Tag: rachel reeves

Politics

The Sighted Led by the Blind

BY ALEX STORY Rachel Reeves, our Chancellor, has much to ponder ahead of her autumn budget. Larry Summers, an economist, noted a few years ago that the country was “behaving like an emerging market”. He wasn’t talking about rape gangs, shoplifting, or burglaries, though he might have thought it. He was referring specifically to our financial situation. Professor Jagjit Chadha, from the National Institute of Economic and … Continue reading The Sighted Led by the Blind

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finance

What’s To Be Done About The Lilliputian London Stock Exchange?

CITY GRUMP In the decline of this, that, and the other on our little island, can be found the increasingly desperate case of our London-based equity markets, collectively known as the London Stock Exchange. As a participant in the junior of these, AIM (Alternative Investment Market), right from the start thirty years ago, I and others have watched it come down from some 1,200 companies … Continue reading What’s To Be Done About The Lilliputian London Stock Exchange?

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Politics

Rachel Reeves: A Chancellor Out of Her Depth

BY JOHN ISMAEL The spectacle of a Chancellor in tears is never edifying, but in the case of Rachel Reeves, it was something worse—it was revealing. Here was a woman entrusted with the stewardship of the nation’s finances, buckling under the ordinary pressures of political life, her distress paraded before the cameras like a public confession of inadequacy. She claimed, of course, that it was … Continue reading Rachel Reeves: A Chancellor Out of Her Depth

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Opinion

Paying Taxes: An Act of Treason?

BY ALEX STORY “In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organised crime?” the 4th century AD theologian Saint Augustine asked about government. The question is worth pondering in today’s Britain. On what philosophical basis is our current State demanding ever more to deliver ever less, not to say the wanton destruction of our beloved country? There are two standpoints: The first, from the … Continue reading Paying Taxes: An Act of Treason?

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Opinion

Janus Faced

BY ALEX STORY Starmer faces a dilemma. On the one hand, he believes “in the power of the state”; On the other, his beloved Leviathan is failing. Reality stands before him as an unalterable constraint. The useful limits of taxpayer-funded government largesse have long been crossed. On the spending front, there is little choice. He is preparing to disappoint his state-dependent constituents. To deflect from … Continue reading Janus Faced

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Politics

Risus Fatuorum

BY ALEX STORY It has become routine to decry our civil servants and politicians as incompetent, lazy and, increasingly, illiterate. Given the speed at which the country is accelerating towards the cliffs, all three adjectives are surely accurate, if not too soft. With tedious regularity, sundry establishment figures come out to make an announcement, supposedly designed to cheer the multitudes. Each one, however, is a … Continue reading Risus Fatuorum

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Politics

Orwellian Silliness

BY STEWART SLATER Small children have much to recommend them. They are willing and indeed eager accomplices in any trick parent A wishes to play on parent B. They have a labrador-like desire to lavish affection on those whom they like. They are the perfect dimensions to keep chimneys clean. But they are not without their disadvantages. They are extremely competent at producing all manner … Continue reading Orwellian Silliness

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editorial

The Plastic Chancellor

CSM EDITORIAL The Squires chose to ‘do a Cummings’ this week and, out of a deep sense of public service, visited a series of public houses to survey public opinion. (Conveniently for the Deputy Editor, this exercise amounted to working from home). Today, Chancellor Rachel Reeves will claim that the Sunak government left no money and an economy on the brink, telling Parliament that the … Continue reading The Plastic Chancellor

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Politics

Mistakes Were Made

BY STEWART SLATER Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is no longer a name to conjure with. But, had history worked out just slightly differently, its bearer would bestride the world if not like a colossus, then almost certainly as the German Chancellor. For, at the turn of the last decade, Karl-Theodor was the coming man – German Defence minister, Focus magazine’s “Man of the Year” for 2010 … Continue reading Mistakes Were Made

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Opinion

Our (In)Coherent Elite

BY STEWART SLATER Let’s start with an easy one. What is truth? Your answer is probably something of the form “A statement is true if it corresponds to reality” because that’s what most people think. But not all. A philosopher, one of that breed whose job is to suggest that everything you instinctively believe is wrong, would point out that the exact nature of “corresponds” … Continue reading Our (In)Coherent Elite

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Tax

Non-Doms Not Dumb

BY ANDREW GIBSON Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves appears to have mis-read or wilfully misrepresented a report to conjure up over a billion pounds for a Labour Government to spend, and the establishment press have seemingly been taken in. Country Squire is not so accepting. In response to the recent Autumn Statement, Reeves expressed outrage that the Government had not acted against “non-doms”, whom she … Continue reading Non-Doms Not Dumb

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