We Are Not London
We know where London is, but is the rest of England also London? It seems that the London regime would like to make it so. Manchester has a proud history…
Pop Goes the Weasel
“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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…