The Guardian has reported that Dominic Raab, who, let us remember, is our Foreign Secretary, is of the opinion that Brexit will bring a huge series of upsides for UK trade. Of all the lies he could tell this has to be the most blatant. For what we do know is that if Brexit has… Read more
Control by Licensing
Having spent most of my life near alcohol, I’m very conscious that the state both licences me to supply it – and also licences the premises that I supply it from. Thus I require both a personal licence, for which you need to pass an exam, undergo a Criminal Record Check (and yes I have… Read more
Where’s the rest?
I spotted this lovely Twitter post from David Lammy MP in reply to Prime Minister Johnson: You promised the NHS £350 million extra per week. £1.8 billion will only cover about 5 weeks. Where’s the rest? Where indeed? More especially as spending commitments seem to have been coming thick and fast……. Read more
‘I am’ Greta Thunberg
Christopher Caldwell has an Opinion piece in the New York Times called The Problem With Greta Thunberg’s Climate Activism. The problem with Christopher Caldwell’s opinion – “Kids her age have not seen much of life. Her worldview might be unrealistic, her priorities out of balance.” – is that the more knowledgeable parts of the human race… Read more
Understanding monetary ‘plumbing’ and where it gets us
There is an interesting podcast from the American site Macro’n Cheese with the Scottish Professor Mark Blyth, who, though he long ago emigrated and has become Eastman Professor of Political Economy at Brown University in the US, he has certainly managed to hang to most of his Dundonian dialect! I have to say I usually… Read more
Five a day is a marketing fiction
As I’m sure more assiduous readers will be aware, I’ve already pointed out that ‘five a day’ is a marketing fiction. Building on this, there is a half hour podcast from the ever interesting nutritionist, Zoe Harcombe, which is from November last and which I have only just discovered. It seems to me it is… Read more
Freeports are Brexitwash
Lizz Truss, in her inordinate wisdom, has announced some freeports which are going to be so marvellous in boosting our Brexit success. They are, as Barry Gardiner has already suggested, just a way of moving around employment. But did we know that the EU already permits them? There is a list here of all the… Read more
Even if ‘no deal’ were desirable it is tactical idiocy
The former leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Rona Ambrose, has neatly revealed why Johnson’s ‘No Deal’ Brexit plan is fundamentally flawed. She rightly points out that there is no point in Canada negotiating with the UK, because if the UK does not intend to impose any tariffs when it leaves what is the… Read more
Is No Deal is vastly Under Priced and will the Johnson Government Ditch the Backstop?
Introduction The Johnson premiership has begun. The tortuously negotiated Withdrawal Agreement (WA) is hated by the new government. There are contradictory signals, and it is unsure what changes could be made to make the WA acceptable to HMG. We seem to have moved from a time limit on the Backstop to no Backstop. Even if… Read more
The cult comes first
Amid news that the pound has sunk to a 28 month low on no deal Brexit fears, I thought I should revisit an oldish report from the Institute for Policy Research, which pointed out that: The decoupling between wages and growth coincides precisely with the UK’s trade (and current account) deficit. The UK’s debts to… Read more
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