A recurrent debate among historians is the question: can history teach us lessons relevant to the present and future? Generally, history does not repeat itself by turning full circle, though it may move elliptically. Economic history, however, may be a special case in that it travels in recognisable cycles – boom, recession, depression, recovery – […]
There are two coalitions in Britain today. The one in power in Whitehall between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. We all know about that one. Much less discussed is the more informal but still powerful coalition between Conservative ministers and the Labour leaders of northern England’s great cities. More devolution of power to these cities […]
France, according to its prime minister, Manuel Valls, is “at war” with Islamism. And not just France. “Europe is under siege,” say American media. The Chairman of the Senate’s Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, broadened the geography still further, talking of “a war on Western civilization”. It’s natural, in the aftermath of an atrocity, to cast […]
Karen Horn delivers a sharp, acid and merciless critique of the German liberals’ attempt at initiating a revival after their disastrous defeat in the federal elections in September 2013. On the credit side, she discovers virtually nothing. Apart from the rhetorical talents of the party’s leader Christian Lindner, she discards the rest of the current […]
Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa may have suffered a surprise defeat last week at the hands of his former ally Maithripala Sirisena, but there is no doubt that the economy flourished under his control. Despite being beset by constant national, environmental, political and social disasters over the past half century, Sri Lanka has proved to […]
The Tories know that commuters hate being held to ransom by transport strikers, they know that union bashing polls well with their target voters and puts Labour’s Ed Miliband, the leader of a union-financed opposition party, on the side of his sponsor’s vested interests and the wrong side of most voters. So much for the low […]
Some of the answers seem to lie in Greek mythology. Procrustes’ bed: too short, and you were stretched until you fitted: too long, and bits were chopped off until your dimensions matched the space. That is not a bad analogy for Greece and the European single currency. The Trojan Horse: “Fear Greeks bearing gifts,” said […]
“Violet is the last try”: this popular German saying is probably hundred years old, and it was originally used to make fun of frivolous women who attempted to attract attention by dressing in vivid colours. Fittingly, the liberal party (FDP), the morose grand old lady of German politics, is now also putting on shades of […]
1. Inequality is only the Left’s latest weapon against capitalism There’s never been a time when the anti-capitalists haven’t had a defining objection to free markets. Once, believe it or not, they insisted capitalism was inferior to communism (it sounds extraordinary now but there was a period when the Soviet Union did look like the future […]
“The Tory plan is to return spending on public services to a share last seen in the 1930s,” says Ed Miliband. Oh no, we’re supposed to think, not the 1930s! Not the Great Depression and the Jarrow March and the Road to Wigan Pier! Not the long lines of men in cloth caps queuing at […]
Most people like to walk down to the farmer’s market to get some vegetables. Doing one’s groceries at the market feels a bit as if the countryside has come to town, and with it the good old days. The market stands are small, the produce is alluring, the farmers have wrinkles in their face and […]
When the British Prime Minister considers restricting the right granted to EU citizens to freely enter the United Kingdom, he is expressing without qualms a feeling shared by many Europeans. For some, immigrants – whatever country they may come from – are not welcome. Switzerland, perhaps, stands as an exception: Swiss voters have just rejected […]
It is a fixed rule of public debate that, when you draw a parallel with another country, however narrow and technical, you are guaranteed – guaranteed – to be told an unrelated fact about that country. You think that we could learn from Singapore’s system of transferable healthcare accounts? “Ah, but Singapore is an autocracy!” […]
Every centre right government redistributes money from the rich to the poor. Margaret Thatcher did. Ronald Reagan did. John Howard did. They all oversaw progressive tax systems. They all maintained a state-funded social safety-net. For pensioners. For the unemployed. For the young. For those in need of emergency medical care. Stephen Harper, Angela Merkel, Tony […]
In the euro crisis, the EU has suspended accountable government, and the rule of (EU) law has become the continuation of politics by other means In his great speech on EU immigration last Friday the Prime Minister called for radical changes in the availability of UK state benefits to immigrants from elsewhere in the EU. […]
There is surely something surreal about watching the vanquished dictate terms to the victors. Yet that is what is happening as the SNP, recently defeated in Scotland’s independence referendum, dictates a new constitutional and fiscal settlement to the rest of the United Kingdom, using the so-called Smith Commission – authors of the most irresponsible document […]
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