Archive for category Politics
Full-Court Press
Posted by Carolina Bracken in Civil Liberty, Crime, Human Rights, Politics on 02/09/2011
Over past weeks, both David Cameron and Nick Clegg have written candidly about the “misrepresentation of human rights”, with the Deputy PM in particular bemoaning how those in power have “belittled the relevance of rights at home”. Their ambitions to “get a grip” on this distortion are essential and to be welcomed, as the media and public bodies continue to pollute the rights discourse with inaccuracies, errors and fallacious propaganda.
Eurobonds – blue or red?
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, Politics on 15/08/2011
In the Matrix Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) asks Thomas A. Anderson or Neo (Keanu Reeves) –
You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
Soon investors could be offered both in the form of blue and red Eurobonds.
Life’s Too Short to Understand the PCT Funding Formula
Posted by Nigel Williams in Health, Politics on 02/08/2011
Following the announcement of new funding formulae for NHS primary care trusts, accusations have begun about political bias. Manchester, says a report by Public Health Manchester, would lose £42m. Tower Hamlets would lose £19m, whereas Surrey and Hampshire would gain £113m between them.
In any such reallocation, beneficiaries are likely to conclude that the new version is fairer, whereas anyone losing out will prefer the old version. The Yorkshire Evening Post quotes Maureen Idle of Leeds Hospital Alert as saying “If the money has been given in the first place then there’s clearly an acknowledgement that it’s needed.” Read the rest of this entry »
Ignoring the economic arguments – now that’s living in cloud cuckoo land
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, Politics on 01/08/2011
Speaking on the Andrew Marr show the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander described those who call for the abolition of the additional income tax as living in ‘cloud cuckoo land’. Yet funnily enough those who inhabit cloud cuckoo land, while perhaps insane in Alexander’s opinion, could draw on academic support for their position from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Coalition neglect blamed for slow economic growth
Posted by David Merlin-Jones in Announcements, Economics, European Union, Politics on 26/07/2011
Government lacks a convincing strategy
Today’s anaemic 0.2 per cent second-quarter GDP figure is not just the result of the international financial crisis. It is also the result of the Coalition’s failure to play its part in promoting economic growth.
A new report from independent think tank Civitas argues that the Government should demonstrate its loyalty to its own people instead of standing helpless on the sidelines. The Bombardier trains contract would have been secured for British workers by a competent government. Instead, ministers claimed to be powerless, insisting ‘the EU made us do it’.
Between an economic rock and a political hard place
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, Politics on 18/07/2011
One of the more interesting changes resulting from the financial crash and ensuing recession could be the way in which financiers seek to analyse future market movements: it could be a case of out with the economists and in with the politicians.