Monthly Archives: September 2009

Suddenly, and somewhat belatedly, Gordon Brown is getting all macho with the banks. Apparently, he’s going to make the UK’s bank regulation the toughest in the world. That will certainly play well to the Labour faithful and a public heartily … Continue reading →

If you are stuck for something to do, you could have a go at the DIY spending review on the IFS website. It allows you to increase or cut public spending and then to allocate what you have left between the government departments. … Continue reading →

David Cameron, talking about the Thatcher years earlier this week, remarked: We never in the 1980s actually managed to cut public spending. He’s right, of course. As this graph shows, public spending is one of the few things that can  … Continue reading →

George Monbiot draws a parallel between unscruplulous firms that dump toxic waste on poor countries and banks that offload their toxic debt in a similar way. He refers to Barclays and its recent attempt shunt its CDOs and dodgy mortgage assets to a company in … Continue reading →

Heather McGregor has caught Harriet Harman talking rubbish yet again. Lap dancing, like any other form of corporate entertainment, is not tax deductable, so asking Alistair Darling to stop a tax break that doesn’t exist makes Harriet look pretty stupid. As if the poor … Continue reading →

I couldn’t get excited about David Cameron’s discovery of the government’s ‘secret plans’ to cut public spending. You only have to look at what the government has been doing, rather than what it has been saying, to realise that it is … Continue reading →

Here’s a handy little graphic from the Guardian’s data blog. It shows central government spending by government department using different sized bubbles.   Heres a link to the PDF: Public_spending_160909 Check out the 49,891% increase in spending by the Treasury, much of which has … Continue reading →

Contestants on Dragons’ Den who don’t have a solid grasp of numbers are usually dismissed with contempt by the assembled business gurus. Theo Paphitis should perhaps show a bit more sympathy in future because the figures he quoted in his Daily Mail … Continue reading →