Archive for February, 2011
No pain, no gain? Perhaps for some, but not for all
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, Politics, Social Cohesion, Tax and Spend on 28/02/2011
Today the Cobden Centre blog covered a new research paper by two Harvard Economists, Alberto Alesina and Silvia Ardagna. The paper examined fiscal stimuli and fiscal adjustments, and what factors were correlated with their success.
Dictators and Democracy
Posted by Natalie Hamill in European Union on 24/02/2011
Last week’s EU blog considered the limitations of the EU’s European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in light of the recent Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. As events in North Africa have continued to deteriorate, it seems appropriate to consider the EU’s response to Libya’s revolutionary efforts. Whereas Tunisia was the benchmark of stability in the South Mediterranean, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya has never harboured sincere commitment to democratic reform. This begs the question: why has the EU compromised a catalogue of its most fundamental values – democracy, the rule of law, human rights protection – to pander to a volatile dictator?
Lack of Commons Sense
Posted by Carolina Bracken in Civil Liberty, Crime, Human Rights, Politics on 23/02/2011
Less than a fortnight after MPs rightly staged a resistance against the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), political heavy weights have now turned their fire on the UK Supreme Court. Not only are the criticisms of our highest domestic court entirely unfounded, they betray, at best, a dangerous confusion about the relationship between Parliament and the judiciary, and at worst a deliberate attempt to disregard this fundamental, constitutional balance.
A slippery problem
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, European Union, Politics on 21/02/2011
It was reported over the weekend that the Icelandic President Olafur Grimsson, has called for a national referendum on the new plan for repaying British and Dutch loans made as a result of the ‘Icesave’ fiasco. The two countries loaned Iceland €4 billion to bail out the country’s deposit insurance scheme, which could not afford to compensate British and Dutch depositors, when the Icesave savings scheme collapsed. Aside from the political ramifications of the on-going dispute, it raises wider issues about international financial supervision and insurance schemes, as well as a more pressing problem about financial responsibility.
Wasted youth
Posted by David Merlin-Jones in Economics, Politics, Social Cohesion on 18/02/2011
The announcement that unemployment levels have risen further at the end of last year is unwelcome but no surprise. There are an extra 44,000 out of work, creating an unimpressive total of 2.5 million. What should really set alarm bells ringing is not so much the volume of unemployed, but just who these people are – most are young, piling out of schools or uni’s but with nowhere to work and the employment Catch-22 mounting. This is bad, but what really makes it unacceptable is that while we wallow, other countries, such as Germany, steam ahead. What’s the way out?
Everybody needs good neighbours
Posted by Natalie Hamill in European Union on 17/02/2011
Democracy is frequently trumpeted as one of the EU’s core values and its promotion is a prominent feature throughout EU policy. This is all the more evident in the EU’s relations with third states, particularly the bilateral partners of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). But, with Tunisia’s pro-democracy revolution followed swiftly by Egypt and then several other countries active in the ENP, it seems that, in this particular field, the EU policy may be failing.