The Guardian is running with the ‘Labour’s spending spree’ story for all its worth, but no-one seems to be asking some rather obvious questions. First, the story alleges that an unusually high number of  Whitehall ‘accounting officers’ (usually permanent secretaries) lodged formal objections to spending decisions in the last year of the Labour government. So […]

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is being touted as a really big reform to how the government ‘does’ fiscal policy. Essentially, the claim is that fiscal forecasting will be outsourced to the OBR which will be independent and therefore free of political interference. How does this claim stack up?

A lot of media analysts and city commentators have been loosely talking about the forthcoming Budget ‘spelling out the cuts’ that were so obviously absent from the election campaign. It won’t. David Cameron has just confirmed in an interview on the Andrew Marr show that the Budget will only spell out the spending envelope for […]

Are we entering a new era of British politics? All the signs are that we are. The Big Battalions of the post-WWII political wars of position have shrunk – ironically it was the Thatcherite reforms of the 1980s that shattered both the historic coalitions that the Conservatives and Labour represented.

I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution Take a bow for the new revolution Smile and grin at the change all around me Pick up my guitar and play Just like yesterday And I’ll get on my knees and pray We don’t get fooled again Don’t get fooled again The Who’s lyrics seem especially […]

As we move into the era of pluralist, multi-party, government it is clear that a lot of people are going to have problems getting used to the new world. Some are deliberately sticking to old formulae, whilst others clearly just haven’t caught up yet.

Sorry to be a stickler for details but a widespread myth emerged during the Election that the Labour government had “postponed” a Spending Review and “put it off until after the Election”.

If a minority Tory or Con-Lib dem government comes to power next week the worst possible thing they could do is deploy the infamous “it’s worse than we thought” ploy.

Labour has clearly lost, but the Tories also clearly did not win either, however much they want to pretend otherwise. The verdict of the electors is that they do not want one-party rule anymore. The issue is not whether we have a smash and grab Tory government or a clinging on Labour one, but what […]

Things have been rather hectic over the past couple of weeks and I’ve done so many media things I’ve not had time to keep this page up to date. Until the Election is over that’s likely to continue to be the case. But one amusing story – I got “bumped” by a volcano last week! […]