Monthly Archives: June 2010

Adam Posen, a member of the BoE’s monetary policy committee, talks about Korea and Spain. “The deeper contraction in Korea sent around the world the effects of the Asian financial crisis with renewed force…   Less obviously, but probably doing … Continued

I did a stint on Radio on Monday night, on Petrie Hoskin’s LBC political bloggers panel with Harry Cole and Mark Thompson. A jolly time was had by all, I think. It’s certainly much easier appearing on the media when … Continued

If you hurry, there’s just time to put your question to Ed Miliband as part of the Open Left Online Q&A being run by Demos. These online Q&A’s are one of the better things in the Leadership elections campaign, and … Continued

This excellent Labour Uncut article by Kate Williams about appearing in the BBC’s Nick & Dave show, explains why I generally hate audience participation politics programmes, from Questiontime on down.  Go and read it, then come back here and I’ll … Continued

It’s a reference, not a typo. Anyway, I’m not going to talk about it, not because I don’t have opinions, but because if if you take a pinhead and then place it next to Jupiter, you have a rough approximation … Continued

Iain Duncan Smith said “The purpose of my life here is to improve the quality of life of the worst off in society. If somebody tells me I have to do something different then I won’t be here any longer.” … Continued

The art of war opposition lies in the use of stealth as much as full frontal attack, according to Sun-Tzu-Rentoul At least now I know what to call my AB-provoked forthcoming budget strategy magnum opus. It will be titled “The … Continued

One of the odd elements of this Budget is how it demonstrated George Osborne’s further development of the Brownian art of budget news management and presentation. Where the thickets of a Gordon Brown budget were all about the business tax … Continued

It has come to my attention that a lot of moderate centre-left types are Doctor Who fans. This is the source of the only reasonable explanation for recent mysterious events. It is a picture of the wall of the Chancellor’s … Continued

If you’re on the left, there are three interesting things about the Budget. The first, obviously is that yes, Tory governments really do raise VAT whenever they can*. Vince was right. The second key point is the OBR commentary. The … Continued