The “Private Finance Initiative” (PFI) policy was a curate’s egg – sometimes it worked, but in many (most) cases it was probably mistakenly conceived and implemented.
But what irritates me most about PFI is not the mistakes that were made around it, but the complete (wilful?) ignorance of many of its critics in understanding what most PFI deals were. Continue reading “A brief note on PFIs (and why I am sick of people misrepresenting them)”
One thing has puzzled me since the introduction of “Quantitative Easing” (QE) in 2009. Between then and 2012 the Bank of England ‘bought’ £375bn of government bonds from their previous private sector owners.
This is a pretty sizeable chunk of the total Government debt of about £1.5bn – roughly a quarter. And it costs us nothing. Continue reading “£35bn on debt interest? But what about the £375bn held by the Bank of England?”
[Rather than single blog I am posting a series of shorter posts on the Spending Review today on specific issues]
“Mr Speaker, I want to announce to the House that we are on target to meet our long-term economic plan of reducing the size of the British state to just 36%, putting firmly at the lower end of public spending in advanced economies. This will replace the long-term trend of public spending in the UK to be at around 43% of GDP, even under Conservative governments. By 2020 we will have fundamentally reduced the size of British Government.”
Continue reading “SR2015: Spending: Is 36% of GDP still his target? [Update: the answer is yes]”
The Labour Party is headed for an all out civil war between its social democrats on the one side and its reformist and revolutionary socialist wings on the other. This is inevitable, although at the moment both sides are trying to wait for the opportunity to say “you started it” (a bit like Ken Livingstone recently).
[Labour MPs and front-benchers vote with their feet and leave Corbyn to face Cameron almost alone?]
In the 1972 post-script to his 1961 book on the Labour party, Parliamentary Socialism, Ralph Miliband finally comes out clearly and says what he has clearly thought all the way through his history of the party:
“[The] Labour remains, in practice, what it has always been – a party of modest social reform in a capitalist system within whose confines it is ever more firmly and by now irrevocably rooted.” (1972, p376).
In today’s language, Labour has always been predominantly a social democratic rather than a socialist party.
These are just some thoughts about the attacks in Paris. They’re not a thorough narrative or analysis, but things that have occurred to me as I have followed the story today.
For personal reasons this has been a particular concern, which I’ll explain at the end. Continue reading “Notes on the attacks in Paris (and a personal dimension)”
[Disclaimer: I am not a criminologist. But I have worked on and with prison services in several countries, including as an external member of the review commission of HM Prison Service in 1996/7.]
The government has announced it wants to close some old city centre prisons, re-build them in cheaper areas (presumably away for high value city centres) and use the sale of the valuable sites to pay for the rebuild. Sounds like a “no-brainer”? Maybe. There is a very big BUT however…… Continue reading “Prisoners are people with real lives (why closing city centre prisons may be a big mistake)”
The Government has only itself to blame for its House of Lords defeat over Tax Credits, which it could easily have avoided.
Continue reading “Government vs House of Lords: George Osborne taxes his own credit”
My son was recently doing a project for school on “Victorian Housing”. They were asked to look at remaining Victorian houses in their area and describe them. This made me realise how distorting this was – because what remains of Victorian housing is middle and upper class. The working class slums have been knocked down.
I was born in a real working class, privately rented, house in Dover in 1952. It makes the ‘Monty Python’ sketch about “I was so poor that…” look all too real. Continue reading “Dover – York St – 1952:1960”
I am currently in the ENT Dept at Wythenshawe, having spent the night in A@E. (That photo is from last night, about 12:00, its returned to normal now).
I had a recurrence of my mysterious massive tongue swelling episode, which I had about 3 months ago, last night.
After big dose of intravenous piriton and steroids it has subsided back to normal over night. They still have no idea what is triggering it so expecting more tests etc but as outpatient. But must emphasise the medical treatment was excellent and quick – its what happens next when things get “interesting”. Continue reading “Tongue out of cheek (or 18 hours in A&E)”
[amended to add ‘Tolkein’ 27 Nov 2015]
“One Vote to rule them all, One Vote to find them,
One Vote to bring them all and in the darkness bind them”?
(with apologies to JRR Tolkein)
According to this Thursday’s edition of The Times (17/9/15), Jeremy Corby has “warned his shadow cabinet to recognise his mandate amid growing divisions over welfare, economic policy, Britain’s nuclear deterrent and Europe”.
This got me thinking about the whole issue of “mandates”. Mr Corbyn has been in Parliament for 32 years and served under 8 Labour leaders*, six of whom were elected with a clear mandate of their own – all of which Mr Corbyn cheerfully ignored whenever it suited him. He rebelled against previous leaders more than 500 times – despite their mandates. Continue reading “Jeremy Corbyn’s “Mandate” ‘One Vote to Rule them all, One Vote to find them…’”
Colin Talbot - my blog 