Political Economy » Central Government

The Price Of Freedom

Charles Vickers — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:59:54 +0000

Seven score and eight years ago a man spoke to dedicate the cemetery on a battlefield which had seen over 46,000 casualties including nearly 8,000 killed.

He pointed out that the living could not dedicate that place since the dead had already consecrated the ground with their blood. The living, rather, had to dedicate themselves to the unfinished work for which the dead had died.

Options for Reducing the Governments Deficit

Charles Vickers — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:10:44 +0000

Increase taxes say many. But tax take averages 35% – 37% of GDP whatever is done. Tax Freedom Day http://www.adamsmith.org/tax-freedom-day/ has varied little over the last 40 years

Harold Wilson 1969 29th May

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Cuts! What Cuts?

Charles Vickers — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 10:37:25 +0000

The battle is raging fiercely. The usual tools of generalisation, casuistics, feeble and sometimes misleading statistics, are being brought into play.

Riding in to help the beleaguered coalition is, believe it or not, the Guardian newspaper! Simon Jenkins has pointed out that if George Osborne gets what he wants total public spending, in real terms, will be £640bn in 2015 compared to £665bn today. Even more telling is that after New Labour’s first term on office it was only £449bn.

Where Should An English Parliament Sit?

Charles Vickers — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 08:00:24 +0000

Surprisingly this is one of the questions that divides those who want a Parliament for England. And yet, as a look at the arithmetic od representation shows, the answer is very simple and one on which all sides of this question can agree.

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Only English MPs Voting On English Matters!!*

Charles Vickers — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:24:38 +0000

It isn’t just David Cameron schmoozing this idea. Now POWER2010 http://www.power2010.org.uk have jumped on the bandwagon whilst engaging in a very worthwhile exercise in deliberative democracy. That deliberative democracy is not the solution to our current woes, that it is not without its problems, one being the narrow basis on which policies are selected – a scientifically chosen sample of 130 individuals (my emphasis) – is clear from my rant below. However do not let this dissuade you from going to their site and voting on what you think are the most important issues for democracy today.

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