Conservatism
I’d rather be French…
This vox pop is an indictment of 14 painful years of Conservative government: So that youth can get some of its future back let us hope that Labour will feel confident enough to properly embrace what looks like the incipient reinstigation of free movement for the young – led by the European Commission! That would... Read more
Hollowing out localism and also democracy
I had no idea that local government used to provide so much and that this provision was so generally accepted and widespread. Just consider what local government used to provide and which has since been hollowed out to go to state industries and now, as we all know, those state industries have been hollowed out... Read more
‘Crowding’ in – and out
Contemplating the necessity of additional state expenditure forcefully suggested in the video in the previous post and thinking again in simple conventional economic terms, Will Hutton has pointed out in his new book ‘This Time No Mistakes’ that the additional state spending, such as that proposed by Prem Sikka, would serve to ‘crowd-in’ private expenditure... Read more
The state has become a killing machine…
…Which is how this twelve minutes of fighting talk from Lord Prem Sikka concludes: This is all excellent stuff in my view – and although he mentions Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) in passing, he doesn’t use it in his arguments preferring just to point out all the unused tax possibilities that there are. Now I’m... Read more
Modern Political Parties are Cartels
This is excellent from journalist and self-styled ‘Moet Marxist’, Grace Blakeley: Have to say that I much agree. The Labour Party is, I fear, since Corbyn, certainly not democratic and when you look at the people that Labour are ‘consulting’ on their policies, it really does look as though they are asking the people with... Read more
Brexit shows that all countries are better off within the European Union – who knew?
This FT half hour film itemises and demonstrates what a disaster Brexit is. Not only for trade and industry but also for simple collaborative relations. And even, at the end of the piece, as Martin Wolf suggests, for democracy… Rather similarly, Geert Wilders has publicly abandoned the policy of the Netherlands leaving the EU saying.... Read more
Mr Cummings is, in this instance, correct
He is quoted in this interesting article in the New Yorker, which outlines the long-term effects of austerity which are still, as we know, playing out. The article continues: By contrast, Cummings sees the two cautious, hedging leaders in charge of Britain’s main political parties—and the relief among some centrists that the candidates are not... Read more
Today’s capitalism means that psychopaths rule
I’m increasingly of the view that this is correct – and that is why I really thought that this was no more than the truth: All of this quote is, it seems to me, spot on from this American game programmer… A major problem is that the Lionel Robbins idea of economics which is seen... Read more
The ‘cost’ of chaos…
…is certainly not financial… This Labour created campaigning website is deeply unimpressive. Using it would make campaigning for Labour more difficult. Labour are following the Thatcher lie that government has no money – it’s all taxpayers money.Well if it’s taxpayers’ money why on earth has the government got it? The 2008 financial crisis and Covid... Read more
Where is growth – never mind productivity?
This seems to be Labour’s mantra. Yet in fact, for us on the planet, growth is likely to be a death sentence. So that bodes ill unless and until you consider that economic activity comes from innovation that actually uses less resources – but is that ‘growth’? I’m genuinely unsure but I do find it... Read more