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 ›
Politics
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 ›
Workers who come to the UK from other EU countries are not migrants
The Financial Times published an excellent letter today from Piet Eeckhout, Professor of European Law at University College London. Mr Eeckhout was responding to David Cameron’s demands, in his ‘immigration speech’ last week, that people who come to the UK… Read More ›
How could they build more houses in the 20s and 30s than now?
At a time when we are barely able to build 130,000 houses a year in the UK, it is interesting to note that we managed to build more houses, indeed many more houses, each year during the 1920s and 30s…. Read More ›
Party Policies on the Greenbelt – Summing Up
This is the last of my series on the main parties’ policies for building houses in the greenbelt. A disappointing roundup In summary, no party is currently proposing any relaxation in restrictions on the use of greenbelt land for housebuilding…. Read More ›
Labour and the Greenbelt
Continuing my series of blogs on party policies in relation to housebuilding on the greenbelt, I now turn to the Labour Party. Labour’s website does contain a short housing policy (you can read it here: http://www.labour.org.uk/issues/detail/house-building), which commits a Labour… Read More ›
John Major, the EU and Immigration
John Major has made a useful intervention in the debate about the EU and immigration. He appeared on the Andrew Marr show on BBC1 this morning, following on his well reported speech last week in Germany. Major repeated his view… Read More ›
Will the Post May 2015 UK Government Permit Housebuilding on the Greenbelt?
Proposals for more UK housebuilding Many UK politicians, particularly from the Tory, LibDem and Labour parties, are promising to build more houses after the next election in May 2015 – whether it is 200,000 a year, 250,000 or even 300,000…. Read More ›
Effects of the Fixed Term Parliament
It is surprising that we see so little comment on the implications of the fixed term parliament introduced by the Coalition Government. An important part of the Coalition Agreement entered into by the Tories and the LibDems in 2010 was… Read More ›
The EU Surcharge Furore: Who Knew What When?
Could the furore about the £1.8 billion EU surcharge on the UK be a manufactured one? The rules for calculating the UK’s GDP were revised several months ago, resulting in an uplift in measured GDP stretching back several years. These… Read More ›
Michael Ingle - Interesting Times 