For the past three weeks, Vince Cable (Business Secretary, Liberal Democrats) has been telling anyone who will listen that Cameron’s referendum pledge is a threat to the British economy. More specifically, he claims: “[A]Just under half of UK’s exports of goods and services are sold into the Single Market; [B]3.5 million British workers have jobs… [Read More]
After 24 gruelling hours of negotiating last Friday, EU leaders finally agreed on a budget for 2014-2020. The collapse of talks last November raised concerns about whether an agreement could be reached, with some nation states favouring an increase in spending and others, like the UK, demanding that the austerity measures imposed by national governments… [Read More]
Emulating a 1992 amendment to the U.S. constitution could improve public acceptance of MPs salaries.
The idea of expanding the health service’s reach globally in the hope of raising the profile of the UK health sector and generating additional income to fund NHS services at home has been around for a few years now – the ‘NHS Global’ branch of the Department of Health was launched in March 2010 in… [Read More]
That sounds like rather bad advice. After all, cigarettes kill. Moreover, as Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg has a duty to act as a role model to the country, or at least not to act the total hypocrite as his government upholds the indoor smoking ban and pushes forward an attack on packaging. In Sunday’s… [Read More]
As an agreement on the EU budget for 2014-2020 finally takes shape, the on-going dispute about the Schengen Convention remains unresolved. At a Council meeting on June 7th 2012, the European Union’s home affairs ministers unanimously decided to establish a new Schengen Evaluation Mechanism in response to concerns about border security, which became particularly acute… [Read More]
On Tuesday 5th February, the Commons voted substantially in favour of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill at its second reading. There had been some consultation. Published alongside their 2010 manifesto, the Conservative “Contract for Equalities” promised: “We will also consider the case for changing the law to allow civil partnerships to be called and… [Read More]
The long-awaited Francis Report into failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust was released this morning, analysing what went wrong and what we can perhaps do to prevent similar lapses in future (you can read it here). Here is a brief summary of what went on and of my tentative response to the report.… [Read More]
Economic policy-making is haunted by the spirit of Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes said people are naturally selfish and need a strong ruler to keep the peace. Ironically, we have turned Hobbes on his head. Nowadays we assume that because politicians are selfish, they need to be constrained by strong and simple rules when governing. The scope for judgement and discretion in politics and particularly economic policy has been narrowed. This has had significant costs, particularly in macroeconomic policy. We need to trust politicians to govern if we want a sustained economic recovery.
In the wake of David Cameron’s referendum announcement, a new pro-EU group launched last Wednesday (30th Jan) to considerable media fanfare. The Centre for British Influence Through Europe (CBIE) sports figureheads including Kenneth Clarke, (Minister without Portfolio), Danny Alexander (Chief Secretary to the Treasury), and Lord Mandelson. Their goal is to keep the UK in… [Read More]