THE CITY GRUMP “Current existing systems massively reward high status well connected people” As usual Dominic Cummings hit the nail on the head when answering a question on checks and balances in front of the Science and Technology Committee last week (I sometimes fantasise over what could have been achieved if the Blessed Margaret had worked with Cummings instead of our current dissembling PM). I … Continue reading What’s Eating British Capitalism?
CITY GRUMP I think the time has come to add a new word to the Oxford English Dictionary and that is Whittycism: The art of bamboozling the public with misleading statistics. The most recent example is the notorious solo graph that Whitty and Valance put up to suggest that by the middle of October we could be running at 50,000 new Covid cases a day. … Continue reading UnValanced by Whittycisms
THE CITY GRUMP There is a huge hullaballoo over how to award exam grades to our school children since the government decreed they aren’t allowed to actually sit exams in 2020. Understandably nobody likes uncertainty but let’s take a moment to examine the worth of the education system that so many are getting worked up about. Firstly there is an argument to be made that … Continue reading Facts Not Wokery
THE CITY GRUMP With apologies to Lewis Carroll. An adaptation of his classic tale to suit our times. The Cast: Alice –The City Grump The White Rabbit – The Sage Committee The Cheshire Cat – Professor Chris Whitty The Mad Hatter – Boris The March Hare – Dominic Cummings The Dormouse – The British Public in Lockdown and onwards The Queen – Professor Neil Ferguson … Continue reading Alice in Covid 19 Wonderland
THE CITY GRUMP Last week the Financial Times reported that Zoom now has the same market capitalisation as the combined market caps of Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Unicredit. The downward progress of the banks won’t come as much of a surprise to the City Grump who, in an article from 2011, warned investors never to go anywhere near bank stocks, and indeed airlines and textile … Continue reading Blowing Bubbles
THE CITY GRUMP The mainstream media seem to have fallen hook line and sinker for our photogenic Chancellor’s July 8th handouts. Headlines like “Come dine with me” and “Rishi Dishy” are everywhere, while the FT’s normally sensible Deputy Editor, Robert Shrimsley, declares “Mr Sunak presented a substantial and imaginative statement”. No he didn’t, it is all flash and no substance. Where to start? Okay let’s … Continue reading The Sunak Handouts
THE CITY GRUMP 24 hours before Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill was fired, Michael Gove gave the annual Ditchley lecture. Much of the first 70% covered the standard political mantra of “the London bubble means the Elite is no longer trusted” so we must base more decision makers in Middlesborough, Merthyr Tydfil and so on. But the final 30% was a no holds barred analysis of what … Continue reading Gove’s Revolutionary Ditchley Lecture
