Author Archives

Retired lawyer studying Chinese and linguistics

• Planning Restrictions Are Driving Us To Extremes

  By Michael Ingle on April 22, 2015 • ( 0 )

  Almost everyone in the UK agrees that we need to build more houses, indeed many more houses, if we are to provide adequate, and affordable, housing for those who need it.  Last year we built 140,000 new houses, but it… Read More ›

• The UK Election Campaign Comes to Life

  By Michael Ingle on April 10, 2015 • ( 1 )

  The campaign for the UK election, which will be held on 7th May, is at last showing signs of life.  The campaign proper only started on 30th March, after a lengthy ‘phony campaign’ which had been going on since Christmas…. Read More ›

• The Leadership Vacuum in Europe

  By Michael Ingle on February 21, 2015 • ( 0 )

  I have always been a keen supporter of the European Union and of the UK’s membership of it.  The EU has without doubt helped to keep the peace in Europe since it was established (a major achievement in itself after… Read More ›

• Can Angela Merkel afford to be so relaxed about Grexit?

  By Michael Ingle on February 1, 2015 • ( 0 )

  I am writing this post as a prediction and not as a warning, because I am certain that nothing I say will have the slightest impact on the outcome of the current Greek debit crisis.  However, I cannot resist putting… Read More ›

• Robert Moses: Master Builder of New York and Infrastructure Dynamo

  By Michael Ingle on January 26, 2015 • ( 0 )

  I have recently read Robert Caro’s 1974 biography of Robert Moses: The Power Broker – Robert Moses and the Fall of New York.  It is a massive book, at 1,162 pages, as readers of Caro’s four volume biography of Lyndon… Read More ›

• Visit to the British Museum

  By Michael Ingle on January 23, 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  I made one of my regular visits to the British Museum this afternoon.  I focussed on Room 70 on the top floor (Rome and the Roman Empire).  After climbing the two long flights of stairs to the top floor, I… Read More ›

• Visit to the Green Belt at Denham, north west London

  By Michael Ingle on January 17, 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  I have visited an area of green belt in north west London, specifically around the town of Denham in Buckinghamshire.  It should be noted that Denham is inside the M25 and approximately 25 minutes by train from Marylebone Station.  House… Read More ›

• Visit to the Green Belt at Bexley and Bexleyheath

  By Michael Ingle on January 17, 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  I made my third green belt visit to Bexley and Bexleyheath in southeast London.  Bexley is 34 minutes by train from Cannon Street Station in the City of London, with a further 10 minute walk (or short bus journey) to… Read More ›

• Up the revolution…but do not tamper with the Green Belt!

  By Michael Ingle on January 6, 2015 • ( 0 )

  Club and gallery owner Alex Proud published an article in the Telegraph yesterday in which he suggested “10 ways we can fix the UK”.  It was an iconoclastic list, verging on the revolutionary, including such ideas as: make it illegal not… Read More ›

• Why we should NOT have an EU referendum

  By Michael Ingle on January 3, 2015 • ( 1 )

  As we approach the date of the next UK election on 7th May, there will be increasing debate about the in-out EU referendum that the Tories have promised for 2017.  I am writing this post to explain why I strongly… Read More ›

• Politicians need to level with the public

  By Michael Ingle on December 23, 2014 • ( 0 )

  Peter Mandelson says politicians need to be more ‘honest’ Peter Mandelson said on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC1 last Sunday that Labour politicians should be more “honest” with the public about how they would cut spending if they form… Read More ›

• Second visit to the London green belt – Dagenham

  By Michael Ingle on December 23, 2014 • ( 0 )

  

  My second visit to the London green belt was to Dagenham, in east London.  This is not such a salubrious area as Hadley Wood, the site of my first visit, but there is a substantial area of green belt very… Read More ›

• A visit to the green belt at Hadley Wood, Enfield (North East London)

  By Michael Ingle on December 22, 2014 • ( 0 )

  

  I recently visited part of London’s green belt, in the area of Hadley Wood.  This was one of a series of trips I have made to areas around the capital where urgently needed new housing might be built if local councils… Read More ›

• Building on the green belt: Nicky Gavron no, David Lammy yes

  By Michael Ingle on December 14, 2014 • ( 0 )

  A major divide has opened up in the London Labour establishment between Nicky Gavron (Labour Chair of the London Assembly Planning Committee) and David Lammy (first declared candidate for the London Mayoralty election in 2016). Nicky Gavron’s view Nicky Gavron… Read More ›

• The EU needs more, not less, federalism

  By Michael Ingle on December 13, 2014 • ( 0 )

  The word ‘federalism’ has become, in the UK at least, shorthand for the concept of increased centralisation of power at the centre of the EU, away from the individual Member States.  This is not a popular concept in the UK,… Read More ›