“Governments with money centralise and claim the credit. Governments without cash decentralise and spread the blame. Those are not the views of a hardened media cynic. They are what I was told by one of the Tories’ top policy wonks before the election.”Nick Robinson, BBC Political Editor, December 2010Surprised? Why? The masters of the universeContinueContinue reading “Pop Goes the Weasel”
Tag Archives: London
Terror Incognita
Channel 4’s Jon Snow is back from Scotland with his eyes opened: see his blog on the subject, and the many comments it’s attracted. To sum up, London is loathed from Land’s End to John O’Groats. Westminster politicians are vicious and corrupt; City slickers are the downfall of a decent society; the meejah couldn’t careContinueContinue reading “Terror Incognita”
Review of 2013
Every year when we submit our accounts to the Electoral Commission we are also required to provide a ‘Review of Political Activities’ covering the year just gone. The 2013 Review has recently been agreed and here is what it says:“The Eastleigh by-election in February provided an unplanned but welcome opportunity to raise the Party’s profile. ContinueContinue reading “Review of 2013”
Receiving The Water Bill
DEFRA – to some cynics the Department for Eliminating Farming and Rural Activity – is piloting a Bill through the Westminster Parliament to change how the water and sewerage industry is regulated. It tells us that “privatisation of the water industry has been successful in attracting over £116 billion of investment… Without this investment, waterContinueContinue reading “Receiving The Water Bill”
Tunnel Vision
“You can’t play politics with our prosperity.” With these words, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin tried this week to push the lid down hard on the HS2 debate. You must do what corporate capital wants. Or else. It looks like we’re all in transition from evidence-based policy to policy-based evidence, and it’s a worldwide trend.It’s widelyContinueContinue reading “Tunnel Vision”
Taken For A Ride
Since 2000, London has had to contend not only with the pomp of its ancient mayoralty within the Square Mile but with the brashness of its new one within the broader mass of Greater London. Lord Mayor and Antimayor, like Pope and Antipope in the Middle Ages. Henley’s former MP, Boris Johnson, is the currentContinueContinue reading “Taken For A Ride”
Down The Drain
Thames Water’s bills are set to rise. That’s bad news in Swindon, especially as the reason given for needing the money is to upgrade infrastructure in London. The locals aren’t happy and the suggestion has been made that perhaps Thames should be split into Upper and Lower zones for billing purposes. An excellent idea. LondonContinueContinue reading “Down The Drain”
The Wealth of Wessex
Here is a link to the case for Scottish independence, set out in maps and numbers. The second map shows the extent to which the wealth of England, measured in GDP per head, is concentrated along the M4 corridor. It’s our wealth: our answer to the claim that we all depend on London’s cleverness withContinueContinue reading “The Wealth of Wessex”
A Broken Constitution
We’re SO all in it together. Professor Sir Peter Hall of University College London, an expert on regional economic policy, had this to say about the figures in George Osborne’s Comprehensive Spending Review: “Even on capital spending, which Osborne claims to be boosting – actually only after election year 2015, but let that pass –ContinueContinue reading “A Broken Constitution”
The Flag of the Future
Eric Pickles is a Tory, and a member of the Coalition Government, and so one would think no friend of Wessex. Yet this weekend, his department flew the Wyvern outside its head office, Eland House in London, to mark St Ealdhelm’s Day, the 25th of May. View the photographic proof.Pickles’ politics apart, he has done good workContinueContinue reading “The Flag of the Future”
Wessex Regionalists 