Pre-EU Referendum polls show a continuing (and even increasing) lead for the ‘Yes’ campaign for Britain to stay in the EU. However, I am concerned that the constant focus on immigration issues in the UK could overturn this lead by… Read More ›
Economics
Eurosceptic Contradictions
Eurosceptics are now limbering up for the ‘No’ campaign in the UK’s forthcoming EU referendum. It is becoming clear that their key arguments for a ‘No’ vote in the referendum include the following: If the UK does not leave the… Read More ›
The Eurozone and IMF will bend more than Greece to Avoid Grexit
We appear to be nearing the end of the fractious negotiations between Greece and the Eurozone and IMF, over the Syriza government’s demand for a significant relaxation of the debt repayment terms imposed on Greece in December 2012. We know… Read More ›
The LibDems: A Need for Fresh Thinking
The 2015 UK election was truly a debacle for the Liberal Democrat party, of which I am a member. The LibDems now have only eight MPs in the House of Commons (down from 57), and their share of the vote… Read More ›
Planning Restrictions Are Driving Us To Extremes
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
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
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?
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
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 ›
Up the revolution…but do not tamper with the Green Belt!
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
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
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 ›
The EU needs more, not less, federalism
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 ›
No way to run a common currency
Michel Sapin says German criticisms could drive French voters into the arms of the National Front The French Finance Minister, Michel Sapin, yesterday complained that commentators in Germany were being overly critical of France’s efforts to reform its economy. He… Read More ›
The Pope is unkind to grandmothers, but he has lessons for us all
This post features excerpts from the recent speech by Pope Francis to the European Parliament on 25h November. The speech is wide ranging, addressing many issues currently affecting Europe, including: human rights versus responsibilities, our treatment of the elderly, the… Read More ›
Michael Ingle - Interesting Times 