The Prime Minister recently professed himself shocked at waste in the European Union. In particular, he was incensed by an EU-funded colouring book portraying the daily lives of ‘Mr and Mrs MEP’. It is appalling, certainly, but far from unusual. The propaganda that comes out of Brussels has long been full of such idiocies. Some
Now that Mervyn King has given his last press conference and spotted some green shoots of his own, attention is turning to his successor, Mark Carney. He is being portrayed as the man on the white horse riding to our rescue. He has been very successful in Canada and I wish him well. But I
I was surprised to be told, by the editor of this magazine, that next week will mark the 20th anniversary of my standing down as Chancellor. The anniversary had entirely passed me by. I was asked this week why, if the economy was turning, George Osborne didn’t announce that he had spotted ‘green shoots’, as
Today’s Budget was horrendously historic in terms of the borrowing it sets out. But even the huge numbers getting bandied around could still prove to be underestimates. The Treasury’s growth figures for 2011 and beyond are stylistic at best – and, if you look back to the recession of the early 90s, the biggest borrowing
