Government

How important were all those initiatives the government kept announcing?

There was a time when the government seemed to be announcing new measures to get the economy and the banking sector in particular moving again on an almost daily basis. Today, the Wall Street Journal has done a rather good audit of these measures. For instance, in January “the British government created a guarantee program meant to revive the dormant market for asset-backed securities. The program aims to spur purchases of banks’ asset-back securities, or bundled consumer loans, by guaranteeing them for buyers. The guarantees were made available in April, but since then, none of the major U.K. banks has issued a security with such a guarantee.” Also, only 13

Brown puts on his gloomy face for the world stage

How peculiar.  After all the economic optimism coming out of government recently, all the talk of recovery by the end of the year, Brown’s going to warn that the worst of the recession may be yet to come in his meetings with G8 leaders this week.  The Times has the full story here, but this snippet from the Dear Leader’s address in France today gives you the idea: “If we do not take the necessary action now to strengthen the world economy and put in place the conditions for sustainable world growth, we will be confronted with avoidable unemployment for years to come.” So does this mean he’s losing faith

More blows against Brown’s spending narrative

It’s public spending time again, dear CoffeeHousers, with a couple of eye-catching articles in  today’s papers.  The first is a comment piece by Steve Bundred, chief exec of the Audit Commission, on the necessity for extensive spending cuts.  If you recall, Bundred claimed a few days ago that health and education shouldn’t be ring-fenced from cuts, and here he repeats the point, adding a snappy conclusion: “So don’t believe the shroud wavers who tell you grannies will die and children starve if spending is cut. They won’t. Cuts are inevitable, and perfectly manageable. We should insist on a frank and intelligent debate about how and where they will fall, which

Gary McKinnon is a victim of injustice

Well done to the Mail for their continued support for Gary McKinnon, whose case featured on their front page a couple of days ago. It was a bold decision, but absolutely the right thing to do. Unless Alan Johnson steps in at the last minute, an awful injustice is about to take place. Gary McKinnon is the 43-year-old from Hertfordshire who hacked into US military computers, looking for evidence of UFOs. No-one is denying that he has committed a crime ­ least of all Gary who made a full confession to the police. And, yes, Gary deserves to be punished – a light sentence or community service would be best.

Brown’s U-turns analysed

Steve Richards’ column in today’s Independent – analysing Brown’s u-turns on the Post Office, 42 days and the abolition of 10p tax rate – is superb. As Steve notes, all these u-turns have in common the question of where does Brown stand in relation to Blairism; is he break from it or its continuation? Steve’s conclusion sums this up brilliantly: “The U-turns show that Brown has never acquired a clear voice of his own as Prime Minister and has failed to break away from his complicated past. Perhaps an early election would have liberated him from the manacles. Instead, we are left with a trail of major reversals that convey

Another one for Miliband’s collection of cock-ups

Great spot by Paul Waugh, who’s got evidence of the latest Miliband cock-up over at his blog.  Basically, Miliband told the Commons earlier this week that British aid to India would be decreased and eventually stopped because “India is becoming a richer country”.  But now he’s had to sneak out a complete retraction, which even makes reference to India’s “continuing levels of poverty”: “We have no plans to scale down the provision of aid to India, nor to stop the provision of aid by 2011.  Our aid expenditure under current spending plans amounts to £285m in 2008/09, £275m in 2009/10, and £280m in 2010/11. These figures reflect India’s continuing levels

Can Brown’s inner circle be broken?

Given the speculation that’s whirling around Westminster about plots to oust Brown in the autumn, it’s worth noting this passage from Steve Richards’ article for the latest New Statesman: “The most significant change since the hopelessly disparate attempted coup last month is how the rest of the cabinet relate to Brown, Mandelson and Balls, the trio who are working closely together. Recently a friend asked one cabinet minister on the so-called Blairite wing whether he thought Mandelson would tell Brown that the game was up if polls suggested Labour was heading for electoral oblivion. The minister replied that he could no longer have such a conversation with Mandelson; it would

Brown primes his new dividing line

With Brown shifting his position on spending by the minute, it’s worth highlighting this snippet from today’s Guardian: “Treasury ministers, in particular, believe they can look at whether there will be a need for cuts at the time of the pre-budget report in the autumn. They intend to use the report to show the scale of projected future savings, as well as how frontline services and new priorities can be protected by switching resources. Labour still believes the Tories have made a political mistake by committing themselves to public spending cuts so early.” It rather supports Fraser’s prediction that, following all their talk about “envelopes” and “projections,” the Government will

Is the Left Waking From Its Slumber?

A rather impassioned piece on unemployment from Polly Toynbee in yesterday’s Guardian made me realise that there are a number of people on the liberal-left in Britain thinking very hard about the implications of the global recession. “Has the horror of it all struck Westminster with full force?,” asks Polly? I think they are beginning to, but the problem is that they are stuck in the politics of the late-1990s census, which had us all triangulating like mad. All the clamour for an apology from the Prime Minister stems from a desire for him to atone for all our sins. It was difficult not to embrace the market when the