Letter to Eddie George May 2002 Monetary Policy 01 May 2002 Dear Sir Eddie You will have noticed, I know with real regret, that our advice has been lacking for some time. As a result policy has gone a little astray, principally with the decision to raise interest rates. This sent out a series of wrong signals and was construed as a sign that rates are on their way back up. It is time, therefore, to resume our monthly letter of advice to avoid this happening again. Read more...   House Magazine Diary for January 2002 House Magazine Diary 01 February 2002 Monday 7 January Arrive back in cold, damp, dreary Britain, suntanned, fit and re-energised after a summer visit to New Zealand to assess how much New Zealand has changed in the thirty years since my book, the Half Gallon Quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise.   Read more...   House Magazine Diary - Retrospect January 2001 - January 2002 House Magazine Diary 01 January 2002 That was the year that was. It was to have been the year Labour came good, abandoning the handcuffs it had donned to show it was safe, pure and wholesome, and beginning to build the better society based on redistribution, growth and public spending "You know Labour Government works. Now let’s build on that base". Read more...   House Magazine Diary for November 2001 House Magazine Diary 01 December 2001 The triumphal election which gave us a mandate to build a new heaven and a new earth is as remote as 1945. Tony is transformed into a saviour of the World before he`s even saved Grimsby. The Third Way runs via Kabul. The rights and liberties we promised to enlarge are to be taken away, though only from Moslems. Was it for this I whipped Grimsby into a frenzy just five short months ago? Read more...   HOUSE MAGAZINE ARTICLE ON HOUSING DECEMBER 2001 Housing Letters/Articles 01 December 2001 Housing is one of the four great basics of the good society. Yet New Labour has boosted Health and Education enormously while the other basics: Housing and Welfare, have been neglected and relegated to penny pinching irrelevance. Read more...   House Magazine Diary for July 2001 House Magazine Diary 01 August 2001 Who’d have believed that our triumphant second term could be such a mess? Tony hit the ground stumbling, ministers bumbling, the PLP grumbling, which would be serious if the Tory Party hadn’t decided to go into pantomime early. Having given up my month long vigil by the telephone waiting for the call, I’ve decided to take some of Roy Hattersley’s Viagra and ’Rise Up’. Unfortunately, he hasn’t told me what to do next, the unions are milling round not quite believing what they’re being told, the Left is out of practice, and the New Chums stunned. Read more...   Letter to Eddie George August 2001 Monetary Policy 01 August 2001 Dear Eddie Public speculation is more febrile then the settled stolidities of bankers so it’s not surprising that over the last month expectations have swung from a feeling of British exceptionalism, "look we have come through", to gathering gloom and a feeling that the world wind down is dragging Britain down with it. Our guess is that this mood swing will strengthen the Bank in its "wait and see" policy which has already put it out on a limb. Read more...   Letter to Eddie George July 2001 Monetary Policy 01 July 2001 Dear Eddie Your strategy this month is likely to be to play safe and maintain your high interest rates/high Pound policy. This would be a mistake leaving Britain dangerously exposed, and out on a limb compared to the stronger economies of Germany, Japan, France and the US, all of which have lower real interest rates. Read more...   House Magazine Diary for March 2001 House Magazine Diary 01 April 2001 Hail and Farewell, Fantasy Parliament. Here we are, pretending to be MPs, running round in small circles, migrating from meeting to meeting, passing incomprehensible legislation which won’t be implemented, desperately ignoring the fact that the election is forty-five days away, all clinging to the Parliamentary raft as it slowly sinks. Read more...   Letter to Eddie George April 2001 Monetary Policy 01 April 2001 Dear Eddie Along with most commentators, the Labour Economic Policy Group was disappointed by the Bank`s failure to follow through on its earlier, very marginal, reduction of interest rates by a more substantial reduction last month. Read more...   Letter to Eddie George March 2001 Monetary Policy 01 March 2001 Dear Eddie Our advice to the MPC is to follow through on the process it belatedly began last month. Reduce interest rates by 1.75% rather than leaving the UK, as it now is, sitting out on a limb with higher rates than other advanced economies, very high real rates, and an inflation target which is consistently undershot your target. High rates have compounded and sustained the long-standing British problem of interest and exchange rate overkill. Bring interest rates below Europe’s and the US so that Sterling comes down to a more reasonable level. Read more...   House Magazine Diary for January 2001 House Magazine Diary 01 February 2001 Suddenly my little world as a footsoldier in Tony’s Triumphal Army is transformed. Once a hardworking MP dutifully tramping the Third Way, praising Tony and serving grateful constituents. Now, overnight, an embattled candidate pleading pathetically for votes and filling in time before the "off" with play-way legislation. Which won’t get through before the House is dissolved on 3 April. Read more...   Letter to Eddie George February 2001 Monetary Policy 01 February 2001 Dear Sir Eddie   It is inconceivable that the MPC will continue to resist the rate cut which has been necessary so long, so our advice this month can be briefly given. The cut you will make is far too little far too late. The game has moved ahead of the MPC leaving it lagging behind events, rather than anticipating what is clearly happening and using its powers of management to ward off problems. Read more...   MANDY - A NATION MOURNS Opinions 01 February 2001 We’re the Masters of the Spin Universe. We dole out every Treasury fiver three times. We’ve boosted a minimalist agenda of change as a triumphant revolution. When we go to the country on 3rd May on a platform of Read more...   House Magazine Diary - Retrospect October 1999 - September 2000 House Magazine Diary 01 January 2001 CHRONICLES OF THE ANCIENT HERMIT OF GRIMSBY (Or a year in Parliament through the eyes of Austin)   "The trouble with being old", as Lord Longford said to me "is that you've seen it all before". This is my 94th year as MP for Grimsby (is it still there? Has it been washed away by melting ice caps?) So I agree with his Lordship. I've seen new dawns before: 1945, the wonder of 1964. I've seen PR before. "You Know Labour Government Works" (and no questions about "For Who" then). I've seen admirable leadership (my heroes Hugh Gaitskell and Jim Callaghan). And I've seen it all turn to dross, as spray-on glitter usually does. Read more...   Thanks New Labour, and goodbye Opinions 01 January 2001 Moving to an election is like parachuting. Descent is slow and serene at first. Then suddenly the ground whizzes upwards at breakneck speed. Now after three several years of looking and feeling impregnable, May 3rd is whizzing towards us. Its impact won’t be as traumatic as my own painful parachuting. We’ll land safely. Yet it’s only then that the traumas begin because to govern successfully we then must jettison the New Labour identity assumed to win in 2001 and tackle Labour’s real job. Which we’ve postponed so far.. Read more...   Letter to Eddie George November 2000 Monetary Policy 01 November 2000 Dear Eddie Our advice to the MPC this month is unchanged. Reduce interest rates by 2% and get the Pound down to a more realistic valuation. Only this will allow Britain to compete on level terms in the Single European market, boost an economy which has been growing at well below the rate both possible and necessary, and allow producers a prospect of profitability and investment. Read more...   Save manufacturing: Steel yourself Gordon Opinions 01 October 2000 More Euro nonsense is talked about CORUS than it produces steel. For four years Corus has been warning that the pound is grossly over-valued. Government has done exactly nothing about it. Now the consequences have hit home with imports increasing and production being unprofitable and government suddenly blames Corus. Read more...   Letter to Eddie George September 2000 Monetary Policy 01 September 2000 Dear Eddie Our advice this month, as last, is to reduce interest rates by 2% and use every effort available to you to get the exchange rate down, both against the Dollar and more particularly against the Euro. Inflation is no problem and no justification for rates as high as this. Growth is inadequate and slowing. Sterling remains substantially overvalued. Read more...   House Magazine Diary for July 2000 House Magazine Diary 01 August 2000 Having got used to walking on water the sudden turn around is a huge shock. Yet it’s just that normal politics have resumed and sadly those who rule by the spin die by it once people begin to disbelieve the figures and realise that endless initiatives don’t mean improvement. They voted for things to get better and they haven’t as quickly as they hoped for. Read more...

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