Yes to growth, but no to immigration?

Is David Cameron following his own advice?

By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 17 June 2010 at 3:05 pm

Is Osborne’s banking commission serious?

I’m not hugely enthused about the chances of the commission delivering a ringing endorsement of splitting up the banks

By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 17 June 2010 at 11:10 am

History lessons and banking reform

If we are to learn the lessons of history it is not enough to simply look at the crises that did happen, but those that didn’t too.

By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 16 June 2010 at 1:41 pm

Thanks a lot Budd

Sir Alan Budd has created rather a problem for George Osborne. His first report yesterday, as Paul Mason of Newsnight has cleverly winkled out, confirms that Labour’s March tax and spending plans would indeed have eliminated the bulk of the structural deficit by 2015.

The OBR puts cyclically-adjusted net borrowing in 2015 at 2.8 per cent of [...]

By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 15 June 2010 at 1:27 pm

Special relationship bust!

The right’s anguish over the dreaded end of the “special relationship” is getting ever more weird.
Matthew D’Ancona in the Evening Standard cites Barack Obama’s “banishing of the Churchill bust from the Oval Office” as one of those “small lapses of grace” which “maybe mean a lot”.
So has it come to this? The special relationship can [...]

By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye | Monday, 14 June 2010 at 5:44 pm

Britain isn’t nearly bankrupt Nick

Sad to hear Nick Clegg sounding like David Cameron:
“This is the legacy that we as a new government and we the British people were left. Left by a government bankrupt of ideas and very nearly bankrupt. It is the only way we can get our public finances on a sound footing.”
Britain is not “bankrupt” or [...]

By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye | Monday, 14 June 2010 at 4:56 pm

The return of the Little Englander

Is this all that’s left?

There’s another interesting feature about the near-universal frothing reaction of the British right to Obama’s hard line on BP. Several newspapers have carried pieces pronouncing the “special relationship” dead or nearly expired  (see here and here and here).
As far as I know the right hasn’t moderated its hostility to Europe. The Scots and [...]

By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye | Monday, 14 June 2010 at 1:20 pm

The corporatist defenders of BP

Clive Crook in the Financial Times puts his finger on what’s so silly about the bleating of British rightwingers on BP.
“The British press points out that BP has a dominant position in the stock market and that pensioners depend on its dividends. What is one to conclude? The bigger the company, the smaller its obligation [...]

By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye | Monday, 14 June 2010 at 12:46 pm

Just how British is BP?

A “great British company” is under attack by a vengeful American President. To arms, patriots, cry  British rightwingers.
But just how British is BP? Obviously it’s listed in London. And it’s got a British CEO. But BP employs 23,000 people in the US, compared to 10,000 UK workers. Around 40 per cent of BP’s shares are [...]

By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye | Friday, 11 June 2010 at 1:35 pm

What about a graduate tax Mr Willetts?

I rather like David Willetts’ suggestion that students look upon student fees as “more as an obligation to pay higher income tax” than a debt.
This emphasises the fact that  former students generally earn considerably more over their lifetime than those who don’t go into higher education. It also emphasises the retrospective nature of the payback.
Plus [...]

By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 10 June 2010 at 7:49 pm