America the Beautiful General Ramblings 05 June 2008 Just finished Arthur Schlesinger’s journals 1952-2000 the best and most charming book on American politics I’ve ever read. Read more...   Pay Me My Money Down General Ramblings 02 June 2008 Shock horror. A letter demanding £2,200 in MP contributions to Labour. It’s called ‘arrears’ for 2008/09. But we’re only two months into that. Read more...   Daily Wail General Ramblings 29 May 2008 Why do we get ourselves into messes? By pandering. It`s the essence of New Labour. We pander to the Daily Mail by being tough. That gets us into the 42 days mess. We pander to the environmentalists by high fuel duties and higher VED on cars bought since 2000. There`s the fuel revolt. We pander to the Tories by tax measures, like the abolition of the 10p rate to lower the basic rate, and look where that got us. Read more...   Letter to Mervyn King Monetary Policy 29 May 2008 Dear Mervyn   Our advice to the MPC has long been to reduce interest rates which have been too high for too long. The Bank made a pathetically small and excessively belated move in this direction at the start of the year. Then it stalled as if palsied by fear and doubt. It still seems to be in that condition because the initial reduction was not followed with the urgent and substantial interest rate reductions the economy needs. Read more...   Time to Junk New Labour General Ramblings 27 May 2008 Can Labour be saved? Yes but not easily. Salvation depends on two things which New Labour abolished: listening and changing.    Read more...   Crewe and Nantwich General Ramblings 27 May 2008 As the offspring of a by election: I love ‘em! The excitement. The saturation political bombing. The escape from Westminster to the real world. But I have been uneasy about Crewe and Nantwich from the start. The loss of Gwyneth, my political mistress. The rush to the polls. The Little Lord Fauntleroy campaign. Tamsin Dunwoody’s failure to inherit her mother’s independence. Read more...   Crewe Blues Cure General Ramblings 23 May 2008 Cheer up Gordon, a disaster but the damage is psychological not life threatening. Here`s how to handle it: Read more...   Bad times to roll on? General Ramblings 20 May 2008 The Tories are going back to tax cutting. Fair enough. It benefits the rich and they represent them. It reduces the electoral choice to maintaining services at a level appropriate to a civilised society, though a slightly shabby one. Or cut them. Preferably without saying cut what? Or how? Read more...   Cash for Condoms General Ramblings 20 May 2008 Open government enthusiasts are wasting so much time and money on getting information about MP expenses. It’s important. Can’t they find something more important to do: like getting to know how many MPs you have in PM’s Question Time? Read more...   Veni, vidi, vici General Ramblings 13 May 2008 Question: Why could T. Blair walk on water while G. Brown can’t get his foot out of his mouth? Read more...   Dear Gordon General Ramblings 13 May 2008 Cherie says Tony rings Gordon regularly to advise him how to win the next election. That accounts for a lot.   * * * Read more...   If you're no' a Gordon General Ramblings 07 May 2008 Another weekend’s full bombardment by the Commentariat Parris (who’s gone mad) urges us to surrender now, to give power back to those born to rule. ‘Bring Back the Toffs’. All the others trundle their own shells in. Read more...   Those Who Shout Loudest General Ramblings 07 May 2008 The City is now using its great lobbying power and getting enormous newspaper coverage, for the threat that companies will all rush to Dublin unless they get an even softer tax treatment.   Read more...   Mitchell Offers Therapy Sessions General Ramblings 06 May 2008 for Misunderstood Ministers and Battered backbenchers,   Read more...   All You Socialists General Ramblings 25 April 2008 We’re all socialists now. Except the Government. We’re all working class now. Except the Government. Read more...   Letters from Grimsby General Ramblings 25 April 2008 Infamy. Infamy. They’ve all got it in for me. Read more...   Letter to Alistair Darling Monetary Policy 25 April 2008 25 April 2008     The Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP Chancellor of the Exchequer HM Treasury 1 Horseguards Road London SW1A 2HQ     Dear Alistair   I`d appreciate an urgent response to some of the questions which have arisen in the ten percent tax saga plus a comment on the processes. Read more...   Amendments for the amendment General Ramblings 24 April 2008 What a week! Every day a new offer from the government. Every day what wasn’t possible yesterday is possible today and changes which cost £7 billion yesterday are possible for peanuts.  Read more...   Socialist taxation? Monetary Policy 21 April 2008 Here’s how we redistribute taxation as a Socialist Government   The proposed abolition of the 10% income tax band <http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/apr/20/tax.tradeunions> hurts the poor and has quite rightly attracted widespread condemnation. The government claims that the restoration of the 10% band would cost around £7 billion and the predictable response <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7357085.stm> is that we can't afford it. Here are twelve ways that the government can finance the restoration of the 10% income tax band. They can also help the worse-off citizens by raising personal allowances <http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/tax_expenditures/table1-6.pdf>, which the Treasury's own figures show would cost around £4.3 billion for each 10% increment. Read more...   Robbin' Hood Monetary Policy 21 April 2008 I’m flooded with protests about the abolition of the 10p tax band. They’re right. We are taking from the poor to give to the richer. The compensation via tax credits isn’t and will be fiddly and will produce no gratitude.   Read more...

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