I started to write this blog when the Government was announcing the financial support package, but developments with Trump over took me.   I’m glad I waited until after the mini-budget because the speed of events has meant that anything I had written previously would be out of date by now. Lets go back one… Read More The cost of Lizzing | The end of an era in Economics

Amongst all of this weeks budget announcements, one stood out to me – more sanctions to force people on benefits to take on more hours: This is the familiar story of the benefit trap – people are better off on benefits and there is no incentive to seek work, in this case more work. It… Read More The Budget and Benefits | 12 years of expensive failure

Is Donald Trump a fascist? Donald Trump spent most of this week in court, facing charges of mishandling state secrets, and massive tax fraud. Other courts cases are pending, criminal and civil in New York and in Georgia. Instead of being angry with Trump Conservatives in the US have been in a state of fevered… Read More Is Trump a fascist? | Where fantasy, history and desperation coincide

Apologies again the the odd quiz title….

Maggie Thatcher once memorably claimed “the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money” During the credit crunch we discovered that deregulated free market capitalism had exactly the same problem, just on a much bigger scale. This week is the 30th Anniversary of Black Wednesday when HMG raised interest rates… Read More 30 years on from Black Wednesday | Could it happen again?

Unless I am very much mistaken Liz Truss will become Prime Minister next week.   You won’t be surprised to know that I fear she will be a disaster, and may not even last all the way to the next General Election. The runner up, Rishi Sunak gets a bye into the Semi-Finals of Masterchef,… Read More Liz Truss | The Tory Corbyn

America is heading towards the mid-terms with the Republicans hoping to take both Houses, and almost certainly attempt to impeach Biden in revenge for Trump’s double impeachment. They also plan to stage investigations into Merrick Garland, Anthony Fauci, Hunter Biden’s laptop and the whereabouts of Loch Ness Monster. I put a couple of quid on… Read More Nightmare Trump Art 3 | It’s not going away

Party Conference season approaches, and Labour will be starting to flesh out the policies on which they will fight the next general election. With the Conservative Party committed to a toxic mix of snobbery and Thatcherism there is lots of room for Labour to develop some really exciting ideas, aspirational, egalitarian, pro-business, anti-corruption. Their recent… Read More National Care Service | Good politics, bad policy

They usual format; 12 multiple choice questions. Apologies for the odd quiz title, they updated the app, and now it doesn’t work as well. Ho-hum

The NHS in the scariest position that it has been in my lifetime. I am incredibly worried about what will happen in the next 6 to 9 months – but worried than I have ever been. There are systemic problems across the whole healthcare systems, and the risk of increased mortality as the result of… Read More How bad are things in the NHS? | How worried should we be?