Public debt, private responsibility

“The financial crisis saw governments step in to take over debts that had been incurred by private citizens. They could do this because their power to tax their citizens assured lenders that they were good for the money.”

As a prelude to my forthcoming piece on austerity and public debt, Daniel Finkelstein‘s account in today’s The Times is lucid, accurately informed by personal history, and cuts through much of the misinformation being propagated by both right- and left-leaning members of the commentariat¹.

A Seraglio of elder statesman

“The Bard of Burton Bradstock once devised a scheme for reform of the Lords that, with a few tweaks, gives most people what they want and has a fighting chance of passing through both Houses.”

— Philip Collins, writing in The Times.

We learn today that reform to the House of Lords, as mooted in the Coalition agreement*, may be kicked into the long grass¹, because certain members of the Conservative party believe it is a costly diversion at a time when all resources should be concentrated on the economy². Furthermore, they believe apathy towards electoral reform last year means any proposal will be inscrutable to voters. They are wrong on both counts, and the Conservative front-bench should see through such strong-arming, because a simple and costless solution exists.

Indirectly, mayoral fever has subsided

In amongst the good news for Labour with regard to local elections, there must be grave disappointment as to the referenda on directly elected mayors, which have fallen in most of the cities in which they were held¹. Here, I explain why the public’s appetite for devolved government was so lacking.