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George Osborne must act before Britain is sucked into the euro whirlpool
The Chancellor of The Exchequer at Number 11 (Photo: Eddie Mulholland)
George Osborne has established a high reputation as Chancellor, and in some ways this is well deserved. He has restructured the Treasury, taken steps towards rebuilding the credibility of our national accounts, and above all produced a plausible plan for reducing the chronically out-of-control budget deficit. However, I believe that the Chancellor is in danger of throwing away all of this achievement, by failing to confront his first great financial crisis. This is the collapse of eurozone, a slow-motion disaster that reached a fresh level of horror on Wednesday night when Portugal held out the begging bowl.
Osborne’s response was troubling. It was to make a cheap political point to the effect that the Portuguese debacle proved the wisdom of… Read More
Miliband’s plan for power is putting his party back on course
Ed Miliband at a Yes to AV event on March 29 (Photo: PA)
It is growing increasingly hard to resist a grudging admiration for Edward Miliband. He has emerged as a ruthless, talented and effective Labour leader. Less than one year after his party’s worst election result in a quarter of a century, it is back on its feet, and enjoying a steady lead in the opinion polls.
Indeed, the most recent poll, from YouGov, is particularly striking. Labour scores 45 per cent, a full 10 per cent ahead of the Conservatives at 35, with the Lib Dems on 9. If that result were duplicated at a general election, with constituency boundaries intact, Miliband’s Labour would enjoy a formidable majority, of approximately 100, over all the other parties. Nick… Read More
India v Pakistan: This game knocks the Ashes for six
Indian police walk past a vendor selling Indian national flags (Photo: AFP)
In England we have long regarded our Ashes encounters with Australia as embodying the biggest cricketing rivalry in the world. We deceive ourselves. India versus Pakistan is now the most meaningful and tremendous sporting contest – not just in cricket but in all world sport.
Compared to the pulsating, passionate, primordial struggle that will today convulse all of India and Pakistan, the Ashes, it has to be admitted, counts for relatively little.
When Ricky Ponting and his green-capped losers were blown away by Andrew Strauss and his men three months ago, the worst they suffered was wounded pride and a mauling in the Australian press.
If history is anything to go by, today’s losers will face professional disgrace and social… Read More
Some European countries are in the habit of going bankrupt
Angela Merkel in the Bundestag on March 24 (Photo: AFP)
A few hours after George Osborne’s faintly banal Budget speech, José Sócrates, the Portuguese prime minister, resigned. So far as I know, these two events were not in any way connected. Nevertheless, it is a very good bet that this little Iberian drama will have far more effect on British household finances and our national prosperity over the coming year than the Osborne Budget.
The resignation plunges the eurozone into a crisis it cannot survive. Mr Socrates’s failure to force his austerity package through the Portuguese parliament marks a crucial turning point.
It is the moment when the peripheral eurozone countries refuse to take orders any more from the centre. Effectively, Portugal has adopted blackmail as an economic strategy – and very effective… Read More
Labour’s tawdry smear tactics can’t disguise its absence of ideas
Ed Miliband is hugged by former Labour leader Neil Kinnock (Photo: AFP)
The Clegg/Cameron Coalition is about to enter its period of maximum danger. The economic recovery may be going into reverse. Unemployment is back on the rise, with the level of youth unemployment now at a record high. The spending cuts announced last year are at last beginning to bite, hard and painfully. To make matters worse, the cost of living is rising very sharply indeed, and an increase in national insurance is introduced with the start of the financial year next month.
Moreover, this May’s local and national elections will present the first major electoral test for the Coalition and the results will be dreadful – massive gains for Labour, a setback for the Conservatives, and a bloodbath… Read More
William Hague isn’t bad at his job – he’s the victim of a smear campaign
Tory realist: William Hague
Every so often in British politics the sharks smell blood, circle and move in for the kill. This is happening now, and the target is William Hague. The critics claim that he has lost interest in his job, and that as a result he has made a series of mistakes. In particular, they say, the crisis in the Middle East has been grotesquely mishandled. Some say Hague’s finished.
Sometimes, when the sharks circle, there really has been gross negligence, lying or deceit. But I don’t believe that this is the case with Hague. On the contrary, I believe that he has handled recent events reasonably well. Let’s examine the charge sheet.
The biggest criticism concerns the capture of six SAS soldiers and two British “diplomats” in Libya last week. All serious politicians and journalists are in…Read More
How will America handle the fall of its Middle East empire?
An Iraqi watches televised coverage of the inauguration of President Obama in 2009 (Photo: AP)
Empires can collapse in the course of a generation. At the end of the 16th century, the Spanish looked dominant. Twenty-five years later, they were on their knees, over-extended, bankrupt, and incapable of coping with the emergent maritime powers of Britain and Holland. The British empire reached its fullest extent in 1930. Twenty years later, it was all over.
Today, it is reasonable to ask whether the United States, seemingly invincible a decade ago, will follow the same trajectory. America has suffered two convulsive blows in the last three years. The first was the financial crisis of 2008, whose consequences are yet to… Read More
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