peter Hain told MPs on Wednesday that lone parents will be required to seek work when their youngest child reaches the age of seven from…
Picking Winners
Has the government picked two winners in a day, today? Not really - but they may have at least made a u-turn on two losers that, for many, symbolised the Blair era. Firstly, Andy Burnham (the chief secretary to the Treasury) has told the…
Sean Ash sets the record straight
Following my post on the story in the News of the World about a couple (Sean and Chloe Ash) who have been driven apart by the benefits system, someone has posted a reply in the name of Sean Ash, wanting to put the record straight. Of course…
That's another fine mess you've got us in to
Yet another story of long foreseen disaster that the goverment did nothing about and now the tax payer is likely to pick up the bill. Metronet, the failing infrastructure company that is responsible for maintenance on all but three of the…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 17 July
**Government ** The government has unveiled plans to abolish regional assemblies and give more power to local authorities and regional development agencies. Communities minister John Healey told MPs that the government wanted to scrap the…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 17 July
**Government ** The government should reconsider its decades-long ban on sending Britons into space, MPs say. They warn that an outright rejection of human space flight could lead to the UK being unable to take part in future international…
Nuclear accidents
Did you know that: yesterday's earthquake in Japan caused a fire, spillage of radioactive liquid in to the sea, and a complete shutdown at the Kashiwazaki nuclear power station? there have been two accidents in the past month, causing…
Compensation culture gone barmy
In the past few months I have gone on about letting our children take a few risks and if they fall over and crack a bone then all the more for them in terms of growing up. Putting children in cotton wool isn't going to benefit anyone - not…
Another failed policy
-Thirty criminals who were freed from jail to ease overcrowding broke the terms of their release, including committing further crimes within seven days, the Justice Ministry admitted yesterday.- -Twelve offenders who were freed 18 days…
What a load of rubbish
The Communities and local government select committee, chaired by Labour MP Dr Phyllis Starkey, has rubbished (excuse the pun) the government's strategy for reducing waste in landfill sites. You may remember the plans for fortnightly bin…
The Poll result
It is clear the readers of PL are a forgiving, trusting bunch. Where else would you find 42% of a community that bought Kennedy's excuse of believing smoking out an open window was alright?! Only 23% of you thought that the Liberal Democrat…
Review of the Papers, Monday 16 July
Government Metronet, the company charged with a £17bn upgrade of the London underground network, faces administration after its request for emergency funding was rejected today. The Metronet board will hold an emergency meeting this…
Policy Announcements, Monday 16 July
**Government ** The government is asking 16 councils awarded licences for new larger casinos earlier this year whether they have since had a "change of heart". Culture Secretary James Purnell said several local authorities had changed…
Feeble NOTW/Tory spin
Well done to ConservativeHome for pointing out the story in today's News Of The World about the couple who are splitting up because they are financially better-off living apart. Not so well done to both CH and the News of the Screws for…
Snippet from yesterday's Times
From "News in Brief", The Times, July 12: Couldn't find any more on this story. But it's enough. How many organisations that aren't funded by taxpayers would have thought that the way to respond to staff reaching the end of their projects…
Policy Announcements, Friday 13 June
Government Consent was given today under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 to Bridestones Developments Ltd for the construction of a 380 MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power station at Carrington, Trafford. The station has also…
Only £23bn over budget
Every year we spend £23bn on government project cock ups. That is £900 per household! This cost simply comes from the extra costs added to projects because the government runs over budget - it doesn't take in to account the fact the most of…
Review of the Papers, Friday 13 July
Government Revenue and Customs' reputation as a competent government department "looks increasingly threadbare", the Commons public accounts committee said on July 12. The criticism came as the National Audit Office detailed billions of…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 12 July
**Government ** A tax on unhealthy food could prevent more than 3,200 deaths every year in the UK, experts said yesterday. A quarter of the population is obese and 216,000 people die each year from cardiovascular disease. The foods that…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 12 July
**Government ** England's secondary curriculum is being overhauled to give teachers more flexibility in the classroom whilst focusing on the basics, ministers say. A quarter of the school day is to be freed up so that teachers can focus…
Legalise crime
He is officially back. Jack Straw that is. He has come up with an ingenious solution to prison overcrowding problem too. Instead of building our way out of the problem - i.e. building more prison space - we should just not send so many…
Digby, energy security and self-sufficiency
Lord Jones of Birmingham (try not to laugh) made his maiden speech in the House of Lords today, on the subject of the Energy White Paper. In a largely unremarkable spiel, most of which simply restated government position, the only comments…
£119m and counting...
Yesterday I reported how the government had spent billions on trying to get kids to do some sport with the incredible result of making absolutely no difference what so ever. Today, it has come to light that another one of the government's…
What's the difference between a liver transplant and a twisted ankle?
Here's a story that will make you wish you could go private. Take a deep breath. 500 patients a week are given the wrong treatment by the NHS. That is almost 25,000 occasions last year, leading to deaths, serious injury and long-term harm…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 11 July
Government Gordon Brown has put a major expansion of house building at the heart of his legislative programme for the next session of Parliament. The prime minister told MPs that more people would be helped onto the housing ladder. Other…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 11 July
Government Whitehall departments are still introducing regulations without proper analysis of their cost and likely benefits, according to the National Audit Office. The public spending watchdog also says that officials are failing to…
How do you confuse an NHS worker?
"-The reality on the ground is that there is a gloomy mood. There has been an awful lot of change in a short period. Staff feel overwhelmed by it.”- New Health Secretary Alan Johnson Arthur Fonzarelli last week announcing the “once in a…
£3bn gets you nothing these days
The government has spent an extra £3 billion of investment through the lottery and millions more from the taxpayer in an attempt to tackle obesity and encourage kids to take up sport since 1994. The result? Absolutely nothing. There has…
The Olympic sum of money
The public accounts committee has criticised the government for seriously underestimating the cost of the London 2012 Olympics. They have said that better management of the construction project is required if the cost is not to spiral…
The cause of the world's problems isn't rich families of Chelsea after all, it is the rear end of a cow
I love it when a story like this comes along. Partly because it really upsets all the enviro-scaremongerers who seem happier to hear that the world is doomed rather than hear some balance to the debate. It turns out that cows and sheep and…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 10 July
**Government ** A dramatic grassroots fightback is under way against the massive expansion plans of Britain's airports which, despite grave concerns about effects on the environment, are aiming to treble flights and vastly increase…
Poll result
The usually decisive Picking Losers readers have been split by last week's poll. Rather aptly really, given the fault lines running through the Tory party. Maybe this is just their problem - there are just too many different types of Tory…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 10 July
Government Schools secretary Ed Balls has announced a new emphasis on standards in the classroom and curbs on "structural" reform. In his first Commons statement in the post, the cabinet minister and key ally of Gordon Brown clipped the…
Ministerial responsibilities - at long last
.... but why has it taken so long? The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform have just finally announced (here) the responsibilities of their new Ministers, some ten days after they were originally appointed. I don't…
Mark Thompson puts the case for carving up the BBC...
Indirectly, not intentionally, of course. Mark Thompson today justified the BBC's licence fee on the basis that (in the words of the FT) "the quality of commercial broadcasters' news, current affairs and comedy output is declining". I agree…
Strange bedfellows: Nikolai Yezhov and DTI Consultations
Having had a meeting today with civil servants at the "new" Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (i.e. the DTI with a bit chopped off and a bit stuck on), it is clear that their position on all issues is now that they…
Review of the Papers, Monday 09 June
**Government ** The Treasury is planning to disband the government's controversial arms sales department, the Guardian can disclose. The 450-strong defence export services organisation (Deso), based near Oxford Street in London, has long…
Islington Tory says Dave may not be all that he seems
Paul Newman, an Islington Conservative, has admitted on his blog that Dave Cameron may not be being entirely frank with us. His response to my challenge that "You may buy the line that he can change the balance of the tax and welfare system…
Policy Announcements, Monday 09 July
**Government ** Environment secretary Hilary Benn has launched a campaign aimed at encouraging people to change their habits to help tackle climate change. A government advert being screened on Monday focuses on small changes, such as using…
Betty Williams you grass!
What is it with our MPs? They are happy to impose laws on the rest of us, but seem to think that they are above actually abiding by them themselves. Take the smoking ban. I think you know where this is going... the 11.05 from Paddington to…
Back to Basics
The Tory crackpot policy machine has been given another crank over the weekend - this time by someone called Iain Duncan-Smith (I hadn't heard of him either). The Tory's latest battle against society is the plight of binge drinking. The…
The slow death of British rationalism
This isn't new or amusing, but it is important. We hear all the time about the lowering of educational standards (JG posted on it only yesterday), but it is rare to find it set out so clearly and chillingly as in an open letter to the AQA…
The industry that keeps on giving
Not everything on Picking Losers is about the bad side of government. For example, here is a heart warming tale of giving and kindness from the corporate hospitality boxes at Wimbledon. Spotted this week, lurking behind a bowl of…
The Chinless Blunder stumbles on
Two excellent Camoronisms spotted yesterday: Tim Worstall picked up Dave's ignorant currying of favour with the music industry. Hoping for some "Cool Britannia" credit at the next election? Or just dumb? Snafu at Not Proud of Britain…
Policy Announcements, Friday 06 July
Government The government has announced an extra £13.7m to help schools improve the behaviour of pupils. Children, schools and families secretary Ed Balls unveiled the funds, which will be delivered through the social and emotional aspects…
Review of the Papers, Friday 06 July
Government The giant oil company Chevron has provided an all-expenses-paid day out at Wimbledon for Jim Campbell, the civil servant in charge of regulating Britain's oil and gas industry, including responsibility for pollution and oil…
We don't need no education
Education, education, education. In ten years the Labour government has managed to erode away the reputation of the top British universities so much so that, according to Professor Alison Richard, vice-chancellor of Cambridge, Britain's…
The stick or the carrot?
The carrot or the stick? Tax or tax relief? Which is the best way to tackle climate change? Well, not surprisingly, business would rather take the carrot. So much so, in fact, that a report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers suggests that the…
The end is nigh for Johnson
Alan Johnson, aka the Fonz, has officially started the NHS game. He said yesterday "-The reality on the ground is that there is a gloomy mood. There has been an awful lot of change in a short period. Staff feel overwhelmed by it. They feel…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 05 July
Government A survey of British business has delivered a damning verdict on the Government's environmental policies. The study, carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers, concludes that "current economic policy instruments to reduce the…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 05 July
Government The government has announced a major reform of the student support system. New universities secretary John Denham told MPs on Thursday that maintenance grants would be "substantially" increased to include two thirds of those in…
Ministerial responsibilities - who's doing what?
So what have Government Ministers been doing for the last week? Almost five working days after they were appointed, there are many junior Ministers who seemingly do not yet know what they are supposed to be doing. Only a handful of…
To reuse or not reuse?
You probably haven't heard of the Waste and Resources Action Programme - or WRAP as they are cleverly known. But, on top of giving the public the deeply philosophical question of what came first: the name "Waste and Resources Action…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 04 July
Government Gordon Brown yesterday unveiled a startling package of reforms designed to surrender centuries-old government powers and strengthen the role of MPs. Setting out a series of initiatives that could fundamentally change the…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 04 July
**Government ** Health secretary Alan Johnson has put NHS restructuring on hold "for the foreseeable future" to create stability and focus on improving care. In a statement to the Commons, he set out the government's new approach to the…
Flagging a warning
Gordon Brown has played the jingoistic card, by promising to review the regulations governing the flying of the Union Flag on public buildings. The Sun's George Pascoe-Watson, not surprisingly, over-reacted with delight, proclaiming that…
Gordon's subtle corruption of our freedom
There are many things in Gordon Brown's statement of constitutional issues to be developed by his Government, The Governance of Britain, that are more dangerous than the flying of the Union Flag. For instance, take the statement that one of…
Advanced education isn't for everyone
Why is this government obsessed with educating everyone to first class honours degree standard? Apart from it being of little use to the nation as a whole if everyone was educated to nuclear physicist standard, have they actually sat back…
Yet more tales of NHS waste
The main problem with the government claiming they are "investing" in the NHS three times as much money as the Tories did is that the NHS is still a complete shambles. Actually what they are saying, to spin the story another way, is that…
The Government gets gold (Tories silver)
The results are in. As expected, the Government has won Gold, while the Conservatives have had to settle for Silver (Gilt). It's a creditable performance, but not quite competitive. Close, but no banana - is this a taste of things to come…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 03 July
**Government ** Constant deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and the increasing amount of time spent away from home are key factors causing people to leave the Armed Forces, a committee of MPs said yesterday. The number of officers leaving…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 03 July
Government Gordon Brown has outlined a series of constitutional changes which he says will make the British government a "better servant of the people". MPs would be given the final say on declaring war and on international treaties and…
Now it's the Armed Forces that are having a great year
Taking a leaf out of Patricia "best year ever" Hewitt's book, Defence Minister Derek Twigg has responded to a critical Public Accounts Committee report on recruitment and retention in the Armed Forces by claiming that: "Recent independently…
No news is good news?
This is a screenshot of the Conservative party's home page at around 1:30am on the day after the Tory reshuffle. Do you think their website will be catching on any time soon to their own news? Most of the blogs have had it for hours. I…
God's judgment
The claims that this summer's unseasonal weather are the result of global warming continue. Whether you believe that global warming is the result of anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions, like the majority, or of permissive attitudes to…
Review of the Papers, Monday 02 July
Government Gordon Brown made a decisive break with Tony Blair's "sofa government" yesterday as he promised that the Cabinet would in future be involved in decision-making. In a noticeable dig at his predecessor's informal style of…
Poll result - and the new poll
An overwhelming majority of you are negative about the new Labour leadership. 45% thought that Brown would be a change for the worse and 41% didn't think they'd be much change, but wished there was. That is 86% who aren't happy with the…
Policy Announcements, Monday 02 July
Government The home secretary has briefed MPs on the attacks in London and Glasgow, saying that new anti-terrorism legislation will be brought forward. ****Jacqui Smith told the Commons that so far six arrests had been made in connection…
Gordon's Business Council
Is Gordon having problems with his new Business Council already? Curiously, if you go to the No 10 website and look at the index of press releases, there is no mention of the one announcing his plan for the cosy group of corporates advising…
Failure is not an option. Really - you can't fail.
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) - they really do have a quango for everything - recommended this year in a letter to the former Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, that the A* grade should only go to students who get 9…
Time for an SDP moment
The tensions that have been festering in the Conservative Party since the end of Dave Cameron's brief honeymoon (and, indeed, much longer than that) are breaking out into open sores (again), following the unfortunate coincidence of Tory…
Big Business Council for Britain
Life just got worse for the little guy. Gordon has always believed that "business" = "the major corporates and City institutions". His understanding of the impact of his policies, and therefore the policies themselves, have been conditioned…
Who said crime doesn't pay?
A couple of days ago I said the two worst departments to get your hands on as a Secretary of State have to be the Department of Health and the new Ministry of Justice. Well, in the first full day, what a surprise but it is the DoH and MofJ…
Review of the Papers, Friday 29 June
Government The fiasco surrounding junior doctor training deepened yesterday after it emerged that parts of the discredited application process are still in place. The online Modern Training Application Service was dropped in April after…
New Government, same old MTAS
Good bye Tony. Hello Gordon. Cabinet reshuffle. The Miliband brothers. Jacqui Smith. DCSF. DIUS. DBERR. Car bomb found in the West End. Spice girls reforming. It's been a busy 24 hours or so. So busy in fact, then what better day to "bury…
Jowell to report directly to Brown. I wonder why...?
Still no official word on what the Ministers for the regions are actually meant to do. Bgprior has had a stab at it here - how very cynical. And probably right. They will just be another layer of government to shift the blame around so no…
Rosie Boycott: Labour have made a hash of things
Rosie Boycott has just said on This Week that "in 1997 we were elated but actually we didn't have that many great big problems. And there are a lot of big problems: there is the war, there is the environment, there is the huge gap between…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 28 June
Government Utility groups and their shareholders will not have to foot the bill for many of the environmental clean-up costs incurred by their predecessor companies following an influential decision by Britain's top court. The House of…
Ministers for the region?
Gordon Brown (or the Queen I should say) has appointed a load of Ministers for the regions. What are these ministers actually supposed to do other than take a Ministerial wage? More on this tomorrow, no doubt...
Gordon yet to wow us with his magic
So Gordon Potter Brown has conjured up his dream cabinet. All that talk of getting in the real talent from across parties and public figures has been in vein and El Gordo has had to make do with the buffoons and misfits from his party…
Accountability and the BBC
Now at least we have an answer to that chicken-and-egg question: did Blair pay less attention to parliament because the media ignored it, or did the media pay less attention because Blair ignored it? After the BBC cut their coverage of Tony…
Will we talk of Blairism in twenty years time?
Goodbye Mr Blair. 10 years that started off with such promise and hope have ended with Britain and the world far less optimistic and settled. What could have really been the greatest premiership of post war Britain has ended in anticlimax…
The end
Having seen ex-Prime Minister, Tony Blair's final PMQs and the rest of the day’s events unfold, you can only conclude this has been the strangest of power handovers. Not many PMs could claim to go out on a standing ovation from Parliament…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 27 June
Government There has been a sharp rise in the number of pupils excluded from secondary schools, taking the annual total to more than a third of a million. But teachers' leaders are angry that more than 100 pupils successfully appealed…
Legacies
JG has posted on the subject of Tony's legacy. This post started as a comment, and grew so large that I decided to post it separately. I must see things through an inverting lens. Reagan: Never a buffoon in the eyes of those old enough to…
Justifying the nanny state by Caroline Flint
There is an extraordinary article in today's Times about the Public Health Minister Caroline Flint, aka Supernanny. It seems to be justifying some of the more draconian and nannying legislation that this government has put upon us. Those…
Howard Davies, Europe, Brown and the politicization of our institutions
Howard Davies is reported in Le Figaro as saying: "On Europe, we do not yet know if Sarkozy is a friend or an enemy.... Selling the Brussels result will be arduous for Brown… It is crucial for him that Sarkozy continues to defend the idea…
The Tory party has been replaced by a PR agenda
It is no secret that I rate the Tories chances of winning the next election, on current form, at next to zero. It seems Quentin Davies MP for Grantham feels the same. He has defected from the Conservatives to Labour via an open letter to…
The great speed ticketing sham
If you want to drive fast, stay out of Wales and London and head to Surrey. The Department for Transport has released figures on the amount of money it has raised from speeding tickets over the last year. Surprisingly, there were fewer…
The EU Reform Treaty - a big step towards the exit?
Those who think that Britain's interests are best served by going along with this latest extension of EU powers (and even Tony Blair admitted that this is an extension of those powers) need to consider this: Each time that we hand powers to…
Summer downpours and global warming
In what follows, I want to strike the right balance. I am not a sceptic of the anthropogenic global-warming (AGW) theory, in the sense of one who says that man definitely has no measurable impact on the climate. We ought to take account of…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 26 June
Government The public sector wasted more than £400m on unnecessary procurement costs last year, according to the Commons public accounts committee on Monday. It said improving procurement could save hundreds of millions of pounds when…
Public sector buyers still getting ripped off
Government procurement is controlled and restricted by bureaucratic and lengthy procedures that have been passed down from the EU to ensure a level playing field across Europe when competing for business and also to ensure corruption is…
Policy Announcement, Tuesday 26 June
**Government ** The government has published plans for tougher community punishments and a restriction on the use of suspended sentences. The Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill is to seek the "smart use of prison", the Ministry of…
Energy liberalization and the EU reform treaty
One of the things that made me laugh in the BBC's typically-rigorous reporting (I think in last night's Newsnight) of the proposed EU reform treaty was the claim that the extension of Qualified Majority Voting would bring benefits such as…
Campaign for a referendum?
I don't like referenda. But it is perfectly obvious that the majority in the country does not believe that the "Reform Treaty" is not the Constitutional Treaty dressed up, and that they want a referendum on the subject as promised. And yet…
The BBC's idea of business
The BBC ran a half-hour promotion on Thursday night for government-funded investment in businesses or technologies that government judged to be promising. In other words, a promotion for picking losers (the policy, not the site, sadly). I'm…
Review of the Papers, Monday 25 June
Government Gordon Brown gave the first indications on Sunday of the shape of his new cabinet and how he intends to overhaul Whitehall, declaring his determination to meet "the challenge of change". After being formally anointed as Labour…
Poll result
Surprisingly, maybe, over two thirds of you were against the smoking ban on the principle that the government should not be able to intervene on our actions on private property. I suspect the figure would have been even higher if I had not…
Policy Announcements, Monday 25 June
Government Proposals for the way in which a site will be chosen for the long-term disposal of higher activity radioactive waste were today published for public consultation by the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Wales and…
Jobs for the boys
Gordon Brown has entered the home straight to finally achieving the position he thought would have been his a long time ago. Yesterday he was officially declared Labour party leader valiantly defeating all his rivals in a close run contest…
'Green' taxes are just there to boost the Treasury's coffers
Keen readers of Picking Losers will know that I am not likely to become a fully paid up member of the Green lobby any time soon. I do believe that we have a duty to look after the environment and that it is a duty we have neglected in the…
Stop this government backed monopoly
Like most men, I do like a good list. I could real off my top 3 greatest footballers, my top 3 meals, my top 3 films, my top 3 just about anything. Alas this is a political blog and not a Nick Hornby novel so I will save you from the…
Sarkozy, The Constitution and Free Markets
Some people claim that Nicolas Sarkozy is France's Margaret Thatcher. Yeah, right. To quote from the BBC report: "A reference to 'free and undistorted competition' was pulled from the draft [Treaty that isn't the Constitutional Treaty…
Review of the Papers, Friday 22 June
Government City academies have failed to live up to their ambition of being "powerhouses of innovation", says a former chief inspector for schools. Hopes that private sector involvement in the state-funded independent schools would…
Policy Announcements, Friday 22 June
Government Gordon Brown has said he has learned his lesson about "top-down" government and has pledged to involve ordinary people in his decisions. He told BBC News the public needed to be fully involved if big challenges like climate…
Panic on the streets of London, Morris dancing in the corridors of power
"-Panic on the streets of London, Panic on the streets of Birmingham, I wonder to myself, Could life ever be sane again?-" So the song went. Now I don't think the Smiths had Lord Falconer and the Ministry of Justice in mind when they wrote…
Taxes flowing North of the border
I have long been a supporter of self determination. That is to say, if a country wants its independence then it should be granted, or in cases like Gibraltar (for example) if they want to remain part of the UK or return to being part of…
Time to lay off them now and let common sense prevail
When exactly did smoking become the new paedophilia? They are the pariahs of modern society, and all common sense and decency can go to hell if it means the government and media can whip up a frenzy about these evil doers. There is the tale…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 21 June
Government Prime Minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown offered former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown the Cabinet post of Northern Ireland secretary, the BBC has learned. Lord Ashdown said the offer was made on Wednesday - after Lib Dem Leader Sir…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 21 June
Government Hotchpotch of business support schemes to be simplified, says DTI Radically simplifying the number of business support schemes from 3000-plus to well under 100 is at the centre of new proposals to help small business announced by…
Warning - Do not go to work on an egg
"Go to work on an egg" - a slogan that was run well before my time, yet I am very familiar with it such is its impact on the social conscience. And good advice too, in my book - if I had the patience to boil an egg every morning in between…
The Liberal Tory Labour Party
The Tories are pledging to create an independent NHS board that will take the day-to-day running of the health service out of the hands of ministers. Brilliant! Who came up with that idea? As regular readers of Picking Losers will know (and…
S-t-op int-er-fe-ring
The Department for Education and Skills are interfering again. This time they are handing out one size fits all advice on how to teach our young children. They have produced a whopping 208 page document telling professional teachers how…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 20 June
**Government ** £65 million will be made available to the Pathfinders that were launched today by Secretary of State for Work and Pensions John Hutton as part of the City Strategy, which gives local areas more power to tackle worklessness…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 20 June
Government One of London's most deprived boroughs has turned down a £2m offer from Goldman Sachs to build and run a state school. The US investment bank's failure to persuade council officials in Tower Hamlets to let it set up a city…
Modern Islam
That's it, I've had enough. You want to be moderate. You want to excuse the imbecility as the words and actions of an extremist minority. You fear that you may come to regret any sweeping statements of condemnation in response to the latest…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 19 June
Government The increased use of external consultants by government is costing the taxpayer nearly £2bn a year and is failing to ensure value for money, according to the public accounts committee. In a report published today, the PAC…
HIPs and the new poll
Last weeks poll was about the HIPs fiasco - should the government admit they have messed up, cut and run and scrap HIPs; or having taken it this far, should they steam ahead? 57% of you were in favour of scrapping the whole shambles (a…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 19 June
Government Gordon Brown has delivered a wide-ranging speech on crime in which he promised a "radical review" of the government's anti-drugs strategy. The chancellor and prime minister-in-waiting also outlined plans for an extension of…
Health & Safety goons
In less than two weeks the English smoking ban will come in to force. Anyone who lights up in an enclosed public space will likely to be jumped on by a health and safety "officer" and fined £50. I am a little torn by this policy - on the…
Review of the Papers, Monday 18 June
Government One in four NHS trusts is failing the latest government targets on cleanliness and tackling superbug infections, figures published today reveal. Fewer hospitals and NHS trusts than last year can demonstrate that they are…
Head of NHS upgrade system resigns
Richard Granger has resigned. Never heard of him? You will know his work. He is was Britain's top paid civil servant (£290,000 a year no less) and was responsible for upgrading information technology (IT) systems and introducing…
Policy Announcements, Monday 18 June
Government The Government today vowed to use its international relations to strengthen the UK's border controls, crack down on migration abuse and tackle trafficking. The pledge was reinforced by Home Secretary John Reid speaking today from…
A Tory government by 2013?
I get a distinct feeling that the Tories are rapidly moving back to square one at the moment. It may well be too early to say with any conviction that they are back in Hague/IDS/Howard territory, but the signs are there. They have had a…
The HIPs loophole
So after all the fuss, u-turns, backtracking, re-packaging, delays, spin and farce it seems that HIPs may not be enforceable after all! That is right, even if the government does go ahead with its pseudo-implementation on 1st August…
Review of the Papers, Friday 15 June
Government Ministers' troubled attempts to reform the house-selling process received another significant setback yesterday when a leading industry body warned that a requirement for sellers to pay for information packs would prove…
Policy Announcements, Friday 15 June
Government Laws under which parents in England and Wales face jail for smacking children so hard they leave a mark are to be reviewed, the government has said. Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said parents would be asked whether smacking…
No confidence in the government to handle the NHS
And so to the BMA's annual conference where GPs voted on various issues. There were unanimous votes to carry the following motions: This conference has no confidence in the UK government's handling of the National Health Service, the…
Do the LibDems know what "liberal" means?
Iain Dale has demolished in a few short words Ming Campbell's proposal to abuse local-authority powers to get more social housing built, so effectively that even the LibDem NorfolkBlogger agrees with him. This has provoked an…
Who guards the guards?
JG pointed out Boris Johnson's comments on Blair's speech about the modern media. It deserves a post of its own. Boris wants to characterize Blair's comments as being mainly about the media's treatment of him. If you read Blair's speech…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 14 June
Government The prospect of yet another reorganisation of the National Health Service will be raised today by Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, in a speech on how "independent" the NHS may become. In a lecture at the London School of…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 14 June
Government Gordon Brown has made his final parliamentary appearance as chancellor, defending the government's record and announcing a new reform of the Bank of England. The chancellor received plaudits and brickbats in equal measure as he…
In defence of a clown
This strange looking character is actually Barney Baloney - a clown (in every sense). Why the sad face, you probably haven't asked? Well, Mr Baloney has been forced to stick with the juggling after been refused insurance if his act includes…
Policsy Announcements, Wednesday 13 June
Government Plans to offer more drug treatments to child sex offenders to try to stop them committing further crimes have been announced by the Home Office. The treatment involving libido-reducing drugs or anti-depressants would be taken…
Hypochondria or misdiagnosis?
The new Bagehot at The Economist, recently returned from a posting to a "harsh, cold country", thinks that those of us who claim Britain is going to the dogs are hypochondriacs. I have sent the following letter in reply: Sir, In 1980, the…
Blair is right too
First Bush. Now Blair. What is happening to the world? Actually, the feigned surprise could be considered disingenuous. This author does not generally perceive politicians as knaves or fools. Mostly, they are decent and intelligent people…
The future role of the Labour Deputy Leadership
-(Picture - Hat tip: Guido Fawkes)- An interesting story in the Times the other day suggested that a candidate's face could make the difference when it comes to an election. With the labour party deputy leadership entering its final week…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 13 June
Government Tony Blair yesterday argued that competitive pressures on newspapers and broadcasters meant stories were chosen for their potential impact on the public rather than their accuracy. Voicing for the first time his long-standing…
That Logo
So incredibly one person in our poll thought that the new Olympic logo was worth every penny of the £400k it cost. Maybe Lord Coe reads Picking Losers..? An overwhelming 76% of you thought £400k was a complete waste of money regardless of…
When you've dug yourself into a hole you should stop digging
So yesterday, as promised, Ruth Kelly outlined the plans for the implementation of HIPs. All houses with four or more bedrooms will be required to have them from August 1st, then it will be a phased implementation with three bedroom houses…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 12 June
Government The biggest overhaul of Britain's immigration laws for more than 35 years is being planned by the Government, which has admitted that their complexity has undermined public confidence in the system. The myriad of legislation…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 12 June
Government Women would get the legal right to breastfeed in public, under a new law being proposed by the government. The measure in the Single Equality Bill aims to boost figures suggesting only 20% of UK women breastfeed exclusively for…
Key prejudices
There is a marvellous booklet, published by the Social Affairs Unit in 2000, called the Dictionary of Dangerous Words. It contains modern definitions, provided by many great thinkers and Oliver Letwin, of words "which once meant something…
The education system is just a political football to promote political or social goals
Education. Education. Education. The opening lines of ten years of spin, let downs and failed policy from New Labour. A report published by Civitas today confirms that whilst this government has talked about education and pumped a load of…
Review of the Papers, Monday 11 June
**Government ** Councils will be told this week to think twice before paying to translate documents into foreign languages and supporting community groups that serve a single ethnic minority. The government-appointed Commission on…
Policy Announcements, Monday 11 June
Government A £500,000 fund is today being awarded to innovative schemes to tackle youth homelessness, ranging from crash pads for teenagers to supported lodgings and a text message service offering housing options. Housing Minister Yvette…
Brown's Britain - talent is nothing, the inner circle is everything
The HIPs saga rumbles on. The latest is the news that the government may well be getting sued over the whole matter. That is to say, we are going to have pay for their incompetence if legal action goes ahead - because there is no chance…
Review of the Papers, Friday 08 June
Government Police are not allowed to take fingerprints or DNA samples from terrorism suspects held under control orders because of a loophole in antiterrorism laws, it emerged yesterday. The Home Office said the failure was the result of an…
Policy Announcements, Friday 08 June
**Government ** The Department of Trade and Industry has rejected a minister's suggestion that paid paternity leave should be doubled. Beverley Hughes advanced the suggestion in what her department said was her capacity as an MP and not a…
An evening with Boris
I went to listen to a talk by Boris Johnson last night out in Berkshire at an independent school. The TV personality and occasional shadow spokesman for higher education did not disappoint and also inadvertently answered a question Picking…
Rip up the invoice
Rather brilliantly, Mayor Ken Livingstone has come out and publicly said that the London-based LIVE agency that made the 2012 logo film that has been causing epileptic fits should not be paid. It is rumoured that he hates the logo and…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 06 June
Government Patricia Hewitt was accused yesterday of aggravating regional inequalities in NHS care to meet her promise to stem health service deficits in the last financial year. The Health Secretary faced a barrage of criticism from…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 07 June
Government The home secretary has promised the government will make an unprecedented attempt to reach parliamentary consensus before it brings forward new anti-terrorism laws. On the most controversial issue, whether to extend the period…
Hewitt's final act
As predicted, yesterday was a bad day for Patricia Hewitt - admittedly it didn't take Mystic Meg to predict that one, though! However, it is hard to have any sympathy with her; she is heading a department that is spinning a genuinely bad…
Those pesky blogs
Traditional media continues to carry its fight to the blogosphere. BBC Newsnight have added to their Book Club -The Cult of the Amateur- by Andrew Keen. It was "debated" on tonight's programme. His thesis is that information used to be…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 06 June
Government Drastic cost-cutting ordered by the Government across the NHS has derailed its flagship policy to ensure that no patient waits longer than 18 weeks for hospital treatment. A leaked e-mail seen by The Times reveals that the…
Reasons to get merry, Part 3
What better reason could there be to top up your glass (and make it a big one), than that the Government and the BMA want to "crackdown on middle class wine drinkers". Some people damage their health by drinking too much, so of course it is…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 06 June
Government Today's publication of the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill marks the next stage of the Government's fundamental reform of the system of child maintenance. The reforms will: replace the Child Support Agency with the…
Epileptic logo
More trouble for the extraordinarily expensive Olympic marketing efforts. The promotional video, jazzed up (or barfed over, depending on your point of view) with animated figures based on our fantastic logo, has been causing epileptic…
DfT cosy up to BAA - a marriage of convenience...
It looks like the government have been caught out over plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport. Incredibly, the Times is reporting that The Department for Transport has secretly passed key information supporting the expansion of…
Build for the future, don't rebuild the past
"-Political meddling has brought the NHS to its knees-." So says Jonathan Fielden, chairman of the British Medical Association's consultants committee. "-We are angry with the government for a woeful dereliction of duty - towards patients…
Bush is right
Shock tactics to get your attention. I know it sounds unlikely. But really, he is. He is calling for a "new framework" to replace the Kyoto Treaty (which comes to an end in 2012). David Miliband helpfully clarified on Radio 4's -The World…
The biggest loser was...
The result of last week poll deemed, not surprisingly, that the NHS online recruitment system was the biggest loser of the post-Blair, pre-Brown era. Expect Patricia Hewitt to be shown the door when Brown announces his first cabinet; she…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 05 June
Government Ministers are failing to keep a grip on Government computer projects that cost the taxpayer up to £14 billion a year, a report by MPs warns today. Senior officials running many of Whitehall's most "mission critical" IT schemes…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 05 June
**Government ** The government has unveiled measures to tackle binge drinking as part of its new alcohol strategy. Tuesday's plans focus on underage alcohol consumption, and include an independent review of the link between alcohol…
Only in Westminster
The Commons public accounts select committee has published a damning report on the state of the Government's IT projects stating that the government is losing its grip on them. Rather worryingly, one in five has been rated "mission critical…
The Tories don't need a clause four moment - they should be aiming for much more than that
Has the David Cameron honeymoon period come to an end? The grammar school debate has probably run a little further than he had hoped and there are signs that the right of party are fed up with being forced to tread the tight line between…
The Inspiration?
I saw this on the BBC website - now we know where they got the inspiration from...
Review of the Papers, Monday 04 June
Government The government has failed to provide Britain with a coherent energy strategy, putting future supplies and climate change goals at risk and falling short of what is needed to help the world's poorest countries adapt to rising…
More youth?
... though if they really wanted to appeal to today's youth, maybe they should have gone with this one? (hat tip B3ta) Not sure which is more unpleasant, this one or the original?
Global citizens
Just lent my copy of P.J.O'Rourke's -Give War A Chance- to a friend, so decided to replace my lost copies of -Eat The Rich- and -Parliament of Whores-, to re-read them (and extract a few quotes for this site in the process). Went into the…
A new law every three-and-a-quarter hours!
It comes as no surprise today to learn how prolific the Labour government has been when it comes to introducing legislation. The Blair premiership has seen an average of 2,685 new laws introduced each year! That is one every three-and-a…
Think tank urges NHS independence
It has been a focus for debate on Picking Losers for some time and like the idea or loath it, the Nuffield Trust health think-tank has called for greater independence from day-to-day political control for the NHS. Professor Edwards from the…
Review of the Papers, Friday 01 June
Government The PFI hospital building programme has been cut by about £4bn, or a third, in the past 16 months, figures released by the Department of Health show, and further reductions are possible. The private finance initiative has been…
Policy Announcements, Friday 01 June
Liberal Democrats Commenting on new Office of National Statistics figures which show that in 2005 there was a rise in transport emissions, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary, Chris Huhne MP said "All the effort in tackling carbon…
Public money used to bank-roll the Labour party to win the next election? Surely not!
The Labour party and the Government are just about to get caught up in a good old fashioned sleaze story. The Times has broken the story that the massively in debt Labour party has been using government grants for its policy-making process…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 31 May
Government Links between Labour and the biggest think-tank in Britain have come under fire with accusations that the party out-sourced its policy-making process to them while receiving nearly £1 million in government grants. The Institute…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 31 May
Government A new power for the police to enter and search a registered sex offender's home, to assess the risk they pose to our communities, was today welcomed by Home Secretary John Reid. The new measure, which comes into force under the…
Chip and Bin - the added cost
It is expected that the fortnightly bin collections and the "chip and bin" tax we are to pay on top of council tax for the removal of our bins will increase levels of fly tipping. If that is the case, we the tax payer have a serious…
Shame on the NHS
Eric Friar is a 91 year old RAF war hero. Now Mr Friar isn't having the best of times at the moment, he suffers from mini-strokes, bladder cancer, non-Hodgkins lymhpoma, has been diagnosed with bowel and colon cancer, shingles, dementia, is…
Save the planet, become a veggie
The Department for the environment, food and rural affairs (Defra) has got itself in a bit of pickle! It appears to have endorsed a view from a vegan group called Viva, that we should all become vegetarians to combat climate change. It is…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 30 May
Government The use of the private finance initiative to acquire a fleet of air refuelling tankers for the Royal Air Force has delayed the acquisition of the aircraft and increased the cost, according to a senior executive of the company…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 30 May
Government Drugs education schemes should start at primary school as part of an overhaul of Britain's drugs strategy, Gordon Brown is to say. And more role models are needed to raise awareness of drug use, which is still "unacceptably…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 29 May
Government The taxman is preparing to clamp down on tens of thousands of buy-to-let property owners who may not have paid enough tax, The Times has learnt. HM Revenue & Customs has identified 80,000 landlords who may have claimed too much…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 29 May
Government Beverley Hughes has outlined plans to spend £9m helping disadvantaged parents get more involved in their children's development. The education minister said the funds, to be targeted at local authorities in the poorest areas…
New Poll - Which is the biggest loser?
It may just be happy coincidence for Gordon Brown, but it does appear that the Government are shifting out a whole load of bad news before he comes to power and while Blair is off on his farewell tour of the world. There have been four…
More failed Government IT projects
Reports of another government failing IT project. This time it is the sex offender computer system. It is being hit by delays due to failed software tests. In the meantime it is the public who are most at risk. Nick Herbert, the shadow…
£500m surplus at NHS
The NHS is expected to announce an under-spend of nearly half a billion pounds. This has, of course, upset the unions, who say that staff and patients have been treated so badly and yet there is £500m lying about. To me it is just another…
£36bn of taxpayers' money on our railways by 2014
It seems that people are not entirely happy with the way the railways are run in this country and over 50% of you wanted to see them privatised. An underwhelming 12% wanted to see them renationalised. 35% were happy with them the way they…
The nuclear "option"
It was probably no more than a happy coincidence (for the Government) that the Planning and Energy White Papers were published on consecutive days. Nevertheless, as most people have noticed, the two are intimately linked by the need for a…
Big Brother is taxing you
Sinister goings on at our town halls. It appears that 68 of them have already installed microchips in to our bins without even telling us. That is more than three million households in Britain who are well equipped to be taxed for their…
We all told you so! As usual the Government didn't listen
No prizes for guessing what the papers are full of today. The slow motion car crash that has been in the making for many, many months now has finally made impact - though not entirely in the manner predicted nor has the crashing car come…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 23 May
The government's policy on reforming the housing market was thrown into disarray last night as the communities secretary, Ruth Kelly, was forced into a last-minute retreat over the controversial introduction of home information packs. The…
Public sector reform has failed us all
As the Blair era comes to and end, there is and has already been much reflection on the past 10 years. Reform was always at the top of the New Labour agenda way back when before 1997. It was greeted with cheers and provided hope to the…
Blair Force One ready for launch
Blair Force One is ready for launch. In fact, both of them are. Our outgoing PM has finally sanctioned the purchase of over £100m worth of aircrafts so that his best buddy Gordon and the Queen don't have to mix with the hoi polloi when…
Would you like an ipod with that underserved bonus?
The department described by outgoing Secretary of State John Reid as "not fit for purpose" is paying out £3.6m in bonuses to its staff. The Home Office, which has recently been split up as it could not cope with the work load, feel one in…
Tax credits costing billions
What exactly is the point in the tax credit system? It seems to me just a way of confusing the tax system as much as possible so that people are so baffled they mess up their claims for what is rightfully, under the system, theirs. The…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 22 May
The government's tax credit scheme was branded "a shambles" yesterday after it was alleged that the cost of fraud and poor administration was likely to be more than £9bn in its first three years - 50% more than previous estimates. http…
Hard luck Metronet
Metronet, the consortium who are currently cocking up the upgrade of much of the London Underground system, are looking to take £600m of public money to cover their over-running costs. The extremely complicated PPP contract that was signed…
HIPs to be delayed?
It is being reported on the BBC that the introduction of the Home Improvement Packs will be delayed. DCLG Secretary, Ruth Kelly, is expected to make an annoucement... more later... UPDATE: The introduction of HIPs has been put back…
Educational choices
The debate over David Willetts' accidentally controversial speech on education continues to rumble on. As Willetts and Cameron have themselves kept the debate alive, through Willetts' appearance on Sunday AM, and David Cameron's…
Bad advice
One of the things that America does better than us Europeans is its inclination to give (at least in business) another chance to those who at first don't succeed. Whilst bankruptcy is seen in Europe as evidence that someone is not to be…
The first high profile causalty of the NHS online recruitment fiasco
The first high profile casualty of the NHS online recruitment fiasco has hit. The chairman of the British Medical Association, James Johnson, has resigned after he was accused of being too close to the Government on the issue. Mr Johnson…
Review of the Papers, Monday 21 May
The chairman of the British Medical Association, James Johnson, resigned suddenly last night over accusations that he was siding with the government in the debacle over training jobs for junior doctors. Mr Johnson said the criticism of him…
Michael Portillo: "Gordon is going to meddle"
Michael Portillo wrote an interesting article in yesterday's Sunday Times. He seems to share a similar ethos to Picking Losers in many ways. I have taken a small extracts from the piece and published them below. Much of the article talks…
Review of the Papers, Friday 18 May
Government Only 30% of government technology-based projects and programmes are successful, the official in charge of IT at one of its biggest departments has warned. Joe Harley, chief information officer at the Department for Work and…
Policy Announcements, Friday 18th May
Government A controversial bill exempting MPs and peers from freedom of information laws has moved closer to being passed. Cross-party opponents had hoped to "talk out" the bill by using up all its allocated time in the Commons. But after…
£10bn of IT projects a year are not successful
The government can not do IT projects. Not a revelation to regular readers of Picking Losers, but even civil servants are now accepting the hard facts. Joe Harley, chief information officer and the official in charge of IT at the…
The 10 year rule
What makes Gordon Brown think that he can effectively steal? He is set to launch an initiative to raid dormant accounts to raise £300m. OK, the money will be put to what the Lottery commission believe are "good causes", but I still don't…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 17 May
Government Gordon Brown has officially accepted the Labour leadership after it was revealed his only rival did not have enough support from the parliamentary party to stand. Ruth Kelly has launched a curriculum promoting citizenship…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 17 May
Government The Government is severely criticised today by a Labour-dominated Commons committee for failing to back its own inquiry on A-level and GCSE reform. MPs on the Education Select Committee say exam reforms would be "more coherent…
Only the Government's complete incompetence can save us now
Ahh! You couldn't make this one up. Home Improvement Packs. The Tories have tried to stop them. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has tried to stop them. In fact the whole property industry pretty much has tried to stop them…
Blue Labour strike again
The Willetts speech on education is causing waves in Tory circles, as they vie with each other for who has the best idea for the standard (or perhaps two-model) offering that should be provided to other people's children. It's yet another…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 16 May
Government Plans to revolutionise house sales were thrown into chaos last night by the prospect of a last-minute legal challenge to controversial home information packs. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said it was…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 16 May
Government The Police Service has a crucial role to play in meeting the challenges of 21st century security, Home Secretary John Reid said today. Speaking at the Police Federation annual conference in Blackpool, the Home Secretary…
Judicial review of HIPs?
With just a couple of weeks to go before the introduction of the Home Improvement Packs, The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has thrown a spanner in to the Government's works. Fearing a housing market crash from the…
DoH had no choice, it wasn't a belated good decision
Yesterday I asked the question, was the DoH decision to scrap the NHS online recruitment system a belated good decision or the only option left? Andrew Rowland, vice-chairman of the BMA's junior doctors committee, rather surprisingly…
You are under arrest for possession of an egg with intent to throw
If ever proof were needed that the more the government intervene the more damage they actually do here it is. The government think that the best way to improve policing is tell the policemen exactly how to their job. This has led to…
The new poll: The Railways
A slender majority of people wanted to see the NHS retain political control by the government. Maybe a poll asking whether the NHS should be taken away from nationalisation completely would have produced a different result? One for the…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 15 May
**Government ** A new government scheme could see abandoned public buildings sold to community groups for as little as £1 in an attempt to revive local facilities. The properties would include unused pubs, schools and police stations, as…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 15 May
Government Fathers will be allowed a half share of their partner's year-long maternity leave, the Government said yesterday as it set out new proposals to boost the role of dads. Under the plan, a woman entitled to 12 months off work after…
Headline grabbing figures, not value for money
An interesting stat in today's Times: NHS funding has leapt from £35 billion when Labour took office to £92 billion in 2007-08. On the surface, I think most people would look at the basic piece of information and say well done New Labour…
MTAS is finally scrapped
The BBC is reporting that the MTAS online recruitment system is being completely withdrawn. A belated good decision or the only option left?
What have our MPs got to hide?
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 was, at least in principle, a good piece of legislation. It is not perfect and as far as I'm concern had too many ambiguities and exemptions. But all in all it made for a far more open government and…
Review of the Papers, Monday 14 May
Government Prisoners are being held in court cells that cost more per night than a suite at the Ritz it emerged as ministers were accused of an "absurd waste of money". The Government faced condemnation after it was revealed that 7…
Policy Announcements, Monday 14 May
Government Today the Prime Minister announced there are now over 200 schools on track to get Trust status - double the number expected at this point. Over 140 primary, secondary and special schools have applied to become Trusts in the last…
Letter to The Times: MTAS
Below is a letter to the editor printed in today's Times. It makes very, interesting reading and has been signed by 18 members of the great and the good of the medical world: (I have highlighted some of the key statements) -Sir, The junior…
International disinterestedness
What do the following have in common? The top 16 in the Eurovision Song Contest consist of 14 former communist-block countries, plus Greece and Turkey. As usual, regional block-voting dominated the outcome. Zimbabwe was elected to head the…
The crazy logic of the health service
How about this for a health policy? Instead of putting patients in the more cost effective hospital, move them to the ones that are losing loads of money and cost more to run and then close down the more cost effective ones. Well that is…
Review of the Papers, Friday 11 May
Government Exam papers will be tagged this summer in a crackdown on cheating, one of the country's biggest exam boards reveals today. Edexcel, which marks 13 million question papers a year, will install a radio-controlled device in bags of…
Policy Announcements, Friday 11 May
Government Businesses in five areas across the country are to benefit from NHS advice and support to improve the physical, mental and social well-being of their staff, health minister Rosie Winterton announced today. The five new…
Impartiality of state employees
There was some accidentally revealing stuff today on Radio 5Live's reporting of Tony Blair's resignation and their review of his premiership. First Jane Garvey reported that the halls of Corporation House were awash with empty champagne…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 10 May
Government Tony Blair's city academy programme faced fresh criticism last night after it emerged that almost £50 million had been paid to advisers for the flagship schools - more than £1 million per project. Just 46 of the academies have…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 10th May
Government As part of reforms to deliver a patient-led NHS and to meet targets to cut waiting times by 2008, the Department has involved the independent sector in delivering health services. These services are run by the independent sector…
HIPs - five questions
The countdown continues until the HIPs fiasco hits - everyone knows it's coming but I have all confidence that nothing will be done about it. Currently there are just 57 qualified inspectors for the North East, 76 for Wales, and 152 for…
Burying bad news
It's been reported on the BBC website that the cost of the ID card scheme has risen to £5.31bn. Why can't the government make estimates that are even in the same ball park as the final figures? Every time they value it, the cost seems to…
Our failed care system
I attended a lunchtime talk today by Harriet Sergeant, who has written a booklet ("Handle with Care", published by the Centre for Young Policy Studies back in September), on the disgrace that is our care system for children who have to be…
As useful as a Tory MP on an African building site
Clemency Burton-Hill (a multi-talented individual and real fox to boot, so I'm sorry to have to take the piss, but this is too good to ignore) reports in this week's Spectator that the Tories are "fighting back" against Gordon Brown's lead…
£50m on consultants and project mangers and not a legacy in sight
And so to another story of exceptional financial waste and total incompetence of management that only a government oversee. Back in 2000 one of the many, many legacies that Blair wanted to set in place was the city academy programme. So…
When is a climb down not a climb down? When it's a consultation.
Do I sense a Government climb down over Bingate? In what has become an issue of electoral importance, the fortnightly collections fiasco may have had an impact on the recent local elections. The Government can pour billions of pounds away…
Tax credits have just cost you 1p in the pound on income tax
Gordon Brown's tax credit scheme. Mr Prudent showing that, once again, he really does not deserve that nickname. Afterall, it is reported today that he is about to write off £2bn as unrecoverable after payments had been made out incorrectly…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 09 May
**Government ** Tony Blair planned to divide Gordon Brown's fiefdom of the Treasury into two after the 2005 election under proposals drawn up in intense secrecy for the prime minister. The idea was fleshed out in a 200-page document…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 09 May
Government Grants to help climate-conscious householders to install microgeneration technologies will be up for grabs again later this month, Alistair Darling announced today. The Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP) has already allocated…
BMA want political independence for NHS
An interesting story today about the British Medical Association and their calls for an independent NHS free from political control - not in keeping with the current poll on PL. The paper includes a broad outline of how they would like to…
What privatisation?
One of the worst pieces of privatisation ever embarked on by a government was the Railways Act 1993 under John Major. It was a complex piece of legislation and opposed by just about everyone - including the Labour party. They disliked it so…
Unintended consequences of discrimination legislation
It is a general rule that legislation often has the opposite effect to that intended, and that government action usually hurts most those that it is intended to help. We have a beautiful example reported in The Times today. One consequence…
The NHS IT system - beyond a fiasco
What is the word for a story that reached the level of fiasco some time ago and continued to deteriorate? Fiasco seems inadequate as a decription of the failures of the NHS IT system, several of which have been noted on this site by JG. The…
The least liked people in Britain? They should be.
Traffic Wardens. They have to be, rightly or wrongly, in the top ten least liked people on planet earth. Right up there with estate agents, lawyers and well, MPs probably. I personally can not stand them, though I'm sure as individuals out…
The big Tory idea
Fascinating briefing by Peter Riddell in today's Times on the ideas of Oliver Letwin. Of course, Riddell is limited by the space constraints of newspaper reporting. On the one hand, he could have got by with a lot less space, if he had…
Review of the Papers, Monday 08 May
Government Alex Salmond, almost certain to be elected Scotland's next First Minister, conceded last night that his failure to attract the Liberal Democrats into a ruling coalition meant that the country was now heading for minority devolved…
MTAS - still the fault of the doctors
Patricia Hewitt, interviewed on News 24 on Saturday morning, explained that she should not take responsibility for the MTAS fiasco because the new system had been widely consulted and widely supported prior to deployment. In other words…
£9bn and doomed to fail.
The proposed split of the Home Office is fast approaching. In a department that has just taken its latest victim with John Reid announcing his retirement from front bench politics at the weekend (nothing to do with the fact the Brown would…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 08 May
Government A new proportionate code of conduct for local councillors in England is now in force. The code will remove rules which have stood in the way of councillors acting as advocates for and leaders of their local communities, as…
Snooping jobsworths
Big brother really is watching you. From a discrete plane fitted with military spy equipment. Unlike the Big Brother from Orwell's 1984 though, the version of Big Brother the local councils are producing is more of an intrusive, nagging…
Review of the Papers, Friday 04 May
Government Reviews of big government IT projects that track progress and problems could be made available to the public following a ruling by the High Court yesterday. Projects ranging from ID cards to the £12.4bn National Health Service…
Accountability fundamentally undermines the government
A friend of mine wrote me an email yesterday saying that every time he reads a story on Picking Losers about the NHS it puts him in a bad mood. I promised him I would try and post a positive one as soon as I can. Well, here goes... A high…
The NHS circus continues
From one IT system to another. The MTAS chaos rumbles on and the full reprocussions are going to be felt by the mugs that paid for it in the place - the users and funders of the NHS, you and me. Patricia "only a few weeks left and I'm out…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 03 May
Government Hundreds of register offices across the country have been ordered to abandon a new online system for recording births, deaths and marriages in the latest IT fiasco to hit the government. The huge £6 million IT project has met…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 03 May
Conservatives Animal rights supporters reacted angrily to plans by Tory leader David Cameron to give MPs a free vote to repeal the fox hunting ban. The Witney MP told GMTV: "I have always believed that country sports are something that…
Failed Government IT System... but which one?
"Chaos as Government IT system grinds to a halt". Guess which IT system I'm talking about. MTAS? The Child Support Agency's IT phone system? The NHS's £12bn upgrade system? The criminal records bureau? The answer, of course, could be all of…
Vote Blue - Go Bonkers
As predicted, the Home Improvement Packs (HIPs) debate is rolling on and intensifying by the day. The Lords merits committee, chaired by Lord Filkin, published a report on the committee's findings, which concluded "-We cannot but conclude…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 02 May
**Government ** The government's home information packs came under renewed fire yesterday when a Lords committee said the packs had been stripped of their original purpose and were opposed by the property industry. The committee urged the…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 02 May
Government Tony Blair has firmly rejected Conservative calls for an independent inquiry into the July 7 bombings. David Cameron told MPs on Wednesday that revelations in the wake of the fertiliser bomb plot trial had raised "important…
Blears puts the case for a snap election
With only days to go before Tony Blair steps down as our leader after 10 years, the debate over democracy is likely to hot up. Watching Hazel Blears bumble her way through five minutes of complete illogical nonsense whilst being grilled be…
Shock! Horror! Labour peers get the top jobs!
Surprise of the day: Labour party peers were 10 times more likely to get cushty jobs with government quangos than opposition counterparts. Twenty Labour peers to only two Tory and three Lib Dem peers have been handed top public sector posts…
The man is on a roll!!
I haven't watched it, but apparently on GMTV this morning Tony Blair said that there must be better ways to boost recycling rates than fortnightly bin collections. He described himself as a bit of a traditionalist on the idea according to…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 1 May
Government Tony Blair poured scorn yesterday on a proposal advanced by Gordon Brown's close political allies for putting the NHS under the control of an independent board free from day-to-day ministerial interference. The prime minister…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 01 May
Government Small business owners and the UK's main business representative organisations will meet today for the first of a new series of round table meetings to discuss key issues facing the UK's 4.3 million small and medium enterprises…
After 10 long years, finally he has got it right
Well now we know how Tony Blair would vote in the poll. Yesterday he shot down Brown's hints that the NHS should be taken away from political control. He described it as "a great idea in theory", but warned it would disrupt the reforms and…
The master of spin and the public's right to hear it
Nobody has spun a story better than Alistair Campbell. He was one of the big players behind new Labour and one of the big reasons they have won three elections. He is portrayed as a heartless and ruthless character and will use every trick…
Sort this out before it's too late
"-Private security staff who operate prison vans will decide from today whether young adults awaiting trial in London are mentally strong enough to survive in the toughest prisons-." I had to read that sentence a few times before I realised…
Policy Announcements, Monday 30 April
Government Tony Blair has admitted his NHS reforms have been "really tough" for staff but said waiting list cuts, new hospitals and more staff were a sign of success. He said he did not think there would be a reversal of the "essential…
Review of the Papers, Monday 30 April
Government Tony Blair will mark his decade in office this week with "big regrets" at his inability to move more quickly to reform Britain's public services, one of his closest cabinet allies has claimed. As the prime minister puts the…
Another day, another regret
More bitter experience. More unfinished business. LP has pointed out The Guardian article in which Lord Falconer declares that Tony Blair has "big regrets" about not tackling the culture of public-service provision earlier. "I don't think…
A step in the right direction?
It is rumoured that Gordon Brown will give the NHS independence from political control in his first 100 days in power. No doubt he is hoping that this will be right up there with his decision to give the Bank of England independence in 199…
The Project, Phase 2
Forget the legacy and the lecture circuit. Tony Blair has no intention of retiring from the front-line, nor even of being a good back-seat driver. He is preparing for the next phase of his political career, not for life after politics. How…
The good, the bad, and the not so ugly
JG has been highlighting the MTAS fiasco. Besides the fine illustration it provides of this Government's incompetence and refusal to take responsibility for their mistakes, it also sheds an interesting sidelight on another bad Labour policy…
Review of the Papers, Friday 27 April
Government http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/27/nhips27.xml The number of people working in the NHS fell by more than 17,000 between 2005 and 2006, according to figures released yesterday. The Information Centre…
More taxation through the back door
After reports yesterday about the Government issuing warnings to keep quiet about the their plans for fees on rubbish collections (on top of council tax), there are more reports today of "behind the scenes" policy making that would not go…
MTAS has collapsed, don't let it happen with ID cards
Congratulations to Dr Crippen for his massive success in getting the deficient NHS recruitment IT system shut down. Whilst it is too late for all those people who have had their personal details disclosed and for the tax payers who have had…
HIPS: A nice little earner (not for us though)
The Home Improvement Pack (HIP) disaster is slowly coming to the boil. The Law Society believes that Home inspectors could make up to £250 million a year on producing packs that never get used! If a property has been on the market for…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 26 April
Government Householders will face a new tax on rubbish from next year under proposals to be announced by David Miliband next month, The Times has learnt. The Environment Secretary will disclose much tougher targets to recycle waste and will…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 26 April
Government: Health Minister Andy Burnham today published new guidance to help health bodies and practitioners deliver high quality convenient care closer to people's homes. Under government plans, GPs and Pharmacists with special interests…
More holes in the NHS recruitment system
It just gets worse! On NHS Blog Doctor, Dr Crippen is reporting that any applicant can see any correspondent sent by a candidate on the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) system, just by changing a couple of figures. This NHS…
More bin charges - but don't tell anyone...
This week's Picking Losers stories seem to be have been dominated by the rubbish collections and, less surprisingly, the NHS. Today is no different. I'll start with rubbish collections... As if to add to the cannon fodder David Miliband is…
NHS bankrupt both in financial and in leadership terms
The Guardian has revealed that there are 17 trusts that are heavily in debt and finally the NHS and Department of Health has admitted the problem. The debt is to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds at each of the trusts - 12 of which…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 25 April
Government A plan to help improve the training and development available to school teachers and contribute to raising school standards in England is published today by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). The new…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 25 April
Government Home Information Packs (HIPS) will cause chaos because of a lack of qualified inspectors, experts said yesterday as the Government faced increased pressure to delay the scheme. The Tories said they were planning a last-ditch…
More Nannying...
When will this government learn that the more it interferes in our lives the worse things get? Why do they insist they know better all the time? The latest piece of interfering comes in the form of a £30m initiative (paid for by us...) for…
It's our money, we have a right to know how you are spending it.
The old saying in politics goes "Turkeys don't vote for Christmas", and it seems the turkeys in the House of Commons are no different. Senior Ministers will back plans to give exemptions to MPs in certain areas of the Freedom of Information…
Expensive and deficient red tape
A story that has been brewing for sometime now is that of the Home Improvement Packs or HIPS. By June 1st of this year everyone selling their house will have to have an inspector come round at the cost of £600-£1000 to issue the seller with…
£12bn investment in an IT system or £12bn investment in patient care?
There is worrying news about the levels of MRSA and other "hospital" superbugs from an independent study done by Dr Foster Research. The study of 167 NHS hospital trusts in England found that infection control was in a state of disarray…
You got us in to this mess. You get us out of it.
A former Minister who has responsibility for NHS reform, Lord Warner, has launched an extra-ordinary attack on all those who work in the NHS. He cites "productivity" issues and resistance to change within the NHS as the major causes for the…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 24 April
Government Tony Blair has warned that terrorism continues to be a "global" threat and needs to be fought whether it is in "Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else". He said his view was "not popular", but the "large part of the Western world…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 24 April
Government Tony Blair will today put his personal stamp on a reorganisation of the Home Office when he chairs a new cabinet committee on terrorism and security. But with only two weeks to go before the department is due to be officially…
Defra creates a new Quango
This government really doesn't like rubbish, does it? It would rather we just didn't produce it or if we do to hang on to it. It's as though it has suddenly become a luxury, a privilege of the rich to be able to get rid of your rubbish…
I have a dream...
A Department for Trade & Industry commissioned report (i.e. we paid for it) has advised the Government to prepare for Robo-rights. Yes - Robo-rights. Like Human rights, but for robots. What a great idea? I mean, C-3P0 was a sensitive chap…
Stop bullying us with your legislation, Tony
It has been reported today that there are 266 different legislative powers in which the state has a right to enter our homes - and we're not just talking about Policemen with search warrants. The over legislating, under thinking, government…
Policy Announcements, Monday 23 April
Government A major new campaign that aims to help individuals cut their personal CO2 emissions has today been backed by Prime Minister Tony Blair and Environment Secretary David Miliband. The Climate Group's We're In This Together…
Review of the Papers, Monday 23 April
**Government ** Some of the UK's most senior arts and sports administrators yesterday united to warn that cuts in lottery funding to pay for the Olympics would undermine the future of their institutions and actually reduce participation in…
Review of the Papers, Friday 20 April
**Government ** Renewables firms are laying off staff because the government has shut its grant scheme that helps households adopt green energy technologies such as solar panels. The grant suspension means not a penny has been committed to…
Policy Announcements, Friday 20 April
Government New proposals to protect the victims of forced marriages are to be introduced to Parliament today. Lord Lester of Herne Hill's bid to empower family courts to use civil remedies as part of a crackdown received cross-party support…
Don't mention the law
Yesterday the EU set a dangerous precedent. Condoning or “grossly trivialising” genocide will become a crime punishable by up to three years in prison across Europe. Now condoning genocide is a ridiculous and sick thing to do, I think most…
Bootiful
So Bernard Matthews bought a load of dodgy birds from Hungary, dumps a load of meat in open bins, had un-fit for purpose sheds which had leaky roofs and mesh that had been gnawed by rats and his farm was at the centre of the biggest…
The whole thing stinks
So we are told that we will be fined an outrageous fee if we put our rubbish out too early as it encourages mice and rats on to the streets? But what better way to encourage mice and rats on to the streets (as well as a pretty awful smell…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 19 April
Government Ministers are planning new powers to detain terror suspects for longer before charge, and to allow the police to question them after they are charged. In an interview in the Guardian newspaper Lord Goldsmith said the government…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 19 April
**Government ** A £17bn overhaul of the London tube is under threat after a shareholder in the project said the operation's finances were "under increasing pressure". The crisis in the public-private partnership (PPP) contract to renew the…
Fine those MPs who take advantage of their position
I've just picked up this story for Recess Monkey and also ananova.com. Opposition Greater Romania Party MP Corneliu Bichinet has come up with one of the most sensible and amusing policy plans for keeping Romanian MPs in check - and I am…
Another bad decision by Brown
Following on from yesterday's post about the Iron Chancellor's historic decisions coming back to bite us all, it appears (though this has been no secret) that the PPP investment in to the London Underground has been as disaster. Gordon…
Another failed policy
A new report published today has shown what we already knew - the government has failed on its drug policy. It seems that the more the government has intervened, the worse the problem has got. "-The prices of the principal drugs in Britain…
Still paying a decade later...
The time is drawing nearer and nearer where Tony will have to finally announce he is stepping down and the long, long awaiting "-leadership contest-" can finally begin. Since the Labour conference last year where Blair had them screaming in…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 18 April
Government Tax dodgers who kept their money in Britain are to get a similar amnesty to those who hid money offshore. A long-awaited deal unveiled on Tuesday offers a reduced penalty to anyone who comes clean over unpaid tax. People who…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 18 April
Government Immigration Minister Liam Byrne, today unveiled the timetable for introducing the UK's tough new Australian-style points based system for migration, during a fact finding visit to Sydney. According to GNN, the new scheme, which…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 17 April
**Government ** Gordon Brown faces an unprecedented vote of no confidence in the Commons today over his handling of the pensions crisis. While the Conservative motion is certain to be voted down by Labour MPs, the Tories said it would be…
The tax-payers are the biggest losers of all
I haven't mentioned the NHS for a while, but it was always going to come back. So here goes - the National Health Service's £12.4 billion national computer system. It's not a particularly new story, but confirmation of what we all feared…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 17 April
Government Tony Blair has urged his successor to retain his "unique foreign policy" in order to maintain international influence. At his monthly press conference on Tuesday, the prime minister unveiled his policy review on 'Britain in the…
Spinning it through the back door
So the government are going to offer incentives to get a few motorists to try out their road pricing scheme. Motorists who become guinea pigs for the governments tax raising plot will be given a discount on fuel duty in return for strapping…
Scrap VAT on clothes
The government is being urged to get VAT removed from school clothing - and quite right. It is the government that back schools having a uniform promoting the benefits of equality, i.e. no fancy Dans coming in with all the latest street…
Review of the Papers, Monday 16 April
Government Motorists will be offered incentives to take part in road-pricing experiments, under government plans to rescue its policy of reducing congestion by charging vehicles by the mile. Rather than forcing drivers to install a black…
Policy Announcements, Monday 16 April
Government As the government's controversial Mental Health Bill is considered in the Commons, campaigners have called on MPs to amend the legislation. The Bill has been criticised by professionals in the field and ministers suffered a…
Review of the Papers, Friday 13 April
Government Thousands of people across the country have been fined for putting out their rubbish on the wrong day. More than a dozen councils have levied fines since the introduction of legislation a year ago enabling local authorities to…
Policy Announcements, Friday 13 April
Government The Labour Party's website is likely to play a pivotal role in the battle to be its next leader, it has emerged. MPs' leadership nominations will be published on the site, although party sources denied reports the list will be…
It's your fault and you'll pay
One hundred and eighty-five thousand pounds. That is how much a dozen local councils in England and Wales have raised through fixed penalties from households putting their rubbish out on the wrong day. This includes households who have put…
What transport strategy?
So the government wants us all to ditch our cars and get on public transport? And why should I, you ask? Well, it's a nice little earner for the government for a start. The Office for National Statistics has revealed another spectacular…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 12 April
Government Trains and tracks could be reunited and put under public control for the first time since privatisation, under plans to make Scotland a test case for the rest of the rail industry. Network Rail, the not-for-profit company created…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 12 April
EU Plans to cut the cost of mobile phone calls between European Union member states may be about to move a step closer after a key vote in Brussels. A committee at the European Parliament has voted to support European Commission proposals…
Money for nothing
The Home Office is right up there with the best at wasting our money. Its Secretary of State has even described it as "not fit for purpose". But that was before tough, no nonsense John Reid got his hands on it and sorted the whole shambles…
Health care should be above the murky world of politics
It is reported today, in the Telegraph, that the Government spends as much as 85p in every £1 spent on health in Labour Constituencies. It is not the first time that we have learnt the Government has been using financial incentives to win…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 11 April
**Government ** A new project focusing on "problem families" who create trouble in the community has been launched by the government. The Home Office unveiled a network of 53 family intervention projects targeting around 1,500 families…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 11 April
Government Proposals to create an "NHS headquarters" or a separate "management executive" within the Department of Health are being developed by David Nicholson, the chief executive of the health service. The move would be the first step…
Nanny knows best
What makes governments and local councils think they know best about just about everything? If I have a leak in the bathroom, I'll call the plumber not Councillor Jones or my local MP. If I want finacial advice I am highly unlikely to ask…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 10 April
Government Scottish Labour has used its Holyrood election manifesto launch to put education at the heart of its plans for the next parliament. Party leader Jack McConnell told a press conference that education would have "first call" on…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 10 April
Government A "lost generation" of unemployed young people is costing the economy billions of pounds a year in benefits, youth crime and educational under-achievement, a major report discloses today. The first large-scale study of its kind…
Pay up, or I'll send the boys round
And so to the latest attack on motorists and the Government's obsession with giving more power to the least appropriate people. A Department for Transport's feasibility study into "pay as you drive" includes proposals to use debt collectors…
Blood on their hands
A report by the London School of Economics for the Prince's Trust charity, entitled The Cost of Exclusion gives us a very dim view of our future. It appears that the benefits handout culture of Great Britain is producing a population of…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 05 April
**Government ** The National Health Service's £12bn information technology programme yesterday passed one key milestone - but confirmed it had missed another. Connecting for Health is celebrating the installation of digital imaging systems…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 05 March
**Government ** Lie detectors will be used to help root out benefit cheats, Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton has said. So-called "voice-risk analysis software" will be used by council staff to help identify suspect claims. It can…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 04 April
Government Gordon Brown was last night under renewed pressure from the Conservatives after Brussels revealed that the chancellor had been forced to back down in a row over Britain's highly politically-charged EU rebate. Brussels said the…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 04 March
Government "Talking" CCTV cameras that tell off people dropping litter or committing anti-social behaviour are to be extended to 20 areas across England. They are already used in Middlesbrough where people seen misbehaving can be told to…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 03 April
Government Labour's campaign launch for May's crucial elections was in danger of being eclipsed last night by the growing controversy over Gordon Brown's pension taxation changes. The Treasury was forced into an embarrassing climbdown…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 03 April
Government All pregnant women in England will be given the option of a home birth under plans launched by health secretary Patricia Hewitt. Hewitt unveiled Labour's vision for the future of maternity services in England and said that…
Policy Announcements, Monday 02 April
Government Tough new powers giving teachers' clear and unequivocal authority to discipline badly behaved pupils become law this week. Designed to combat disruptive, bullying or offensive behaviour, they give teachers a clear statutory…
Comment spam
Back from a fantastic week's skiing, and I find that we are being bombarded with comment spam, mostly from domains in Russia and Turkey. Having only enabled it a couple of weeks ago, I'm going to have turn off anonymous commenting, to get…
Review of the Papers, Monday 02 April
Government The row over the government's pensions policy deepened yesterday as business leaders dismissed ministers' claims that they had lobbied for Gordon Brown's controversial tax changes in 1997. Documents released under the Freedom…
Agricultural subsidies
While I was away, I received a copy of this letter from Bob Durward (chairman of the classical liberal New Party) to David Milliband. Bob has allowed me to reproduce it here. I hope it tickles you as much as it tickles me. To: Rt Hon David…
Review of the Papers, Friday 30 March
Government David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, has secured agreement from the Treasury to double the spending on green farming schemes to improve the landscape and increase the number of rare wild birds. English farmers will be…
Policy Announcements, Friday 30 March
**Government ** The economy and employees needs to be "flexible", Tony Blair is to say in a speech about work. His ideas about "flexi-Britain" include urging employees to adapt quickly to the needs of their bosses to keep the "knowledge…
review of the Papers, Thursday 29 March
Government Home secretary John Reid has finalised plans to break up the Home Office. It was confirmed last night that Mr Reid had passed his proposals to No 10 amid reports that Tony Blair will give the go ahead for the scheme in a…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 29 March
**Government ** The Home Office will be split into two separate departments for security and for justice in the next six weeks. The Department for Constitutional Affairs will take control of probation, prisons and prevention of re…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 28 March
Government The minimum age for a marriage visa is to be raised from 18 to 21, in a bid to combat forced marriages. Spouses or fiances who want to come to the UK from outside the EU may also have to pass an English test first. People who…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 28 March
Government An accounting rule that has plunged more than two dozen hospital trusts into an irrecoverable financial position is to be ditched, Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, is to announce today. Now "absolutely confident" that the…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 27 March
Government Ed Miliband, Minister for the Third Sector, today launched the Government's search for a partner to deliver a new £1.2m Innovation Exchange - a programme to support the third sector's capacity to innovate. The Innovation…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 27 March
Government Tougher community sentences and more measures to rehabilitate criminals are among a raft of law and order ideas being unveiled by Tony Blair. The prime minister's policy review will also back units for mentally ill prisoners…
Policy Announcements, Monday 26 March
Government A new UK policy for managing solid low level radioactive waste has been published by the UK Government and the devolved administrations today. The policy, which follows a public consultation in 2006, puts proving public safety…
Review of the Papers, Monday 26 March
Government The Government is to dramatically overhaul its strategy on crime by ending its drive for ever-tougher sentences and instead putting more emphasis on rehabilitating offenders and sending fewer of them to prison. Cabinet papers…
The sad decline of The Independent
I had noticed that The Independent had ceased to be a newspaper and had become instead a soap-box from which Simon Kelner and his staff could bore on about Iraq and the environment. A sad decline from the refreshingly open-minded and wide…
Short intermission
I'm off skiing for a week, and JG has already headed off on holiday for a fortnight, so things may go a little quiet round here for a while. But LP should still be posting the summaries and maybe the odd additional posting if something…
BBC sceptics
The BBC is in many ways excellent (when you compare the quality of TV and radio in other countries, for example), but is nevertheless a persistent irritant with occasional outbreaks of festering sores. The priority given to football over…
What the budget really means for disposable incomes and incentives
Forget about what the BBC, the Government or the Tories say about the impact of the changes to personal taxation and benefits announced by Gordon Brown today. Here is what it really means for people of working age (comparing the current…
The Budget, the BBC and the Bias
The BBC's reporting of the Budget debate on Radio Five Live has been fantastically lop-sided. On the most basic measure - air time - they broadcast the whole of Gordon Brown's speech but cut off both David Cameron and Ming Campbell mid-flow…
Review of the papes, Wednesday 21st March
Gordon Brown will announce today that the government is to spend an extra £1bn to lift 200,000 children out of poverty as he uses his final budget to help put Labour back on track to meet its target for alleviating deprivation among the…
£40.5bn extra a year and he wonders why there's child poverty
Only a couple more hours and Gordon will giving his final Budget to Parliament. There will be much patting on the back by his loyal followers, though probably mostly by himself. He will claim the longest period of economic growth in the…
The sickness tax
Has there been a government better at "charging for old rope" than this current one. As I understand, our taxes go, in large parts, to the funding of all things NHS - including their car parks. However, our money that went to towards…
Do I sense proper NHS reform?
Have Tony Blair and Gordon Brown been reading Picking Losers? Probably not. But there are hints that someone is mentioning the P word over at the Department of Health. But don't get too excited, all is not what it seems. The FT are…
Review of the papers, Tuesday 20th March
Gordon Brown has exhibited a "Stalinist ruthlessness" in government, belittling his cabinet colleagues whom the Treasury treats with "more or less complete contempt", according to the man who was Britain's top civil servant until two years…
A backlash is brewing and it can not come soon enough...
So what can we expect from Wednesday's budget, apart from Gordon Brown boring us all to tears? Well, the buzz word at the moment is green and it's an expensive word at that. It seems the biggest losers on Wednesday will be the evil folk…
Independent from reason or responsibility
The Independent led yesterday with a report on Greenpeace's attempts to prevent BA opening a service from Gatwick to Newquay. Their strap-line in the print version read: -"The battle of Newquay. British Airways faces a showdown with the…
Whatever you do, don't get an education
Or your children will suffer. Headline in The Times today: University squeeze on children of graduates. Is there any need to say anything more? Can't get a much more obvious example of government picking losers. It's us. All of us (rich and…
What is Boris exactly?
Don't forget to vote in the "what is Boris anyway?" poll. I agree with bgprior - Boris is a sharp cookie and is playing the rest of us for the fool. His blog is excellent (if only it were updated more often) and his knowledge on a range of…
Stop being such a pessimist and give me all your money
So it was finally announced yesterday how much the Olympics is really going to cost us (at least until it is re-calculated in a year or so when they realise they still haven't got it right). After conning the British public and the rest of…
Review of the Papers, Friday 16 March
Government The government was accused yesterday of losing control of the finances of the London Olympics after it revealed the total budget for the 2012 games has nearly trebled to £9.3bn. There was fury from National Lottery distributors…
Reform of party-funding - all yours for £13.50
In a move that is almost beyond parody, Sir Hayden Phillips - the man who thinks our political parties would be cheap at £25,000,000 a year - thinks £13.50 is good value to tell us what good value the parties are. That's what a copy of his…
Policy Announcements, Friday 16 March
Government The chairman of the Commons Treasury select committee has outlined the key themes of Gordon Brown's forthcoming Budget. John McFall, an ally of the chancellor, said that support for education, families and welfare to work…
Eat up your bones, they're good for you
Sharp as always, Wat Tyler at Burning Our Money has posted today about the Waste Resources Action Programme or WRAP (how clever - I wonder what came first, the name or the acronym... mmm, I wonder?). Now, as you will have probably guessed…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 15 March
Government Gordon Brown will raise billions of pounds to put education at the centre of next week's Budget with a privatisation of the student loans system. The chancellor will make the announcement of extra billions for education the…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 15 March
Government Spending limits on political campaigns and caps on individual donations remain "obstacles" to a deal on party funding, Sir Hayden Phillips has said. His year-long review recommends both be capped, but despite "broad agreement…
Boris's philosophy
Getting a few hits from Boris Johnson's site after JG posted a comment there. I feel we ought to reciprocate and put Boris in one of our blogrolls. But here's my dilemma: should I put him in with the individualists or with the…
£3bn overspend in DfT
Who are these people in Government who simply can not make a decent estimate? It seems every single Government major investment project runs vastly over budget. Where on Earth do they find them - it's not like it's one department or the odd…
"Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"
With the budget coming up next week, it is that time of year where Gordon Brown lays it on thick that this country has never had it so good and that we have seen ten consecutive years of growth and he has been the longest serving chancellor…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 14 March
Government Peers have voted for the House of Lords to be fully appointed, setting the scene for a parliamentary battle over reform with MPs. In a series of Commons votes last week there were majorities for either an 80 or 100 per cent…
Hey Tony - leave them kids alone!
The current government has taken the nanny state to new levels in the UK and now it is taking the term quite literally. Its latest piece of interfering is with the development of our young children - after all nanny knows best. The Guardian…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 14 March
Government A reorganisation of NHS services for patients needing medical attention outside normal working hours was shambolic and ran hugely over budget, a cross-party committee of MPs says today in a caustic report on one of the…
£70m overspend for a shambolic service
NHS shocker: "-Reorganisation of NHS services for patients needing medical attention outside normal working hours was shambolic and ran hugely over budget-." This is according to a cross-party committee report on one of the government's key…
Environmental risk
I'm feeling rather pleased with a comment I posted to a thread on the Samizdata.net website, so I'm going to post it here too. Jonathan Pearce had posted a thoughtful piece to Samizdata on the merits of David Cameron's announcement on…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 13 March
Government The Government's blueprint for tackling climate change was today set out by Environment Secretary David Miliband. The draft Climate Change Bill set out a framework for moving the UK to a low-carbon economy. Key points of the…
Get the story straight at least
And so to the Government and their use of the environment as a way of screwing over the taxpayer. In an attempt to out-green Green Dave, the government has gone in a radically different direction. Instead of aiming to cut emissions by -at…
Taxing the bad and rewarding the good... the final straw
Can someone please inject some common sense in to the Environment debate? It is really starting to get out of hand and I fear will bankrupt us all! It seems that the major parties can justify doing anything just by linking it to the…
"The Tories are the party of lower taxers or they are nothing"
What is it with David Cameron? He is obsessed with taxation and the environment. Or is it he is obsessed with taxation and excuses for raising taxes whilst sounding like a kind and caring new Tory? Forget the comparisons with Tony Blair…
Review of the Papers, Monday 12 March
Government Gordon Brown will slap down David Cameron's plan to impose strict personal allowances on tax-free air travel as little better than feel-good politics which do not address global warming at the vital level of coordinated…
Policy Announcements, Monday 12 March
Government Learning a foreign language will become a compulsory part of the curriculum for 7-14 year olds, Education Secretary Alan Johnson announced. Lord Dearing and DfES National Director for Languages Dr Lid King were asked to carry…
Ford's idea of green
Good news from the Energy Saving Trust's website: "A new carbon reduction method for diesel vehicles is set to be demonstrated on Ford's fleet of vehicles in the near future....To be trialed on Ford's Power Stroke diesel vehicles, the…
£10billion of public money to give everyone a pay cut.
One of the most ill conceived and un-needed policies from the current government is coming back to haunt all of us. The revised 1970 equal pay legislation is just beginning to show its impact - and guess what, women aren't getting pay rises…
Know how he feels
I've added a link to the Not Proud of Britain (But Would Like To Be) blog, simply for this comment on the Bloggers4Labour blog. It is one of the most intelligent observations that I have seen on the false economics of the Government's road…
Global warming balance
Last night's Dispatches report on the Great Global Warming Swindle brought some welcome balance to the climate-change debate. Not because the programme itself was balanced - it was completely one-sided in favour of the sceptics - but…
The sensible way forward is to sort out the real problems first
It's as if there are no problems left in this country and our MPs can now start to squabble over the petty and inconsequential. Watch out, the PC brigade are taking over and their leader is Jack Straw. The man being touted as our next…
The cost of the EU tendering process
It comes as little surprise that the public sector tendering process is not only costing the tax payer money but putting off contractors even applying for contracts in the first place making the process less competitive and poor value for…
Post-rational
Charles N. Steele wrote a funny little comment on Hot Coffee Girl's blog a while back, about not defining oneself as a "non-smoker". Recent encounters with various pseudo-intellectual movements defining themselves as post-this or post-that…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 08 March
Government The government is preparing to publish "a clear programme for further reforms" of public services. At Thursday's cabinet meeting the prime minister introduced the work of one of six policy reviews set up last October. The reviews…
Fat Cats emigrate from the city to 9-5 administrator role
The Tax Payers' Alliance has exposed one of the reasons why our council taxes are rising well above inflation every year - to pay big bosses. The number of local authority staff earning more than £100,000 jumped from 429 in 2005 to 578 last…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 07 March
Government The Government was forced to climb down and announce an immediate review of the new system for selecting junior doctors for training. The Medical Training Application Service has united doctors young and old into a revolt so…
NHS failings due to "ill thought-out Government policies"
Rather like yesterday's post about Gordon Brown and the Treasury, the attacks I am giving the NHS at the moment aren't borne out of partisan views or a fundamental opposition to the idea of free health. I believe it is very important that…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 07 March
Government John Reid has announced new measures to prevent the employment of illegal immigrants. The enforcement strategy includes a 'watch list' of illegal immigrants to alert agencies if someone applies for services to which they are not…
Do as I say, not as I do
The hypocrisy of this government over the green debate continues. Whilst we are being taxed from the skies, off the roads and out of business the government is actually increasing its CO2 outputs. The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 06 March
Government Gordon Brown has lifted the tax burden to breaking point and must slash public spending or risk plunging Britain's national accounts dangerously into the red, the International Monetary Fund warned. The alarm was sounded after…
Tax & Spend Isn't Working
The attacks on Gordon Brown's high taxation, high spending polices are becoming more and more frequent on this website. It it not the intention of picking losers to target individuals nor is it partisan. However, it is of course more likely…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 06 March
Government Communities Minister Phil Woolas offered grants totalling more than £4.3 million to 343 organisations to promote a common sense of citizenship. Ministers have set out the challenge for all living in a multicultural Britain of…
Policy Announcements, Monday 05 March
Government The Government presented a package of actions to deliver the step change needed to ensure that supply chains and public services will be increasingly low carbon, low waste and water efficient, respect biodiversity and deliver…
The saga continues
And back to an old favourite. The NHS and IT systems. It has been announced that the NHS will start recruiting a new IT supplier to its troubled £6.2bn IT upgrade project this month in the clearest sign yet that it has completely cocked up…
Review of the Papers, Monday 05 March
Government An independent scientific audit of the UK's climate change policies predicts that the government will fall well below its target of a 30% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 - which means that the country will not reach…
Bioethanol - winner or loser?
The production of ethanol from corn as a replacement/supplement for petrol is coming under increased attack from environmentalists. This month's Ecologist and today's Independent both led with a destructive assessment of its merits. I do…
RDA's, value for money?
Regional Agencies, aka Quangos, are costing the tax payer £360m a year to run, double the level of five years ago. The FT reports that the typical cost for each region is put at £23m for the regional development agency, £3m for the regional…
A modern day highwayman
You have to hand it to him, Gordon Brown is a highly successful opportunist. If it can be taxed, it will be taxed and the less people realise what he is doing the better. The Dour Scot is famed for stealth taxes but it's the way he makes…
Appropriate incentives
The Economist has been talking up prize-giving as a good way to get the maximum bang for your charitable buck. In response to a flippant remark, suggesting prizes to solve the riddle of the missing NHS billions, from the excellent Dr Steele…
The terminal decline of the NHS continues
The NHS crisis is growing by the day - problems with IT systems, funding issues and misuses of funds, ineffective use of nurse and doctor resources, the list is seemingly endless. A story today has managed to combine all the worse parts of…
Testing Gordon
Francis Maude argued on tonight's Question Time that it would be good for there to be a serious contest for the leadership of the Labour Party, as Gordon needed to be tested. Was he admitting that members of his own party are not capable of…
Review of the Papers, Friday 02 March
Government Britain will be divided into a patchwork of road-pricing zones where drivers will be charged varying rates, under a government plan to make them pay by the mile without tracking them on every road. Ministers believe that a zonal…
Policy Announcements, Friday 02 March
Government OGCbuying.solutions has signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with SAP, a business software provider. This new agreement will offer all public sector organisations preferential pricing arrangements on SAP software and services…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 1 March
Government The government last night won a key vote over plans to privatise parts of the probation service. There had been speculation that ministers could be defeated on the Offender Management Bill by a combination of Labour rebels and…
It takes more than sounding good to con us now, Tony.
Education. Education. Education. Remember that? What actually has Tony Blair done though to back up the sound bites? There was the city academies idea - 21 semi-independent schools that are largely funded by the tax payer and cost £2…
Expensive gimmicks
What is going on in the Treasury? They are ditching plans to promote good behaviour among "young people". The scheme that was to bribe the worst behaved kids on our streets with a £25 gift voucher for good behaviour. Has common sense…
The answer is whatever the Government wants it to be
The Daily Telegraph reports today that John Prescott has (rather amusingly) "-thrown his weight behind a growing campaign at Westminster to force a rethink of the decision to site Britain's first super-casino in Manchester-". Apparently he…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 28 February
**Government ** The full implementation timetable for the Companies Act 2006 was announced by Industry and Regions Minister Margaret Hodge. All of the Act will be in place by October 2008 with many elements implemented earlier. The…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 28 February
Government Airbus will today announce plans to build a composites manufacturing facility near Bristol to supply the new family of A350 jets planned by the European aircraft maker under its €10bn (£6.7bn) development programme. The move…
How do you lose £2.7bn? Ask the NHS
The NHS has a pensions black hole that has risen by £61bn in just two years. That is incredible! According to the Telegraph the figures include an addition £2.7bn because, and I kid you not, the Government accidentally lost this sum on last…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 27 February
Government Changes to the way the Government assesses the cost of regulations for business are being planned to counter claims that companies have been loaded with £55bn worth of red tape since Labour came to power. Ministers are irritated…
Red tape stops us from making money
A Chamber of Commerce report released yesterday has shown that the cost of regulation and red tape to small businesses is running at £55bn. 70% of these businesses believe that the government is not doing enough to help them. One of the…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 27 February
Government Immigrants could be required to do community service before gaining UK citizenship, Gordon Brown has said.During a speech on Britishness the chancellor said adding the condition to language and culture tests for would-be citizens…
Our very British Chancellor
He's at it again, our Chancellor, talking about Britishness. That is one paranoid Scot. Does he not realise that dissecting Britishness is profoundly unBritish, and that real Brits have the self-confidence in our culture not to need to…
Government-created cartel
It is a commonplace of economics that competition drives down prices. Economies of scale drive down costs. The combination of the two may achieve the lowest prices. But normally one would not expect cartels to deliver low prices, however…
Does work work?
Lord McKenzie of Luton, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Lords) at the Department for Work and Pensions, today "called on the expertise of businesses, government and charities to discuss and agree what constitutes 'good work'." As he…
Understanding the law
Ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law. Enforcement of the law (and therefore social order) breaks down if this simple rule is not upheld. Is there not, then, a moral obligation on our legislators, enforcement-agencies, and judiciary…
Trading favours
David Miliband has prepared (with the help of Alistair Darling and some big businesses) a manifesto for the development of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) after 2012 (Phase 3). He has circulated it to trade associations and big…
Review of the Papers, Monday 26 February
Government A leading architect of Tony Blair's health reforms warns in the Guardian today that the NHS will not survive as a universal tax-funded service without a change of policy. Chris Ham, professor of health policy at Birmingham…
Policy Announcements, Monday 26 February
Government Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alistair Darling, has today asked Ofcom to conduct an initial investigation into British Sky Broadcasting Group's acquisition of a 17.9% stake in ITV plc. This means Ofcom must provide…
More rising council taxes (though not if Labour need your vote)
The average council tax bill is set to rise another 3.8% this year - an incredible 90% increase since Labour came to power! And surprise, surprise - the lowest rises are in the 238 districts that face elections in May, weeks before Gordon…
Give us all your money and we'll save the planet by chauffeur driven car
If ever proof were needed that this government is using the environment debate as a smoke screen to stealth taxes and pushing through their agenda, then just look at how they are acting in their everyday lives. You would think a government…
What's a Zebra crossing?
Is there anything more insignificant than a local non government department? Of course - it's the nonsense these jobsworths come out with. And the Kent Highway Services are no exception! If you've ever wondered what those black and white…
Policy Announcements, Friday 23 February
Government The UK and US have held high level talks on the possibility of putting a "Son of Star Wars" anti-ballistic missile defence system on British soil. An article in The Economist claims Prime Minister Tony Blair has lobbied President…
Review of the Papers, Friday 23 February
Government Standards are improving in Tony Blair's controversial city academies, but pupils are still not grasping the three Rs, Whitehall's spending watchdog warns. A National Audit Office report says the £5 billion programme is on track…
None for the price of two
We appear to have a Government in paralysis, two leaders - neither of whom are in control - a lame duck and an impending coronation of a new PM after an election pledge by Blair to serve a full term. The latest piece of ego building by…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 22 February
Government The Treasury has announced that the Budget will be delivered on Wednesday March 21. The Home Secretary announced a three-point plan following a gun crime summit at 10 Downing Street, chaired by the Prime Minister and attended by…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 22 February
Government Britain's scientific research budget is to be cut by almost £100 million to pay for overspending by the Department of Trade and Industry. Despite repeated claims by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown that science is the key to the…
How to choose the right course of action
Anyone (other than the specialists who get paid to produce them, or pressure groups and politicians who use them to justify intervention in favour of their special interests) who has looked with a critical eye at the Cost-Benefit Analyses…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 21 February
Government The government agency created to seize the assets of criminals is condemned today as a mess, having spent £65 million on collecting only £23 million. The Assets Recovery Agency has received 700 files linked to £274 million. But…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 21 February
The Chief Pharmaceutical Officers from England, Scotland and Wales came together today to reveal plans for historic changes to the regulation of the pharmacy profession. The measures, which form part of the Government White Paper on…
An interesting fact
Well, to me anyway.... In 2004, Ukraine was the fifth-largest importer of natural gas in the world. Belarus was the tenth-largest. In 2005, Belarus had dropped out of the top-10, not because it had reduced its consumption (net imports had…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 20 February
Gordon Brown is failing to persuade the public that he would make a better prime minister than David Cameron, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today which suggests the Conservatives could win a working majority at the next general…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 20 February
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Ed Balls MP, brought representatives from the European Commission together with leading representatives of London's financial sector, while also announcing the implementation of tax measures to boost…
Review of the Papers, Monday 19 February
Government Most doctors believe that Labour has failed to reform the NHS and that funding by taxation alone will not improve the quality of care. An online poll of more than 3,000 doctors carried out for The Times offers the most striking…
Policy Announcements, Monday 19 February
Jack Straw has abandoned controversial plans to use a preferential voting system for deciding on the future of the House of Lords. MPs will instead use the traditional 'ayes and noes' method of voting to decide the upper chamber's…
The answer is blowing in the wind
I am no fan of wind energy. It is hugely over-rated. But, like most energy sources, it has its place. To dismiss it or condemn it out-of-hand is as distorted a view as to hail it as the solution to all our energy problems. The Times today…
Environmental showboating
Richard Branson is going to create an "environmental showcase for the world" on the Caribbean island of Moskito. He "wants to transform Moskito into the world’s first carbon-neutral holiday resort, complete with wind power, recycling and…
Review of the Papers, Friday 16 February
Government Tony Blair's plan to pave the way for a new generation of nuclear power stations by the time he leaves office was in disarray yesterday after the high court ruled the government had carried out a "misleading" and "seriously…
Policy Announcements, Friday 16 February
Government Home Secretary John Reid announced that he has commissioned another two new prisons to manage the growing prison population and protect the public from dangerous and persistent offenders. Speaking at the first prison he has…
Lies, damn lies and UNICEF reports
Britons have been indulging in a bout of self-flagellation over our bottom-ranking in a recent UNICEF report on childhood well-being. Each person, of course, chooses to blame the result on their personal -bête noire-. No doubt there are…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 15 February
Plans to shake up the way the government combats terrorism have been put on ice until Tony Blair leaves Downing Street, senior Whitehall officials said yesterday. The prime minister was sent proposals before Christmas by John Reid, the home…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 15 February
Government The Prime Minister and Minister for Higher Education Bill Rammell announced a substantial boost to help increase voluntary giving to English Higher Education providers, making them more financially independent. The government is…
Consultation - what's the point?
Everyone in the energy industry knew that last year's Energy Review was a fix. Now a judge has recognised it too, and told the Government to consult properly on the nuclear issue. Labour have such contempt for the public that they couldn't…
Is inflation back?
Rather a big question for a blog posting. This is not going to provide an answer, but a couple of observations. Trying to measure inflation objectively by means of indices is nearly impossible. Take wage inflation, often seen as one of the…
Style over substance - whatever the cost
It is reported that the measure is designed to "refresh" local government in Scotland before May's council elections. How do we refresh Scottish politics? Get the Government to use our money to replace middle aged “old Labour” types with…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 14 February
Plans to mark the 60th birthday of the NHS next year by formalising its core values in a written constitution are to be put to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown by Andy Burnham, the health minister responsible for NHS reform. In an interview in…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 14 February
A new drive to cut the level of fire-related youth crimes - such as arson, hoax calls and attacks on firefighters - was announced today by Fire Minister Angela Smith. Through its Action Plan, central government will work with the Chief Fire…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 13 February
Government Litter created by employees around their workplaces, including discarded cigarette ends, could become the responsibility of businesses to clean up. Defra proposals, published for consultation today, would widen the range of…
Government alchemy - Independent-style
The Independent is never shy of calling for more government money to be spent on one thing or another. Now we know why. Apparently taxation is not a drain on the economy, but a means to create wealth. They report today that the Department…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 13 February
Government Senior Whitehall figures are accusing ministers of creating a "culture of fear" in the Home Office that they claim is directly contributing to the department's catalogue of failures. They say officials have been so bullied by…
Review of the Papers, Monday 12 February
Government Senior government figures have played down any chance of Labour increasing the taxation of City bonuses after a prominent cabinet minister said they were creating a "grotesque" wealth gap in the UK. Peter Hain, Northern Ireland…
Policy Announcements, Monday 12 February
New measures to strengthen police powers to deal with sex offenders and further protect the public from crime come into force today. The measures, from the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, mean that from today more offenders can be placed…
Now we're all philanthropist, thanks to Tony
How can Mr Blair confuse the redistribution on taxpayers’ money to elite universities as “embedding a culture of charitable giving?” It is not charitable on the part of the government, that’s for sure - merely a smokescreen method for the…
Review of the Papers, Friday 9 February
More than 60 MPs have backed a campaign to force the Government and regulators to step in to prevent BSkyB, Britain's biggest satellite television company, from taking over its terrestrial rival ITV. The prospect that BSkyB's chairman…
Policy Announcements, Friday 9 February
Government A streamlined process for applying to Defra for waste PFI credits has been announced. The introduction of Award Rounds, similar to those used by other government departments, means discrete application windows will replace the…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 8 February
Government The Chancellor Gordon Brown and Education Secretary Alan Johnson called on all employers to sign up to a 'Skills Pledge' to ensure that all their employees reach a skills level equivalent to five good GCSEs. The Skills Pledge…
If it wasn't for those pesky auditors...
Congratulations to the Gordon Brown who has claimed to have made a whopping £13.3bn a year efficiency savings across Whitehall. Fantastic headlines for our PM in waiting. Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Timms, has described the…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 8 February
Government The government must rely less on Muslim leadership organisations, Ruth Kelly said as she launched a £5m fund to help councils tackle extremism. Around 50 local authorities are seeking cash to support their work with Muslim…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 7 February
MPs are pressing for a special exemption from new powers that they brought in seven years ago in a popular attempt to open up government to public scrutiny. A private members' Bill introduced by a former Tory whip and considered by a…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 7 February
Government Jack Straw, the leader of the Commons, outlined details of the White Paper which proposes a house where some peers are elected and some still appointed, as they all are now. Mr Straw, who wants 50% of peers to be elected, said…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 6 February
Government Home Secretary John Reid proposed strengthening the sex offenders register to better protect children using the internet. As part of his Child Sex Offender Review, John Reid is considering extending the notification requirements…
Index of Economic Freedom
The Heritage Foundation has recently brought out the 2007 version of their annual Index of Economic Freedom. This assesses and scores countries according to their performance on a range of factors, and then combines them to provide an…
Standardised failure
Almost no one now pretends that Labour has achieved its ambitions for education. Government ministers continue to trot out their stale statistics about how much they have spent and how much the average grades have improved, but very few are…
Is God Green?
All sorts of environmental issues are now presented not just as practical but as moral issues - if you don't recycle, you aren't just a wasteful person, you are a bad person. In Radio 4's Start the Week today, Andrew Marr's guests included…
Voucherisation of charity
I missed the story two weeks ago on Cheryl Gillan's proposal to voucherise charity funding. If I'd been in the country (I was skiing), I'd have laid into it at the time, but for such an idiotic proposal, late is better than never. The…
Benefit chaos
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has admitted that two of the government's three targets for reducing billions of pounds of fraud and error in the benefits system have been missed. For example, the housing benefit's rate of…
Paying for controversy
There has been condemnation today of the stale news (perhaps pumped up to make the new IPCC report more interesting) that the ExxonMobil-funded American Enterprise Institute (AEI) have been offering to fund research questioning the…
Fulfilling Gordon's dreams
Gordon Brown revealed in a speech at the Government Leaders' Forum yesterday (31 January) that "one of the priorities of his premiership would be legislation to compel all youngsters to remain in full-time education (The Times)." This is…
Richmond parking fees
The Lib Dem dominated Richmond Council has decided to charge higher parking fees for high polluting vehicles. This means a family with two such cars could pay up to £750 a year - three times the normal parking fees. The council says it is…
DH superhospital fiasco
The implementation of a plan to merge and renew three out of date hospitals into a superhospital in London has been criticised by the Public Accounts Committee. The original plan estmated the total cost to be £300m and the project to be…
Troubled Home Office
Tony Blair said on the BBC's Politics Show yesterday that Britain's prisons are "full to bursting point" but suggested that the public should be relieved that dangerous prisoners are being locked up for longer. The PM also said that the…
Over budget IT projects
According to the official figures obtained by the Lib Dems, many information technology projects across government have overrun their initial budgets by more than £260 million over the last five years. The Department of the Environment Food…
Not so HIP
The government is determined to force home owners to pay more than £200 for a green energy certificate when they put their house on the market. HIPs (Home Information Packs) which will be obligatory from June this year, will rate houses…
Olympic budget
The celebrations of 2012 days left to the London Olympic Games a few days ago were overshadowed by the publication of a critical Commons Committee report. MPs (mainly Labour) criticised the planners for poor management of the games…
Red tape website
Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office Minister, is set to announce today (23 January) at IPPR the relaunch of a website for complaints on red tape. The site will allow business and lobby groups to complain about specific regulations. The…
Overstretched and underfunded
According to the Telegraph, defence spending is lowest since the 1930s. Government figures show that 2.5% of the UK's GDP (About £32bn) was likely to be spent on defence in 2005-06 compared with 4.4% in 1978-88. An MoD spokesperson said…
GPs generous pay package
Since the new government contract with GPs, the average pay for GPs is now more than £100,000. The new contract was designed to give general practices additional funds to invest in improving and developing services to patients. But it was…
Gordon the film-maker
British film industry seems to be doing better than ever. The UK Film Council recently revealed that £840m was spent last year (up by 48% from 2005). Also more studios are coming to Britain. The change has occured after the introduction of…
No trust in civil service
Lord Wilson, a former Cabinet Secretary, is writing in today's Telegraph how Tony Blair has "brought in an increasing number of consultants at huge cost and created a dizzying array of units for modernisation and delivery, armed with…
Schools falling apart because of red tape
Gordon Brown promised in successive budget speeches to rebuild or refurbish all 3,500 secondary schools before 2020 to spend £3bn a year on rebuilding or refurbishing to complete 100 schools by this year and 200 the next to sign 10…
How sound is our money?
Wat Tyler posted an entry on his excellent Burning Our Money blog, pointing out that yesterday's interest-rate hike was a positive sign that the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee were deciding to get back on top of inflation, not a…
Paperwork over patient care
It is reported today that Government reforms have led to patients being put at unnecessary risk by an over load of paperwork required by their carers. The British Medical Journal describes hospital wards as having "appalling conditions" and…
"Doing nothing is not an option"
"Doing nothing is not an option." So says the Government's spokesman, as an explanation for why they will press ahead with road pricing against strong public antipathy. The culture of doing something because "something must be done" is what…
Blue plaques for trees
The Tree Council is calling for historic trees to be awarded "blue plaques" like historic buildings, concerned that "historic trees are left to wither and die". Are blue plaques (or something equivalent) supposed to stop trees from…
Improved schools = worse basic skills....?
Today's papers report that many schools are now achieving the government's target of five good GCSE's but the figures are much lower when maths and English are taken into account. Some schoolmasters encourage pupils to take easier subjects…
Carbon offsetting
Tony Blair has promised to offset emissions from his holiday flights after opposition parties and green groups questioned his leadership on climate change. But offsetting emissions is not a solution to the problem. It is a great idea to pay…
Chavez: I am the state
The re-elected Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, yesterday announced his plans to nationalise the main telecoms company and the likely nationalisation of a power company. The announcement is part of President Chavez's pledge "to radicalise…
State-funded Nazis
This is what happens when you fund political parties using taxpayers' money: The excellent Open Europe think-tank reports in its Daily Press Summary that the British National Party (BNP) are to receive a share of the £130,000 of funding…
MoD housing
The BBC reported last week of the poor state of military housing. A number of pictures of homes and barracks with mildew, broken pipes and cracked walls have appreared in the news and it is reported that servicemen are leaving the army due…
From red tape to black tape (the Telegraph)
According to the the Telegraph, HMRC has spent £7m on telling staff how to tidy their desks. This is part of a programme called Lean, introduced by consultants Unipart to improve the performance of civil servants more used to dealing with…
Reforming NHS
Today's papers are reporting further mismanagement of the NHS. A leaked document has revealed that the government expects a shortage of nurses and GPs in four years but the NHS will have to reduce the number of hospital doctors to save…
Skills quango "wasted" £100m
David Willetts, the shadow education secretary, has revealed through a number of parlimentary questions that the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) - one of the government's biggest education quangos - has "wasted" more than £100m on staff…
Skills matter?
The Times reports that many high skilled immigrants have failed to renew their visas due to the government changing the rules allowing such migrants to work in the UK. Since the introduction of the programme more than 20,000 people - mainly…
Ignorant councils
A Guardian survey has revealed that many councils are ignoring the threat of climate change and taking no action to reduce the rising carbon emissions of their residents. "The Guardian contacted all 442 local authorities in England, Wales…
More for the taxman (and less for the rest of us)
The Times reports that tax inspectors are being offered bonuses related to the amount of money collected. It seems that job satisfaction isn't enough - the respect of your fellow man, the pleasure of a job well done, the happiness brought…
Death and Taxes
The Treasury are forecasting, according to the Daily Telegraph, that the tax burden "will rise for 50 years" - in other words, until long after most of us are dead. Our tax-take will rise from 38.4% at the moment to 41.6% of GDP, and public…
The magic of levitation
The Tories are trying to work out the best way to develop our transport network, including consideration of the installation of a magnetic levitation (MagLev) railway line, or the extension of the Channel Tunnel rail link as a British…
Spending priorities - bureaucrats or soldiers?
Major General Richard Shirreff, commander of the British forces in Southern Iraq, has called for a renewal of the "military covenant between the nation and its soldiers", to provide proper support for the military in terms of "training…
Just Wages
The tensions of excess, both in private and public sectors, are starting to display themselves in debates over the just level of wages for various occupations. These debates occur every now and then, usually provoked by a sense of disparity…
How to improve standards - don't test them
The Institute for Public Policy Research, the Government's favourite think-tank of the "Third Way" (by their own lights, the "UK’s leading progressive think tank", using "progressive" in the sense that has been coopted by the soft-left to…
Government-inflicted pain
Mark and Lezley Gibson and Marcus Davies were convicted on 15 December of distributing cannabis-laced chocolate bars to multiple sclerosis (MS) sufferers. They await sentencing on 26 January. Lezley is herself a MS-sufferer, who was told at…
Baby farming
Pregnant Germans are trying to delay the birth of their babies until 1 January, the BBC report, because parents of babies born after that date will receive 25,200 euros (£16,911, $33,300 at current exchange rates) to "ease the financial…
Pie-in-the-sky planning
The Financial Times reported on Wednesday on the progress of two projects - Sigma Scan and Delta Scan - commissioned by the Horizon Scanning Centre within the Foresight Programme of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST…
Treasury's pollution
The Independent writes that carbon emissions from government departments have risen by 13% and the Treasury's CO2 rises by 130% in the last five years. Gordon Brown showing leadership on tackling climate change?
ID cards
The Home Secretary announced yesterday that its ID card scheme will be linked to existing Whitehall databases. This is a complete U-turn from the plans the government has been pushing through for years to build a new clean system from…
DPMO not ODPM
Oliver Heald, the Shadow Constitutional Affairs Secretary, uncovered through a Parliamentary Question (PQ) that John Prescott has spent almost £650 on replacing a sign on his door from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) by one…
Meeting targets
National Audit Office's report has found that information on whether 12 out of the 14 Department for Education's key targets set by the PM and Chancellor will be met is likely to be unreliable. The monitoring of only 2 targets was approved…
Equipment and war
The inquest into the death of Sgt Steven Roberts found that he was killed because of delays by the government to supply body armour to the troops. Shortage of such basic kit was already known before the Iraq war broke out but more was not…
Renewable fix
Renewable electricity in the UK is supported primarily by the Renewables Obligation (RO), an obligation on licenced electricity suppliers to purchase a proportion of their electricity from renewable sources. Most types of renewable…
Green grants
The Department of Trade and Industry has released £50m over the next 18 months to support the Low Carbon Buildings Programme. It has chosen seven companies to receive its funding. There is an increasing number of companies that operate in…
ETS
It has emerged from a leaked proposal that the EU Commission is admitting its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) would only delay aviation emissions three to six months by 2050. ETS would only reduce the growth of airtravel by less than…
Benefit system
According to the Telegraph, couples who pretend they are living apart to claim bigger benefit payments are costing the taxpayer more than £400m a year. It is estimated that up to 200,000 people were declaring themselves lone parents…
Spending on consultants
A National Audit Office (NAO) report found that the public sector paid £2.8bn to external consultants and it is a rise of 33% over three years. According to the report, departments are spending huge sums with no major returns and Whitehall…
Cutting red tape
Tony Blair outlined 500 measures to cut the £14bn cost of red tape to individuals, firms and charities yesterday. The aim is to save up to £2bn a year from measures which include simplifying forms for planning applications and rules…
Home Office mess
Home Office, the deprtment declared "not fit for purpose" is still struggling to make any improvements. Today's papers are reporting that the two terror suspects who went on the run in August are still at large. According to the National…
MoD spending
The MoD has faced an increased criticism over the last couple of weeks, the most prominent critic being Gen. Sir Michael Jackson. While the troops in the front line have to cope with poor equipment and little pay, the MoD has spent Over…
Bankrupt NHS trusts
The Guardian reports that 13 NHS trusts are "technically bankrupt with no chance of meeting a legal obligation to balance their books." The deficits are mainly caused by a financial regime known as Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB…
Carbon credit card
David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, is expected to announce a proposal for carbon "credit cards" for every citizen. People would receive an annual allowance to use on food, travel and energy and it would be possible to buy or sell…
Independent reviews
The Chancellor has commissioned 39 indpendent reviews since 1997 and most of them have quickly disappeared without making any impact. At first it seemed a good idea to bring in outside expertise but increasingly such reviews only justify…
Gordon's tax crab
The Chancellor has raised taxes by £6bn since the 2005 general election A family pays £200 per year more taxes But He promised £200 for every pupil in the PBR but only £20 is new money He promised £36bn for education in the PBR but only…
PBR
Yesterday's Pre-Budget Report was another example of Gordon's nannying. Now mothers will receive child benefits even before their baby is born and more worryingly the Government will provide books to children up to the age of 11. The…
No to quotas
According to the Guardian ministers are drafting plans for a compulsory carbon-trading quotas. The proposal would affect many businesses, including supermarkets, hotels and hospitals. Such quotas will not help to tackle climate change…
NHS reform
The PM has defended the NHS reform and is convinced that it will lead to a better patient care. It comes as an IPPR report supports the closure of local A&E departments to be replaced by a network of specialist units. But a vast majority of…
Green Cameron Tories?
According to the Lib Dems, the Conservative's "may have started to talk green but are continuing to act dirty": David Cameron switched to a supposedly green hybrid Lexus GS, but it is so big that it is more polluting than the 10 best…
Dancing to fitness
The NHS is likely to give dance classes to tackle declining fitness levels and counter a national obesity crisis according to the Independent. Trials have been carried out costing £2.5 million and the DoH said that dance classes have proven…
Law and order?
According to the Guardian the Home Office is considering to offer the public a chance to purchase shares in new prisons under a "buy to let" scheme. The Treasury has refused to find extra funding to sort out the prisons crisis and that has…
Wise investment?
Tony Blair is planning to double the number of new city academies from 200 to 400 by 2010. The PM is pointing to the improved exam results to justify the move. But only a month a ago, an Ofsted report found that a few of the small number of…
Small firms and FSA
Smaller companies' support to the FSA has decreased over the last two years. The main reasons are the continued high cost of regulation and a confusion over FSA's strategic and policy work. The FSA's recent announcement that it will switch…
DfT and rolling stock
The government asked the Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR) to investigate lack of competition for train rolling stock this June. The report, published yesterday (29 Nov) found that the industry is inefficient but a number of the problems…
MOT and red tape
The government has decided to look at scrapping the annual MOT test in favour of one every two years, a move that could save motorists millions of pounds. Currently the UK motorists are checked more frequently than their European…
Planning regulations
According to the Times the Government will announce this week that council will have to assess children's needs before granting planning permission for new homes. This means housing developments will have to include access to gardens, parks…
Another bureaucratic improvement?
There is more bad news for the Home Office - today's jail watchdog's report reveals the extent of mismanagement of the largest immigration removal centre. The government has promised to respond by a detailed action plan. But there have been…
Cutting red tape
Tony Blair promised to cut red tape for business by 25% yesterday (28 Nov) in his speech at the CBI conference. In his address today, Gordon Brown is expected to announce reforms desinged to deliver a "more modern, simpler and consistent…
Taxing regulation
A CBI survey found that some of the major British companies have moved abroad and more companies are considering the move to escape high corporate taxes. Businesses are discontent with the complexity of tax rules, aggressive attitudes of…
Failing public services
The latest Ipsis Mori poll found that people are sceptical over the government's ability to improve the public services and the economy. Only 39% believe that the Government's policies improve the economy, while 51% disagree. Government's…
Regulating travel insurance
The Treasury yesterday (23 Nov) launched a public consultation on travel insurance on grounds that "the market is not working well enough to prevent mis-selling." The last consultation on travel insurance was only three years ago when the…
MoD spending
NAO report reveals that MoD projects are overspent by £3 billion and are a total of 36 years late. The fleet is ageing, it takes more and more money to carry out repairs and the supply of new equipment is months if not years away. This must…
Gordon's green credentials
Today's Independent (24 Nov) reports the fall of revenue from green taxes which have fallen to their lowest level for at least 18 years. Green taxes is the most efficient way of tackling climate change but the Government doesn't seem to…
Great war tactics
The troops in Afganistan fighting the Taleban don't only fight the dangerous enemy but also the MoD to get proper ammunition. According to the Telegraph, the MoD sent the troops faulty ammunition as it was cheaper. Proper ammunition was…
Tsunami aid
Public Accounts Committe yesterday congratulated officials and ministers for "swift and impressive" response to the Asian tsunami. But the Independent reports that more than £9 million of British aid was sitting unspent in bank accounts 1…
Eddington review
The release of the important transport review has been delayed and it is now expected to be published with the pre budget report. The delay has not stopped the chief of the review to move to Australia and take up several high positions…
Education, education, education?
Yesterday's Ofsted report reveals that more than half of secondary schools are still failing to deliver a decent standard of education. And this is almost 10 years after Tony Blair came to power with a priority of "education, education…
Conflicting health policies
The Telegraph reports that hopitals are advised not to treat patients "too promptly" as this is costing too much money. The "Choose and Book" system has allowed patients to book early appointments which means that hospitals might lose money…
Scrap the site
Downing Street has set up an e-petitions website and it has become very succesful. Succesful in a sense that people are visiting the site and signing petitions, but will it really change anything? There is a petition to scrap the ID cards…
Parenting centres, super nannys and databases....
The Guardian reports that the Government is creating a new database containing the details of every child in England from birth to the age of 18. It is justified on grounds of better protection and for improved coordination among different…
One thing at a time
John Reid's tough talk when becoming home secretary has not been matched in paractice. The Home Office has missed the PM's "tipping point" targets of deported asylum seekers and 25% less people were deported in the last three months. The…
Olympics
The Olympic bill has risen by 40% since the Games were won last year and its is likely that it will go up even further. The Government must sort out this chaos at once and it needs to get a grip on all the costs and where the funding will…
Super nanny to the rescue
First the Government announced that parents that don't read and sing for their children will be helped to do so in new parenting centres and today's (21 Nov) papers are reporting that £4 million will be spent on "super nannys" (=child…
Identity Crisis?
So, the Guardian claims to have successfully cracked the encryption of the prototype new ID cards[don't seem to be able to add the link today]. Everything from the dubious justification, through to the inherent dangers of allowing the…
An Olympian Mess?
Inevitably fears are mounting that the costs of staging the 2012 Olympic Games are spiralling out of control. To its credit, the Olympic Devlivery Authority has brought in private sector experts to help them manage the project. However, the…
Deal or no deal
The Government has interfered with the flotation of KBR, a subsidary of Halliburton, that operates the Devonport Dockyard, western Europe's largest naval port. MoD is not happy with the sell-off of KBR on grounds that it might have severe…
Nanny state
The children's minister Beverley Hughes announced today that parents that do not read and sing for their children will be helped to do so. New parenting centres will be opening from next year to give parents advice. The minister says that…
"Hard-up" Defra
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has underspent its budget by almost £750 million since it was formed in 2001. The Telegraph describes the deprtment as "hard-up" and mentions that due to cutting £20…
Promoting sciences
The Government has promised £75 million to universities to prevent further closure of chemistry and physics departments. The subjects are vital to the economy but it cannot be economically viable to sustain (such expensive) courses that do…
No bay windows and mental stimulation for cats....
Ross Clark, the author of -How to Label a Goat: the silly rules and regulations that are strangling Britain, -points out the following regulatory facts and figures in today's Times (09 Nov): the annual cost to business of regulations…
The CBI - cheerleader for government intervention, promoter of vested interests, or both?
According to their website, the CBI's mission is: "to help create and sustain the conditions in which businesses in the United Kingdom can compete and prosper for the benefit of all" and their policy is: "decided by our members – senior…
More on Companies Bill
The Companies Bill passed on the statute book yesterday (08 Nov) and Alistair Darling, trade and industry secretary, said that this is the end of the road for reform. However, this seems to contradict earlier comments by Margaret Hodge…
Gordon and his 8,300 pages of tax law
According to the joint report by the World Bank and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) British companies have to struggle with 8,300 pages of tax law, behind only India, and the rulebook has doubled over the last decade. This is a clear sign of…
9 to 5 only....
The BBC reports that the EU employment ministers are meeting this week to discuss the EU working hours law. As a EU rule, the current proposals are complicated - set normal hours, overall maximum hours and the option of opting out. If the…
Capping regulation, not prices
The EU has confirmed that it will stick to it pledge to cap roaming prices after a survey found that 70% of Europeans want the EU to act to cut the cost of phone calls abroad. European Union Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding…
Turning green
David Miliband dismissed the rumours of increasing green taxes that would affect mainly middle-income families on BBC's -Sunday AM- (05 November). He said that any green taxes would have to be accommodated to the Government's overall…
Power cutting EU regulation
The major power cut that affected millions of people in Europe - in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Belgium and Spain - has caused many high profile politicians to call for a new European power authority. For example, Romano Prodi said…
Packed with information
The Government begun the trial of its home information packs today although the key industry bodies have withdrawn their support. The trials are run by the home pack providers' trade association and the Government has provided £4 million of…
Enrol here for workplace hazard course...
The HSE announced today (03 November 2006) the new workplace hazard awareness course and qualifications for young people. According to the the Chief Executive of HSE it is a "great example of how HSE, government and industry can work…
Cooking (the EEC) with Gas
Some of the easiest carbon savings that could be made are to be found in our houses. Britain's houses are famously inefficient, belching heat (and therefore carbon) into the sky. Though the government believes it can tax people into…
Threat to privacy
The Guardian writes on its front page on how personal medical records are to be uploaded regardless of patients' wishes to a central national database which can be accessed by a huge number of NHS staff and from where the information can be…
Picking winners
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) today announced that the Technology Strategy Board will become independent and it will take over the funding of the £178m Technology Programme next year. The new board will fund industry R&D…
Good intentions?
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has revealed that it wants to cut its "conduct of business" rulebook, which covers the advertising and marketing of financial products, and the provision of information and advice to clients, from 70…
When does a child become an adult?
David Cameron has suggested reforming the laws on minimum age limits. In many ways, not before time. It is clearly a nonsense that 17 year olds can own a gun but have to wait to 18 to buy fireworks. But he also says that he would like…
The Companies Bill strikes again
Margaret Hodge, the Minister currently responsible for probably the longest Bill in British history, The Companies Bill, has done it again. With no warning, business is now to be expected to publish details of their supply chain. What on…
The England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative
The what? You really couldn't make it up. According to a Government press release today, there are apparently there are now thirty-nine dedicated "Catchment Sensitive Farming Officers". I'm sure they are doing a grand job, preventing…
More cohesion or less coherence?
So peers have decided that head teachers will be required to promote "community cohesion" and that this will be assessed by inspectors (Guardian). Schools work best where teachers are left to get on with the business of running schools, not…
What is John Prescott For?
So John Prescott has been sent on a "pointless mission" to represent Britain in the Far East (Telegraph, 25th October). The claimed cost of £10,000 is the least of our worries. We should be worrying more about what he is up to while he is…
More regulation to cut red tape?
The Telegraph reports today (24th October) on the Government wasting billions of pounds by inefficiently regulating the economy. For example, it costs more than £2 billion for the Health and Safety Executive to comply with the regulatory…
Gerrymandering of health services
Most examples of picking losers are normally quite subtle. Very often, the offending policy is well-meaning, and the harm unintentional. But the abuse by the Labour Party of their control of the levers of power to steer funding towards…
A party-politicised House of Lords
While we are stuck with big government, an important check on the power of the executive is an independent second chamber. Although the undemocratic nature of the House of Lords is much derided, it is noticeable that their Lordships have…
The ghost of inflation
For the past decade, the West has been relatively immune to price-/wage-inflation, despite significant expansions of the money supply and movement of various national balances from credit to debit, thanks to the deflationary effects of…
Tories on tax
The Telegraph nearly wrote this entry for us. They have listed the winners from the recommendations of Michael Forsyth's Tax Reform Commission: A couple with two children, one under five, with one earner working 30 hours a week and earning…
Gordon and the red-tape hydra
Gordon Brown has pledged to "cut red tape" for at least the third time this year, according to the Telegraph. This might seem a strange thing to criticise on pickinglosers, but we do so, not because it would be a bad idea, but because we…
Anti-social services
Government intervention is always frustrating, but when it inflicts direct damage on people's lives, it is an altogether more serious and contemptible matter. Yet, this is happening on a regular basis to British families. We learn today of…
Save our Post Offices (whatever the cost)
David Cameron and the Daily Telegraph think we should subsidise rural Post Offices to keep them open, even though 800 of them get fewer than 16 customers per week. It's funny how people who preach about competitiveness forget about their…
hotelbookings.gov.uk
Yet another effort by the Government to "go commercial" is failing. £10m was spent on an internet accommodation service which produced just over 400 hotel bookings this summer, reports the Telegraph. What a surprise. When I book a holiday…
The long malign arm of the Environment Agency
As reported by the Telegraph, but strangely not available on their website, the charity Inter Care has been forced to shut down its operations by the Environment Agency (EA). Inter Care sends unused drugs from the UK to African hospitals…
Putting the disabled to work
David Cameron has vowed to find jobs for the disabled, on the basis that "We have a social responsibility to help disabled people into the workforce". What could be more sympathetic and just than the government giving people a leg-up who…
Nuclear meltdown
Back in the 70s, government picked a real winner: nuclear power. It was going to produce, they promised, power "too cheap to meter". We know how that turned out. Rather than being too cheap to meter, nuclear turned out to be first too risky…
Cottage hospitals next for the chop
Following on from the item on birth centres, we now learn that upto eighty cottage hospitals may be facing cuts. As per birthcare, it's not the cuts themselves that are necessarily the problem, but the fact that this is no economic choice…
The multifunction carbon tax
I don't know if this is exactly a case of picking losers, but it certainly falls into the category of stupid policy assessments, and they usually end up with more losers than winners. Anyway, it is so stupid that I had to post about it. I…
Age and reason
Age discrimination is self-defeating. Companies that employ less suitable people simply on the basis of their age will do worse than companies that employ the most suitable candidates regardless of age. But that is not the same thing as…
NHS Indirect
Someone in Whitehall decided that the most efficient way of dealing with out-of-hours medical enquiries was to have a centralised phone enquiry system (NHS Direct), rather than doctors on call. This would save money and make doctors…
Amazonian myths
David Miliband wants Westerners to buy the Amazon rainforest (Sunday Telegraph, 1 Oct 2006, News, p.2). We need to ensure that there is a balance between urban and industrial development to provide the goods that people demand, agricultural…
Birthcare lottery
Upto 20% of Britain's "home-style" birth centres may be closed due to the NHS's "funding crisis" (read, "spending crisis"), the Sunday Telegraph reports. Your options during childbirth will now, even more than before, depend on where you…
Gordon Brown's idea of devolving power
Gordon Brown has come out in favour of devolving power. But his idea of devolution is a little different to ours. Ideally, power should be devolved to the individual. (Actually, ideally the individual, not the government, should have the…
Is Gordon the most effective Chancellor in history?
Gordon claims that Britain is enjoying the longest period of sustained growth in its history. Is he fiddling the figures or simply making it up? Or is he really the greatest of all time?
Flat Taxes and Welfare Provision
The Daily Telegraph reports today ("Treasury blocks move to flat rate inflation") that the Treasury has blacked out several arguments in favour of introducing a "Flat Tax" (a single rate of tax across all income levels) in a report on the…
BBC censorship
While I'm posting on the subject of the BBC, let me show you a great example of their intolerance of dissent. In August 2005, I posted on the FiveLive message boards a message complaining that they were covering Championship football when…
Dominance of the "majority"
Yet again, it only took a few minutes of driving yesterday to be infuriated by the radio. 5Live was doing football. TalkSport was doing football. The regional channels were doing football. Radio 4 was doing…. drama. It is early August. The…
Religious Education
Islam is causing particular problems in the world at the moment. But other religions have also been the excuse for destruction and torment, for example in Europe at the time of the Inquisition, or more recently in Northern Ireland, North…
Popes and Caliphs
On BBC News 24 this morning, Peter Sissons asked Sir Iqbal Sacranie (leader of the Moslem Council of Britain) if the lack of a figurehead, equivalent to the Pope for Catholics, made it more difficult for leaders of the Moslem faith to state…
BBC Charter Renewal
Driving back from picking up my car this afternoon, I turned on the radio, more in hope than expectation. I do not listen to the music channels (the channels that play current music lost their attraction when I reached the age of thirty…