If the the UK Internal Market Bill does not get thrown out by the Commons it surely will be by the Lords. In effect this means that the Bill suffers a year’s delay. But as the UK Internal Market Bill is time critical because the UK leaves the EU on 31st December, it is difficult… Read more
The Salisbury Convention
Following on from my previous piece, a friend has advised me that the Lords are constitutionally incapable of rejecting a manifesto commitment. As indeed they are, under the so-called Salisbury Convention. (Goodness knows why the government should object to the Lords rejecting a bill when they themselves think they should be able, without problem, not… Read more
Only the Lords can now save us
From the collapse in the rule of law achieved by the Conservative’s United Kingdom Internal Market Bill… The Lords are our last hope. Very simply, relevant clauses “have effect notwithstanding any relevant international or domestic law with which they may be incompatible or inconsistent”. Whilst there is doubt I suggest, whether this in itself is… Read more
The satire in how far we have come…
This, in the video below, is what the Brexiters originally told us. All of it has turned out to be lies: And yet this (below) is what Thatcher – rightly – said in the Tory Conference in Blackpool of 1971: It is true that she later got frustrated with the EU – but few haven’t… Read more
Proposals for a Scottish National Pension & Investment Fund (NPIF) – A guest post by Jim Osborne
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to crush economies around the world we are currently witnessing a boom in the financial sector and continuing inflation of asset values. This is a clear indication that at some point in the past a tipping point was reached and the real economy and the financial sector separated into two… Read more
The stupidities of ‘disruption’
With a commission on the constitution due to examine judicial review – as the ‘Secret Barrister’ indicates in a recent Guardian piece: Led by a prime minister indulged by a lifetime of never being told no, and guided by a self-styled “disruptor” with no respect for truth or the rule of law, we have an… Read more
Foreign exchange pitfalls
Anneliese Dodds, Shadow Chancellor, asked on ‘Labour List’ whether she’d read ‘The Deficit Myth’ thinks she’s read bits of it – but promised to double check and go away and read it! Her concerns about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) are around the international context. So she’s obviously aware of MMT, which is certainly a plus,… Read more
Influencing behaviour by opaque messaging?
This social media advert is from the government, though the most prominent logo is that of the NHS, which has turned out to be a favourite technique in an endeavour, presumably, to get us onside. But we are now allowed to gather inside in pubs in untold quantities but apparently not more than 30 outside,… Read more
Payments need to go ‘bankless’
I’ve seen it suggested that if bank payments are called ‘cashless’, then cash payments should be called ‘bankless’. We need more of this – there is no reason why we have to give banks more power than they have already. The banks, of course do all they can to influence government and with Chancellor Sunak… Read more
The French are doing it so much better…
My piece yesterday bemoaned the arbitrary end of furlough and the complete lack of any clear-sighted direction for the economy. Indeed I now understand that the government’s ill thought out ‘kickstart’ scheme is in fact available only to those able to offer a minimum of 30 placements. No wonder Tesco is in favour and this… Read more
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