Tag Archives: Spending

The possibility of reality must match the rhetoric

The Guardian this morning is running an ‘exclusive’ about the Ministry of Defence asking the Department for International Development for contributions to the cost of delivering overseas development assistance via the military (things like transporting DfID and NGO staff and … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Ministers should be the People’s Champions

I originally thought I might have been imagining this, but there has been a very noticeable shift in the way much of the Cabinet talk about the institutions they run. The most marked has been in how Jeremy Hunt talks … Continue reading

Posted in Big Society | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Austerity as the new normal

The Financial Times is only one of the papers today highlighting that the current austerity drive will continue beyond the next election. This, surely, is a good thing. One of the reasons that our economy is in such a mess … Continue reading

Posted in Economics | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Three important reasons the government shouldn’t impose a cap on payday loans

In (another) abrupt u-turn, it now seems likely that the government will accept the substance of the Labour peer Lord Mitchell’s amendment to the Financial Services Bill, which calls for a cap on the interest rates charged by payday loan … Continue reading

Posted in Economics | Tagged , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Should we worry about the 47 per cent?

“My job is is not to worry about those people”: Mitt Romney, filmed on 17 May 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnB0NZzl5HA&list=UUbWB33FQvFiV0Pq9Calkgzw&index=12&feature=plcp Mitt Romney has yet again shown that he is unlikely to win any prizes for running a decent campaign. Fair enough, he … Continue reading

Posted in Social Justice | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments