Boris is being dragged down by coalition’s many mistakes April 23, 2012 IF Boris Johnson loses the London mayoral election next week, he will have just two men to blame: David Cameron and George Osborne. Yesterday’s latest poll showing the London candidates in a statistical dead heat – Boris on 51 per cent including second preferences, and Ken Livingstone on 49 per cent – can only be [...]
France’s hopeless politicians will determine all of our futures April 22, 2012 WHAT a race. And what a mess. The useless Nicolas Sarkozy was given a bloody nose; the awful, economically illiterate Francois Hollande is in the lead ahead of the second round of the French presidential elections; and the horrendous national front grabbed almost a fifth of the vote. Listening to the candidates last night, it [...]
Scientific progress and emerging markets give us all hope April 19, 2012 I AM as guilty as anybody of excessive gloominess. To be fair, I have an excuse: the government is floundering; Abu Qatada is making a mockery of Britain; the UK economy is stagnant; unemployment is elevated; taxes are rising; the nanny state is gaining ground; the Eurozone faces years of misery and eventual collapse; China [...]
Why Britain’s productivity disaster is costing workers dear April 18, 2012 ONE of the most important trends of recent years has been the appalling performance of UK productivity, otherwise known as output per worker. This matters hugely: over time, the only way that wages can go up is if workers become more productive, either because they become more skilled or work harder or smarter, or if [...]
Bank of England’s inflation over-optimism must now end April 17, 2012 EXCUSES, excuses, excuses. Once again, the Bank of England has suffered the humiliation of seeing consumer price index (CPI) inflation increase, rather than drop, last month. The CPI measure increased from 3.4 per cent to 3.5 per cent; let’s never forget that the target that the Bank is meant to be sticking to is two [...]
UK is wrong to have turned its back on individual freedom April 16, 2012 LIBERTY. Freedom. When did you last hear these two words in the UK political debate? Well, I certainly can’t remember. Our country is dominated by busybodies and collectivists who believe that they and the state have the right and duty to tell us all what to do, to spend our money for us and to [...]
UK firms are spending – but their money is going abroad April 15, 2012 PRIVATE firms are increasingly flush with cash. Profit margins globally are at record highs, and UK firms have been busy paying down debts and building financial reserves. So why are we not seeing an investment boom? As the Ernst and Young Item Club said this weekend, business investment rose by a miserable 1.2 per cent [...]
UK firms are spending – but their money is going abroad April 15, 2012 PRIVATE firms are increasingly flush with cash. Profit margins globally are at record highs, and UK firms have been busy paying down debts and building financial reserves. So why are we not seeing an investment boom? As the Ernst and Young Item Club said this weekend, business investment rose by a miserable 1.2 per cent [...]
Government wrong to demonise generous philanthropists April 12, 2012 IT has become increasingly difficult to understand what the coalition government is up to. Take its decision to demonise those who donate large amounts to charity, depicting them in a grossly unfair manner as tax avoiders who should be ashamed of themselves. This is an astonishingly stupid and nasty thing to imply. The government claims [...]
We need an open contest to decide who will run the Bank April 11, 2012 THERE is no doubt that George Osborne’s most important decision over the next few months will be who he appoints as the next governor of the Bank of England. That job, which becomes vacant next year, is by a huge distance the most powerful unelected position in the UK; its formal powers now span monetary [...]