NUM: on the wrong side of history

The Committee has exercised commendable legislative restraint for a while, reluctant as it is to cross the Rubicon of statutory underpinning. But Oliver Letwin and Hugh Grant have persuaded it that it can no longer put off banning some more words and phrases. Here, then, are the next 10 additions to the Supplementary Banned List:

The [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 19 March 2013 at 2:49 pm

What if the internet broke?

Danny Hillis in a TED talk (video at Mashable) wondered what would happen if “bad and foolish people” sabotaged the internet:
We’re setting ourselves up for a kind of disaster like the [one] we had with the financial system, where we take a system that was basically built on trust — was basically built for a [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 18 March 2013 at 8:35 pm

Cyprus? There but for the grace of God goes Britain

Cyrpus’ banking sector is grossly inflated with assets and liabilities at around €126bn, or 700% of the island’s GDP. Yet our own banking sector still has assets and liabilities equal to 450% of our GDP.

By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Monday, 18 March 2013 at 12:16 pm

Faulty Recall about Iraq

Nick Clegg’s two-faced cynicism was the outstanding part of Iraq war anniversary journalism, but there is plenty more with which to deal.
John Prescott in the Sunday Mirror elaborated on his recent television interview, in which he said that the Iraq war was wrong in hindsight. Although what he said on television was ungrammatical and broke [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 18 March 2013 at 9:21 am

Two Faces of Nick Clegg

It is the blank-faced cynicism of Nick Clegg that we should fear the most. He has an article in The Independent on Sunday today reminding us that he was against the war in Iraq and saying that he is therefore totally, er, not against British military action in Syria now.
He repeats his slogan about the invasion of [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 17 March 2013 at 9:44 pm

Labour lead up 4 points as UKIP surges

Labour has increased its lead as Conservative voters defect to UKIP, according to a ComRes poll for The Independent on Sunday tomorrow, shared with the Sunday Mirror.  UKIP support has reached 17 per cent, its highest in any ComRes poll:
Con  28% (-3)
Lab  37% (+1)
UKIP  17% (+3)
Lib Dem 9% (+1)
Green   4% (0)
Others  5% [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 16 March 2013 at 7:22 pm

The “Magic Money Tree”

Ed Balls has confused me.

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 16 March 2013 at 6:22 pm

Poll alert

We have a ComRes opinion poll in The Independent on Sunday tomorrow, shared with the Sunday Mirror. Last month, we had the Labour lead at just five points and UKIP up to 14 per cent.
With the Budget coming up next week, we asked our “trust on the economy” tracker, comparing David Cameron and George Osborne [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 16 March 2013 at 11:16 am

“Cut taxes to close the deficit” 2

The sequel to my post yesterday was a discussion (audio here) I had at the Spectator’s beautiful wood-panelled offices in Westminster with Fraser Nelson, the editor, about his belief that any marginal rate of income tax higher than 36 per cent loses the government more money than it raises.
He cheated slightly at the end, when Sebastian Payne [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 14 March 2013 at 7:34 pm

Anyone remember freedom of expression?

Can any normal person remember what the row about the Leveson report is about? David Cameron is in favour of regulation of the press (but not the internet?) by a regulator created by Royal Charter. Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg are in favour of the same thing by a regulator approved by an auditor created [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 14 March 2013 at 2:43 pm