Osborne keeps piling up the debt

The House of Commons Library has just produced a briefing note, “Government borrowing, debt and debt interest: historical statistics and … More

What happened and why?

These are some brief initial observations on the outcome of the General Election.  Understanding exactly what happened in the General … More

Fantasy Island

Fantasy Island George Osborne’s Budget speech reminded me of the old saying, an empty vessel makes the most noise. He … More

Breaking the link between funding and social needs – local government finance

The funding of local government has been notoriously complicated, subject as it has been to constant changes by governments in … More

Osborne’s “pointless machismo”

With the Chancellor’s autumn statement due next week, advance notice has been given of yet another political trick designed to … More

The FT throws a grenade at Osborne (and Balls)

Yesterday’s lead article on the front page of the Financial Times was positively incendiary (“Osborne faces doubling austerity cuts to … More

Government ‘economic fairytale’ unravels

In the first 6 months of the financial year, from April 2014, government borrowing was £58 billion. In September alone … More

Stop Whitehall’s daylight robbery

A letter to the Swindon Advertiser In response to Charles Linfield (“shoring up support”, October 8th) my letter did address … More

The Financial Times is worried by “a conspiracy of obfuscation”

There was an interesting Financial Times editorial today on “the central fact of British politics, the fiscal deficit”. It bemoans … More

EVEL – a constitutional minefield

A letter to the Swindon Advertiser Rob Buckland says that ‘English votes for English laws’ (EVEL) is a simple matter … More