Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

 Trump, Ramaswamy and RFK Jr show us that America is never going back to normal Source - Daily Telegraph 30/08/23 Link Was Donald Trump a fluke – or is he the first in a series of outsider candidates in the US? Many mainstream Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans have hoped that the removal of Trump from the American political scene would mean a return to the pre-2016 norm, with conventional career politicians of both parties running against each other while sharing a broad consensus about public policy. But the surprising popularity of Vivek Ramaswamy and RFK Jr. suggests that there is an enduring constituency among American voters for mavericks, campaigning against the political and economic system while deliberately violating the accepted norms of political speech and behavior. America’s first-past-the-post electoral system discourages third-party and independent candidacies. In a race with three or more contenders, the candidate with a mere plurality may prevail, even though m...

 We need more people willing to challenge the economic orthodoxy Source - Daily Telegraph - 04/09/23 Link The all too brief premiership of Liz Truss began a year ago this week. The first anniversary is another good chance to reflect not just on what went wrong, but also on what she got right. As a supporter of “Trussonomics”, I feel responsible as well. There were two big mistakes. One was to underestimate both the jumpiness in global financial markets and the naked hostility of much of the economics and political establishment to what Truss was trying to do. These fed into each other. It is no surprise that the pound fell, and borrowing costs rose, when leading commentators were suggesting that the UK was behaving like an emerging market. It did not help either that a significant minority of Conservative MPs were being so publicly critical of Truss’s agenda, undermining her ability to claim an effective majority for her plans in Parliament. The second mistake was that sensible pol...

Far from being the basket case of Europe, we are doing better than Germany - but there’s much still to do Source - Daily Telegraph 03/09/23 Link It looks like the UK has not underperformed our European peers in recent years in the way earlier statistics suggested. Revised estimates from the Office for National Statistics show that the UK has instead been somewhere in the middle of the pack for big Western European economies with growth since the end of 2019 about the same as France and Italy and a bit better than in Germany.  The New York Times just last month was reporting claims that the UK had developed a reputation as a “bit of a basket case among major advanced economies since voting for Brexit” – one of a litany of articles lamenting the state of the country since the vote to leave the EU.  Hopefully they will report just as prominently on this much better news. But I am not holding my breath: for years now a toxic narrative has built up about Britain which has enabled r...

The ham-fisted attempts to govern everyday life would be funny if they weren't so terrifying Source - Daily Telegraph - 30/08/23 Link The risk of the SNP not achieving the only thing they want or care about – another independence referendum – is that they will actually try to govern. It’s not a particularly high risk, but it’s there. On the few occasions where Scottish government ministers have managed, briefly, to turn their attention away from their obsession with flags and lines on maps, they have succumbed to the worst impulses of the progressive “Left”. Denied another attempt to destroy the Union, they have reluctantly tried to develop new policy in at least some of the areas which they have responsibility for. Their policy of imposing a Minimum Unit Price (MUP) of alcohol is one such area. The thinking was transparent and fits into other reforms like the abolition of NHS prescription and road bridge tolls: if the party were seen by the majority of the populace as competent an...

 Close ally of Rishi Sunak believes in green agenda but wants to shield people from the huge financial costs Source - Daily Telegraph - 31/08/23 Link Rishi Sunak on Thursday appointed one of his closest friends in politics to head up his net zero department amid indications of a subtle change of policy from the Government away from green causes. Senior figures indicated the Tories will look at ways to protect ordinary families from the huge cost of green policies as part of a bid to create a dividing line with Labour before the next election. Claire Coutinho, who was appointed Energy Secretary to replace Grant Shapps, has championed environmental issues in the past, such as encouraging the growth of wild rural spaces and protecting the green belt. But she has also stood up for the thousands of people who use oil boilers. The fact that the Prime Minister has promoted such a key ally into the role suggests he may be considering a challenge to Sir Keir Starmer’s position on the enviro...

 An uncontrolled crowd packing the streets at a free festival on a bank holiday weekend is a recipe for trouble   Police officers at such huge and politically loaded events are in an impossible position   The glorious show must go on – but it’s time to close the curtains on criminals who exploit it Source - Capx 30/08/23 Link Some qualified good news for residents of London’s W10 and 11 returning to their homes after this year’s Notting Hill Carnival. Westminster council have generously offered to clear their gardens of festival clutter for free! Unfortunately, those returning to an outdoor latrine where their garden flat was are excluded. If that’s your lot, get on the Marigolds. Shit happens. That sentiment, expressed in various degrees of sophistry, seems to be the default response to anyone who questions the sacred right of the Carnival to take place, whatever the toll in human waste, garbage, incivility or violence. On social media, the reactions to 275 arrests and 7...

 With yet more strikes coming up and yet more journeys ruined, all passengers want is to travel on time without spending a small fortune Source - Daily Telegraph - 27/08/23 Link Another bank holiday, another train strike. Because heaven forfend that anybody should be able to get away easily for their long weekend, perhaps using a mode of transport that doesn’t entail sitting for hours in a traffic jam on the M1. But no, Saturday saw another strike by the wretched RMT, affecting all 14 main train operators on a weekend when 14 million drivers were also planning to hit the roads.  “We want a decent pay rise” whined Mick Lynch (current salary £84,174, plus benefits), who also claimed that “we’re not greedy” (yeah, right) and that the RMT is “not prepared to fund these very modest pay rises through... cuts to the services that will affect our members, but also affect the travelling public”. How the hell does he think the travelling public are not going to be affected if they can’t...