Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

 When it comes to land banking, the Government itself is one of the biggest culprits   The Ministry of Defence owns 849,000 acres of land – enough for 4.25m family homes   Retention of unused state property is as bad as wasteful public spending Source CApX - 30/05/22 Link Politicians are often keen to blame others for the housing shortage, whether it’s young people spending too much money on Netflix and avocado toast, buy to let landlords, second home owners, or that hardy perennial – immigrants.  Another favourite is to blame the property developers (especially, of course, those villains the ‘overseas property developers’) for buying up land and sitting on it in the hope it’s value will rise as demand for housing inevitably outstrips supply. But when it comes to ‘land banking’, the real culprit is the Government itself. State land banking exists on a gargantuan scale. Last week the Ministry of Defence published details of its land holdings. It owns 849,000 acres – t...

In all my years of public-service broadcasting, I never saw anything like this Source - Spiked Link On the day of the confidence vote in Boris Johnson’s leadership, I tweeted that ‘The spectacle of some MSM public-service broadcasters salivating over it all is not becoming’. It prompted an avalanche of agreement. Clearly, I am not alone in sensing that the impartiality of many public-service broadcasters flew out of the window with their reporting of Monday’s vote and of all that led up to it. I’m of an age to remember the attempts to topple Margaret Thatcher, the power struggles between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the troubles John Major had with the anti-European brigade, and many other internecine tussles. What I don’t remember is a time when a prime minister’s statements and explanations were reported with such sniggering, dripping tones of disbelief and incredulity. The tone of a presenter’s delivery is powerful: it seasons the facts and steers the audience to a given conclusion....

 Rishi's wizard wheeze Source - CApx E mail 29/05/21 as Like the Voldemort of Government announcements, the windfall tax is the policy that must not be named. Standing at the despatch box, Rishi Sunak described a plan to tackle the cost of living as a ‘temporary targeted energy profits levy’. The Labour benches erupted with derision at his delicate language and delight that he’d copied their idea. Saying one thing and doing another isn't unusual in politics, but this Government is making a habit of it. It claims to be the party of low taxes while presiding over the highest tax burden since the heyday of state socialism, and insists it is a friend to businesses while deducting from their profits. That said, you can see why the Chancellor felt compelled to reach for his magic wand. On Tuesday, Ofgem announced that the energy price cap will increase by another £800 in October. As it happens, ability to afford anunexpected but necessary expense of £850 is one of the benchmarks the ...

 It's not expertise that counts, so much as politicised perceptions of whose expertise matters   Anti-innovation activists have all sorts of rhetorical tricks to warp the debate on food safety   These activists are really railing against the entire modern agricultural system Source - CApx - 01/06/22 Link While Westminster has been fixated on the fallout from Partygate in recent weeks, one of the most consequential pieces of post-Brexit legislation was recently introduced in Parliament. The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill comes at a time when food shortages are hitting the headlines. Warning signs were already evident in 2021: a combination of extreme weather conditions and rising gas and fertiliser costs had caused agricultural commodity prices to soar. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made an already bad situation worse, and countries including China, Turkey, India and Argentina are now restricting exports of food and fertiliser. Predictably, there is now renewe...

In 1999 Blair senior set himself a target of getting more than 50pc of school-leavers into higher education Source - Daily Telegraph - 03/06/22 Link  at the National Service of Thanksgiving to Celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee CREDIT: Henry Nicholls - WPA Pool/Getty Images Unlike some, I don’t begrudge Tony Blair the knighthood he was awarded in the New Year’s honours list. If a decade as Prime Minister does not qualify you for such an honour then what would? But on balance I would say that his elder son Euan deserves his MBE, which was awarded this week, a bit more. He has earned it through performing the public service of showing his old man’s policy on higher education to be a load of nonsense. Euan was awarded his MBE for setting up Multiverse, a US-listed business which seeks to provide young people with an alternative to university through on-the-job training, giving them a more direct route into employment.  To anyone over 45, who remembers the days when employers ...

 Moscow isn’t about to agree to a reasonable peace deal with Ukraine. The Kremlin is under pressure to hit Kyiv even harder Source - Daily Telegraph - 03/06/22 Link “We’ve passed peak Western unity.” That was the bleak assessment from a senior Government source earlier this week. The EU just about managed to agree oil sanctions and the US, after a wobble, decided to send long-range rockets to Kyiv, but there is a constant sense of instability and effort about it all. The cost of sanctions is spiralling and military stocks are running low. Some Western leaders seem to want to wind down Ukraine’s war effort. France’s Emmanuel Macron warned this week against the “humiliation” of a great power if Ukraine wins and Germany’s Olaf Scholz is still unable to say if he actually wants Ukraine to win. Worse, there is a sense of slowing momentum in the White House, with talk of further sanctions put off until the G7 amid the idea that Russia has suffered enough. It is as if a band of Western po...

The Queen has never let us down during her incredible 70 years on the throne and today’s joyous celebration with her family was no exception Source - Daily telegraph 02/06/22 Link Well, what a glorious day that turned out to be. The sudden thunder of a thousand guardsman standing to attention. Along The Mall, for as far as the eye could see, the Union flags so big, so beautiful, so many; how they lift your heart. The swelling sense that it was OK to feel proud to be British (they can’t arrest you for it; not yet anyway).  Our soldiers; impeccable, glittering, not putting a foot wrong. The gravel under their boots washed and combed. Three adorable great-grandchildren smiling and practising their waving in an open carriage (a permanently astonished four-year-old Prince Louis instantly making a sailor suit the most desirable item of clothing on the planet). Even the weather, cold, sullen and spitty as a Corbynist republican, got the memo and pulled itself together just in time. The Qu...