Author Archive

Saturday 11th October 2008

Toolkit

4pm Martin Parsons on CentreRight: Government gives schools a new 'toolkit' to prevent violent extremism: but is it dangerously muddled?

3.45pm ToryDiary: In case you are interested…

2.15pm CentreRight: Jim McConalogue on how the BBC will report nothing of the role of EU legislation in this crisis

11am Andrew Lilico on CentreRight: Daily Mail now calling for Keynesian borrowing-funded tax cuts

10.30am CentreRight: Ben Rogers recommends Chris Patten's new book

ToryDiary: Parris and Heffer urge Conservatives to keep their distance from Brown during financial crisis

Local Government: How the Conservatives have frozen Council Tax in Hounslow

Parliament: Julian Lewis on underfunding of the armed forces and the need for a defence review

Keith Marsden on Platform: Gordon Brown's Boom and Bust

David Cameron at the Woodstock Literary Festival

Cameronfestival"He described the return of Peter Mandelson to government as "extraordinary", rejected any comparisons with Barack Obama, and repeated his belief that British society was "broken". But when it came to the banking crisis, David Cameron could not bring himself to say the "n" word – nationalisation." - The Independent

Cameron struggles to find right balance

"Instinctive advocates of free markets and minimal regulation, the Tories have struggled to strike the right balance between defending capitalism and meeting populist demands for retribution against the banks." - Jean Eaglesham in the Financial Times

UK 'ignored Iceland bank warning'

The government is accused of ignoring warnings in July that Iceland's banks faced collapse - BBC

PM talks historical heroes and current economy

Gordon Brown used the likes of Picasso and General Sir William Slim of Burma to underline his leadership credentials - The Times

Gordon Brown called for falls in the price of oil to be passed on to consumers "as quickly as possible" - BBC

G7 agrees on global rescue package

"The G7 issued a five-point plan in a short communique after meeting in Washington yesterday. It pledged to "ensure that our banks and other financial intermediaries, as needed, can raise capital from public as well as private sources in sufficient amounts to re-establish confidence and permit them to continue lending to households and businesses"." - The Guardian

Panic_selling_3Panic selling wipes £2.7 trillion off global shares - The Times

Government may be forced to buy half of RBS as market values dwindle further - The Guardian

Only the Left should be annoyed by the bank rescue

"To me, it does not look like socialism that the Government is ready to take shares in banks. They are non-voting shares, and the idea is to sell them later. The plan does not attempt to direct the banks' decisions. This looks like a huge effort to shore up capitalism, not to replace it. It is the Left that should be annoyed: some of them are." - Charles Moore in The Telegraph

Government to consider relaxing annuity rules

"The government yesterday agreed to meet opposition MPs and pensioner lobby groups following concerns that recent stockmarket falls would wipe out much of the income of retired people who fall foul of rules forcing them to buy an annuity when they reach 75… Ministers said they would consider reforms to ease the burden on pensioners caught by the rules after the Conservative leader, David Cameron, said it would be unfair for them to take a huge cut in retirement income because of a sudden drop in the stockmarket." - The Guardian

Brown needs to persuade the country that the state is the people's best friend in hard times - Polly Toynbee in The Guardian

Only Iraq thrives in world slump

Anti-capitalist states also plagued by problems - The Guardian

Palin Alaska ethics report concludes Palin abused power when firing a state official - The Independent

Austria's far-right leader Joerg Haider dies in a road accident - BBC

And finally …

Hague flew off on Barclays £500,000 Italian jolly as markets crashed - Daily Mail

The gangster's daughter, the Tory billionaire and what could be the biggest divorce of our times - Daily Mail

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“The Plan: 12 months to renew Britain” by Daniel Hannan MEP and Douglas Carswell MP

The Plan has been written by two young politicians who have discovered first hand how inert is the machinery of the British state, and how intense is the consequent anger on the doorstep.  They offer an analysis of why people are sick and tired of politicians, and what can be done about it.  Douglas Carswell, […]

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Peter Mandelson: make London more competitive, not less

Isn’t it time Gordon Brown stopped the FTSE stampede?
Whoa there. Hold your horses, folks. The rustle of alarm is turning into a scuttle, and the scuttle is turning into a drumming roar of feet in flight. As the economic position gets worse, it is reported that this country is starting to see some notable departures.
Is […]

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Resignation of Sir Ian Blair

Press Release

Mayor’s statement on resignation of Sir Ian Blair
2-10-2008
“Sir Ian Blair has made a lasting and distinguished contribution to policing, in London and across the UK, for the last 34 years.
He will be especially remembered for his successful introduction in London of the Safer Neighbourhood teams and for falling crime levels virtually across […]

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Jack, the Jack Russell

A couple of years ago, I was running through a field when I saw a chap struggling with a dog. He was bowed like a Volga boatman pulling on a barge, and the dog was pulling him in the other direction.
It was a large dog, some sort of combination of German shepherd and husky, with […]

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Financial Crisis and Banking

Go on. Admit it. You don’t feel altogether sorry for those bankers, do you? When you read about the collapsing pillars of the temples of mammon, you don’t feel the tears beginning to prick the corner of your eyes.
The City is a global industry in which Britian excels: we should not exult as banks fold.

When […]

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BBC Licence Fee

Treachery, thy name is Edmonds. After decades in which his hairy chops have been clamped about the hind teat of the BBC, Noel Edmonds has announced that he will not pay the licence fee, and I can imagine that some people will declare him a hero.Never mind that he has spent much of his adult […]

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UN Panel on Climate Change

Save the planet by cutting down on meat? That’s just a load of bull.
Look, I hate to be rude to the UN. I don’t want to seem churlish in the face of advice from a body as august and well-meaning as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But if they seriously believe that I am […]

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Darling’s economics need adaptability

…if you want to understand the recession, and where Alistair Darling is going wrong, then you need to have a grasp of the essentials of damsonomics.
Alistair Darling, things are even worse - our damsons are in distress.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, said the poet Keats. Yeah, well. He was right about one thing. […]

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Progress in China

No, I thought as I puffed through the small ornamental park, I couldn’t see one of them behind me. I chugged on past the Gate to the Forbidden City and the warty visage of Chairman Mao, thought to have been responsible for the deaths of up to 70 million people.
I ducked under the subway and […]

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