Government appointments to advisory positions are often motivated by PR rather than an actual need for counsel; in the early days of Gordon Brown’s premiership, it seemed that there were more ‘tsars’ than in Time of Troubles-era Russia. However, this week two genuinely significant appointments have been in the news, one in the UK and one [...]

Filed under: barackobama, deficitreduction, georgeosborne, globalfinancialcrisis on September 13th, 2010 | No Comments »

Over the last six weeks in the United States, we have seen gradually unfold the true scale of two parallel catastrophes. Both involve industries stuck in a seemingly intractable rut; both have long-term roots, occurring amid a climate of irresponsibility and recklessness.
The first scarcely needs detailing. Perhaps as many as 4.2 million gallons a day [...]

Filed under: barackobama, environment, media on June 11th, 2010 | No Comments »

It was a bill with widespread support in the House, on an issue that virtually no one could object to: a move that would prevent “vulture funds” - i.e. bond speculators who prey on the world’s poor by buying up the debt of foreign countries at a reduced price and then suing the debtor countries [...]

Filed under: Uncategorized, poverty, ukpolitics on March 14th, 2010 | No Comments »

It’s the centrepiece of Obama’s domestic agenda, and there have been months of haggling, deal-cutting and sausage-making in order to push it through. The prospect of a Democratic loss in the Massachusetts special election has further injected a sense of urgency. Given the unwieldy, dysfunctional nature of the Senate, with its seemingly interminable succession of [...]

Filed under: health, uspolitics on January 19th, 2010 | No Comments »