“Zimbabwe.” That’s the favourite one. Sometimes backed up with “The Weimar Republic.” Galloping inflation. That’s what you get when the government prints money. Swiftly followed by economic collapse. Guaranteed. Anyone with half a brain knows that. When armchair economists are finally forced to admit that there is a magic money tree, which government can use to…
If the UK has another general election this year (or next) Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party will lose. Again. In their euphoria at outperforming everyone’s expectations in the election just past Mr Corbyn and his merry crew appear to have overlooked the fact that they polled the best part of a million votes fewer than the…
This topic is outwith the usual scope of this blog but last night’s BBC Question Time Q&A has me wondering how many of us understand how a nuclear deterrent is supposed to work. During the Q&A there was some hostility to the idea that a putative Prime Minister (Jeremy Corbyn) wouldn’t “have the guts” to…
Last night in a debate hosted by the BBC Amber Rudd (Home Secretary of the current UK government, Conservative, desperately scrabbling to win a general election that she thought was in the bag on the day it was announced) repeatedly accused Jeremy Corbyn (current leader of the opposition, Labour, getting dangerously close to making fools…
When you’ve exhausted your indignation at, and despair of, the people who voted for Donald Trump please read this article by Thomas Frank which goes some way to explaining what’s just happened in the USA, why we’re in the throes of Brexit, and why the likes of Geert Wilders and Marine LePen are looking increasingly bright-eyed and…
A year ago I wrote that “Labour’s *New* Economic Strategy Makes Me Want To Scream”. With frustration, that is, not delight. Last November John McDonnell, Labour’s shiny new shadow chancellor, was telling us that diversification, innovation and public investment were going save us from the dead-end of Tory austerity. Mr. McDonnell appeared to be as…
I’m struggling to decide which of the Labour Party’s factions makes me more angry. The ship of state is wallowing adrift in uncertain seas. Captain Cameron has fainted from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the foot and his officers have scuttled off to hide in the heads hoping that someone else will clean up the…
Five hundred and twenty six years ago we were at war. I say “we” because I happen to live on a scrap of ground that was, in 1490, part of the nation of MacLeod of Dunvegan. I say “nation” because that is what it was: land populated by people who lived under the rule of law…
The media were a-buzz this week with stories of overspending NHS Trusts in England. We’re told that 65% of Trusts and 90% of hospitals ended the financial year in the red with a total combined deficit of £2.45 billion. If you dig into just about any of our governments’ health strategy documents in the UK and…
John Mason MSP is a former accountant who is the Deputy Convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee. Last month he was the focus of a lengthy conversation on twitter after stating that the “UK deficit (is) £1.5 trillion”. For those of you with time to squander the entire twitter exchange can be found here: https://twitter.com/JohnMasonMSP/status/703699151461203968…
Views From The Boatshed 