I am not a conspiracy theorist, although I love conspiracy theories. Ever since the X Files I have been fascinated by them. I don’t, however, feel the need to believe in them. Except maybe for one political conspiracy theory, about how someone might rig a UK General Election. In 1985 the Representation of the People Act was … Read more
No apologies for another short blog on immigration. On the 5th of December the new Home Secretary, James Cleverly, told the house that no new money had been given to Rwanda to sign a new treaty to try and resurrect they collapsed Asylum processing deal. Most people, including myself, understood that to mean that the … Read more
One of the main concerns people have about immigration is that immigrants work for less and drive down wages. A lot of economists were sceptical about this argument, mainly because the mathematical relationship between immigration and wages doesn’t exist. But the real reason why it didn’t happen was because it was illegal. When we were … Read more
Suella Braverman is leading a campaign to reduce immigration, furious that former Home Secretary Suella Braverman permitted a massive increase. Some people think immigration is a good thing, some think it is a bad thing. I am mostly in the good camp. There is a very obvious reason why the UK has immigration. The UK … Read more
Last week the Government has had only one thing they wanted to talk about – being tough on people coming here to claim asylum. You would have thought that having made such a mess of things they would want to keep their mouth shut. While all of this was going on a much lower profile … Read more
With immigration on the increase and interest rates rising the claim that high house prices are caused by immigration is going around again. I am sceptical, and not just because the original claim came from Dominic Raab, who is wrong on pretty much everything. On paper the link between immigration and house prices seems pretty … Read more
Top management have celebrated the 75th anniversary of the NHS by publishing a workforce plan I realise that workforce planning is boring, but the NHS is in existential danger due to problems with staffing. The NHS only exists because staff believe in it, not because of politicians or plucky campaigners sharing memes. Senior managers seems … Read more
As you may have noticed nothing much works in the UK these days. My last job in the public sector was part of the Child Support Agency rescue mission. An expensively assembled group brought together to try and fix the CSA, or at least get it off the front pages, including people from across … Read more
Poor people waste their money away on takeaways, beauty salons, cafes and dog grooming. The idea of feckless poor people frittering away their meagre incomes is well engrained in our culture. Normally accompanied by calls to make benefits less generous. or conditionality more stringent. Stupid, feckless, and untrustworthy. Mostly it is Conservative politicians and similarly … Read more
Austerity is back. The Government this week announced £55bn of tax rises and spending cuts. Some of the pain has been deferred to after the next General Election, but pain nonetheless. This was the 5th major announcement by a Chancellor this year, from our 4th different Chancellor. Once again the British economy … Read more