RAPID responses May 3, 2012 Clueless Bank [Re: Mervyn King should have hiked rates to deflate the bubble, yesterday] I agree with you. Mervyn King has joined the long list of revisionist historians. To say he spotted the looming crisis is just not borne out by the facts and the Bank of England’s actions at the time. The loss of [...]
Fail to manage airport queues and see Britain’s future growth depart May 2, 2012 HEATHROW’S immigration queue crisis is already a national embarrassment, but the true scale of the damage it is doing has yet to be recognised. Inevitably, the coverage so far has focused on the Olympics. With hundreds of thousands of extra tourists flooding into the capital, and the attention of the world’s media and sporting establishments [...]
A war-weary America forces both parties to reconsider their plan of attack May 2, 2012 HAVING evaded Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, it’s unsurprising that Barack Obama is reminding the public that it was his decision that led to the daring raid which killed Osama bin Laden. With elections in November, that’s all very well. But is this a case of kill overkill? The main controversy surrounds a video [...]
Why I’m voting for Boris Johnson as mayor today May 2, 2012 THE City has taken its fair share of stick lately. Criticism from politicians is to be expected, and insofar as they represent public opinion, we have to respect that. But when the hot air dissipates, you’re left with one simple fact – financial services employ hundreds of thousands of people in this city, and not [...]
After accusations he is unfit to run BSkyB, should Rupert Murdoch be forced to sell? May 2, 2012 YES Joe Cox Whether or not Rupert Murdoch is forced to relinquish his dominance over the British media landscape should be more than about whether he is a “fit and proper” person. The important question is whether it is in the public interest for someone to be so dominant in the media market and, by [...]
RAPID responses May 2, 2012 Fresh appeal [Re: Why Boris Johnson is by far the best choice for Londoners, yesterday] It’s good to see support for a candidate on the basis on his character, the worth of his policies, and how those coincide with the nature of London itself. There’s no better example of how directly-elected mayors can rejuvenate politics [...]
Recession in the Eurozone reminds us why economic reform is so vital May 1, 2012 MUCH of the Eurozone has now tipped back into recession, prompting cries for pro-growth policies and increased spending. In these difficult times, austerity has become a dirty word, but this masks the wider failings of individual government policies and is a diversion from the collective challenge of keeping the Eurozone intact. Any attack on austerity [...]
People calling for an equal tax burden ignore how wealth is generated May 1, 2012 IN A recent article, Times columnist Philip Collins implied that an individual’s income is really the collective property of all citizens. He did not use those words, of course. He is a former speech writer for Tony Blair and a political moderate, not a communist. But he said something that makes sense only if all [...]
Contradictions in new bank rules create fresh risks May 1, 2012 ECONOMIC issues will dominate political discussions about the votes taking place across the EU in the coming month. As well as our own local elections, there are local elections in Germany and Italy, presidential elections in France and Hungary, a general election in Greece and a referendum in Ireland on the EU’s new fiscal treaty. [...]
Are the huge queues at Heathrow airport a problem for Britain’s reputation overseas? May 1, 2012 YES Willie Walsh London rightly aspires to be the business capital of the world. And the government keeps telling us that the UK is “open for business”. Why, then, are ministers apparently content to see potential overseas investors, and UK business people returning from securing vital job-creating contracts, frequently queue for over an hour just [...]