The Moon

Vote No to little england in the Pointless Plebiscite

2016-06-20T09:56:00.000+01:00

On Thursday the UK will finally go to the polls for the "objectively pointless referendum with no direct legal consequences. Twice as pointless, in a way, if a thing can logically be as twice as pointless." It could also be called the pointless plebiscite - as that is what they were called when Adolf Hiter held a few back in the 1930s. The quote above is from an excellent post from the Jack of Kent blog that sets out the problems with this plebiscite and plebiscites in general.

Is Our Dave the New Nick? It Was @rustyrockets Wot Won and What Ed Could Have Said...

2015-06-12T23:03:00.000+01:00

"We are all in this together, but some of us are in it more than you." George Osborwell

Is Our Dave the New Nick Clegg?

As it has been reported that he is behind the stalling of our withdrawing from the European Court of Human rights and stopping Iain Duncan Smith from reducing child benefit to families with more than two kids. His pronouncements on the death of Charles Kennedy were also excellent. So now that he can't use Nick as an excuse and, despite all the gallivanting around the rest of Europe when he ought to be concentrating on real issues, has he become our greatest hope for common sense in government? Along with The House of Lords. Heaven help us.

Whatever Happened to Asylum Seekers? And a New Page 3

2014-06-20T09:29:00.000+01:00

Jimmy Mubenga RIP.

The way "immigration" is discussed these days has changed somewhat as back in the 90's the term "asylum seeker" or "illegal failed asylum seeker" was used far more often and those that defended the UK providing asylum pointed out our long heritage giving refuge to those in need. Since our borders have been opened up to all our fellow EU citizens the issue is now just "immigration" as most migrants are coming from the new EU member states in the east and are not seeking asylum. This has been defended by pointing out the economic benefits the stats show they bring to the economy and that a growing population and better demographics is the one major economic advantage we have over other developed countries. But what happened to the asylum seekers?

Moon Feeds on Moonblogsfromsyb

2014-06-06T22:18:00.001+01:00

There has been some recent changes over at moonblogsfromsyb, the Let's Get Political section had got a bit sparse due to Liberal Conspiracy going into semi retirement and Owen Hatherley becoming dormant along with the "too good to be true" William Forbes blog in the Daily Mail and The Economy Stupid section had become non existent due to Stephanie Flanders leaving the BBC for "Mammon".

There has been a number of columns in both the Independent and the London Evening Standard that I would have liked to have included but, as I pointed out in my open letter to "two beards" Evgeny Lebedev, it is for some unfathomable reason not possible from their websites. This contrasts markedly with the Guardian from which we have the great Dave Hill blog and the Daily Telegraph website which manages to create feeds that include adverts.

Well if a two bearded son of a Russian oligarch won't help then you just have to do it yourself....

Anthony Hilton on the City and the Budget

2014-03-26T14:26:00.002+00:00

Mr Hilton the unfollowable sage has twice been on the money recently:

"The role of banks in economic textbooks is to provide capital to entrepreneurs to build businesses. That happens very little. Today, the role of banks is to finance speculation in second-hand property."
Anthony Hilton: Calls for change to an absurd system - Analysis & Features - Business - London Evening Standard

"In its four years, the Government has already borrowed more than Labour did in 13 years"
Budget 2014: Decent initiatives but why have we had to wait so long? - Business News - Business - London Evening Standard

So Where Did all the Money Go?

2013-12-30T22:08:00.000+00:00

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

There has recently been two rather good articles in London's free evening paper. Firstly the brilliant Anthony Hilton: Sacrifice is needed to stop this slide into poorer times

"So where did all the money go? If Thatcher really did change the British economy for the better, how come the generation that spent most time working in it is worse off than the generation earlier, which had to make its way in the 1960s and 1970s?"

Then a report on a warning from the Institute for Public Policy Research - Debt warning over economic recovery - Politics - News - London Evening Standard:

"This year will be the 30th straight year in which the UK has recorded a deficit on its current account balance. This is a sign that there is a fundamental flaw in the UK's economic model."

30 years ago was of course 1983/4. It is not hard join the dots.