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By Greg Fingas, on May 12, 2013, at 11:52 am Miscellaneous material for your Sunday reading.
- Daniel Boffey catches one of David Cameron’s top aides saying what most Cons leave as an unstated assumption: that recession and depressed wages are good for business (as long as “business” is defined only to mean short-term profits based on exploitation): The prime minister’s adviser on enterprise has told the cabinet that the economic downturn is an excellent time for new businesses to boost profits and grow because labour is cheap, the Observer can reveal.
Lord Young, a cabinet minister under the late Baroness Thatcher, who is the only aide with his (Read more…)
By CuriosityCat, on March 9, 2013, at 2:50 pm Former MP?
Nobody skewers their own kith and kin with devastating play of the knife as the British do. My latest chuckle arose reading John O’Sullivan’s article in today’s Globe & Mail entitled Cameronism at an impasse. O’Sullivan once ran (unsuccessfully) for Parliament for the Conservative Party, and was a speechwriter in 10 Downing Street for Margaret Thatcher. Founder of the New Atlantic Initiative in 1996 in Prague, along with Maggie and the poet-politician Václav Havel, O’Sullivan is editor-at-large of the National Review. O’Sullivan recounts with relish the death in 1994 of a Tory MP: The parliamentary constituency of Eastleigh,
. . . → Read More: CuriosityCat: At least none of OUR MPs has been found with an orange in his mouth. Not yet.
By LeDaro, on February 18, 2013, at 1:12 pm Wow! These two are great buddies!
By Obert Madondo, on January 31, 2013, at 6:00 pm by Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Jan. 31, 2013: Let’s agree in one point: we can have anything, but we CAN’T have everything #wef — Paulo Coelho (@paulocoelho) January 25, 2013 The tweet by Paulo Coelho, the world-renowned Brazilian author of The Alchemist, was one of the most popular of world leaders’ reflections during last week’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, READ MORE
By Greg Fingas, on January 31, 2013, at 9:49 am Here, updating the respective effects of smart investment and needless austerity in the economic laboratory provided by the 2008 financial meltdown – and noting we have all the more reason to be suspicious of our own austerity buffs at home.
For further background, see…- Jason Kirby’s 2011 proposal to compare the U.S. and U.K. as test cases. – Philip Aldrick on the disastrous effects of austerity in the U.K.- The U.S. Treasury’s comparison (PDF) of growth among different countries up to early 2012.- Reuters on Japan’s sudden surge since its stimulus program
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: New column day
By himelfarb, on January 24, 2013, at 3:06 pm
Notes: Keynote talk, CCPA Post-Austerity session, Toronto, January 9, 2013
We are living in the “Age of Austerity” or at least so says David Cameron, the UK’s Prime Minister. He made this announcement in 2009 at the Conservative convention just before becoming prime minister. This meant, he explained, that he would have to fix the errors, the folly of previous governments. He would restore the economy by cutting spending, reducing the size of government, and shifting resources from public to private.
In 2010, the G20 met in Toronto and, apart from arresting citizens, they were also talking austerity. Canada led
. . . → Read More: Alex’s Blog: The Age of Austerity
By CuriosityCat, on December 13, 2012, at 1:31 pm United States of Europe?
Financial integration is one major step along the road towards eventual political integration into one massive new federal state, the USE (United States of Europe), and yesterday a significant move was made in this direction: Europe’s finance ministers have taken another major step towards closer integration, with a significant transfer of authority from national governments to the ECB, he says.
The EU had already agreed that the ECB would act as chief supervisor of eurozone banks. But the deal gives the ECB powers to close down eurozone banks that do not follow the rules. It also . . . → Read More: CuriosityCat: Europe takes another big step towards the United States of Europe
By CuriosityCat, on October 14, 2012, at 3:48 pm The European Union
A struggle for the future of Europe is being waged right now by the politicians of the EU.
Most of the fighting is being done by the leaders of France, Germany and Britain (the Big Three of Europe), with the other medium sized states putting the boot in every now and then but largely shouting encouragement from the sidelines. The big battle that is shaping up is over the contours of the future Europe. Germany: A tighter Union or Else: And the issue has been framed as a choice between two stark contracts: a move towards . . . → Read More: CuriosityCat: Anglo-Franco-German ménage à trois: A Federal Europe or a confederation of Nation States?
By LeDaro, on September 24, 2012, at 12:53 pm Sounds like an idiotic idea.
Maybe he was missing George W. Bush as his master and now he wants to be a poodle to David Cameron.
By Greg Fingas, on June 29, 2012, at 1:38 pm Ah, the memories of Stephen Harper and his bestest international buddy deciding what to do about the economic pain they’ve inflicted on the world: Mr. Cameron, hailing Canada as a model of fiscal probity and pointing to his own deep spending cuts, argued that debt cutting is the only way to fix a disturbing pattern, with economic growth in Europe and the United States stalled. He said the problem is high debts of governments and individuals, and that the fear that they won’t be repaid will spark a loss of confidence and a rise in interest rates.…Mr. Harper said
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Juxtaposition
By CuriosityCat, on April 25, 2012, at 12:12 pm Deep Throat is on the job, bringing you the latest news from around the globe, just for you political junkies out there .. today he reports from London, where the phone hacking saga is grinding remorselessly on, slowly devouring the Murdoch clan and now nibbling at the feet of Prime . . . → Read More: CuriosityCat: Out of the Mouth of Murdoch
By Guest, on March 28, 2012, at 1:45 pm GWPF.jpeg
Cross-posted with permission from The Guardian by Graham Readfearn, Leo Hickman and Rupert Neate
Michael Hintze, a leading Conservative party donor who runs the £5bn hedge fund CQS, has emerged as a financial backer of the climate sceptic thinktank founded by former chancellor, Lord Nigel Lawson.
The Global Warming Policy Foundation, launched by Lawson in 2009, regularly casts doubt on the science and cost of tackling climate change in the media and has called on climate scientists to show greater transparency, but has refused to reveal details of its donors. Leading Nasa climate scientist James Hansen calls it
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: The Guardian Reveals Key Funder of Global Warming Policy Foundation Is Michael Hintze
By redtory, on March 14, 2012, at 11:48 pm Unbeknownst to most Americans, Canada is the United States’ largest trading partner (more than five times that of the U.K., for example), foremost supplier of energy, closest ally and supposedly bestest friend in the whole wide world, so why doesn’t our country get the semi-royal treatment that China, India, Mexico and the U.K. does? Why isn’t Our Glorious Leader treated to the pomp and circumstance of an official state visit?
I suppose it could be argued that Stephen Harper isn’t the head of state – that title going of course to Governor General David Johnston, who has
. . . → Read More: Red Tory v.3.0.3: Special Relationships
By CuriosityCat, on December 10, 2011, at 3:12 pm What a dramatic few days we have just lived through! The grandest experiment in modern history – the European Union – has weathered a major threat to its existence, with 27 governments gathering in Brussels, and 26 agreeing on a roadmap for future stability and closer fiscal union. And the one country that is half-in and half-out of the Union smacking down its veto to prevent a full treaty incorporating terms the other 26 have agreed upon, and walking off in a huff, hoping it has protected its major industry. Cameron’s fight to save the City’s role: David Cameron . . . → Read More: CuriosityCat: The Eurocrisis – A Gallic snub, No Haircuts & More Stability Funds
By Nancy Leblanc, on December 10, 2011, at 7:35 am This has to be one of the most epic smack downs of a politician in recent memory: It may be months before the implications of David Cameron’s Europe raspberry become clear; it may be days. Then again they may become clear before going fuzzy again, before suddenly crystallising six weeks down the line in horrifying or mildly encouraging detail. My gut instinct is that this is Not Good, and that Britain appears to have bolstered its lack of economic policy with a lack of foreign policy, but in truth I’m in many more minds than the Conservative party about
. . . → Read More: Impolitical: Fun Saturday reading
By CuriosityCat, on December 9, 2011, at 3:35 pm Lissen up, David: Click here!
And listen especially hard when Kenny Rogers has this to say: And the night got deathly quiet, and his face lost all expression.Said, “If you’re gonna play the game, boy, ya gotta learn to play it right.
You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em,Know when to walk away and know when to run…
Ev’ry gambler knows that the secret to survivin’Is knowin’ what to throw away and knowing what to keep.
Because you lost big in the wee hours of last night. Perhaps you missed . . . → Read More: CuriosityCat: UK’s Cameron needs to take a lesson from The Gambler
By CuriosityCat, on December 2, 2011, at 11:03 am Chancellor Merkel’s glacial crawl towards the creation of an all-powerful EuroCop with powers to veto the budgets of Eurozone nations is beginning to make Prime Minister Cameron a bit nervous. Cameron is on the outside, looking in, but is itching to give advice to the 17 European Union members of the Eurozone about how to manage their affairs.
But Merkel wants budgetary discipline uber alles: No comments from the peanut gallery …
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Europe is working towards setting up a “fiscal union”, in a bid to resolve the eurozone’s debt crisis. She told the Bundestag . . . → Read More: CuriosityCat: David ‘Two-Speed’ Cameron and the EuroCop
By CuriosityCat, on November 22, 2011, at 2:24 pm David Cameron rubbed his hands in glee a few weeks ago when Angela Merkel insisted that the European Union treaty be amended as part of her agreement to save weaker countries from bankruptcy.
Because amendments require 100% approval by all members, Cameron thought that he could bargain with the Iron Chancellor and claw back rights for Britain as the price for his agreement to her changes. But Merkel is made of sterner stuff. She simply tossed him a bone (which some of his own party say is pretty nigh worthless), and pressed on with the idea of having amendments affect . . . → Read More: CuriosityCat: Angela Merkel tosses Cameron a bone and presses on with Little EU amendments
By LeDaro, on October 30, 2011, at 1:54 pm David Cameron, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy are swimming in the Libyan oil. Stephen Harper just obeys whatever Uncle Sam asks him to do. . . . → Read More: LeDaro: Libyan Intervention and Oil
By bazie, on October 13, 2011, at 9:34 pm The UK’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, wants to modernize the monarchy. In our modern day and age, you see, the practice of preferentially selecting male over female heirs is the wrong symbol and really ought to be changed so first born daughters can… . . . → Read More: Progressive Proselytizing: Oxymoron of the Day: Modernizing the Monarchy
By CuriosityCat, on October 7, 2011, at 8:47 pm Gavin HewittWith the Eurozone being walloped yet again with rating agencies downrating EU bank debt, with politicians all over the map, and the UK’s David Cameron trying desperately not to even be on the map (the EU is a massive wedge issue in the Tory… . . . → Read More: CuriosityCat: Amidst the torrent of words, a creeping towards more EU integration
By CuriosityCat, on September 25, 2011, at 2:05 pm Once more, the world is poised on the brink of a vicious recession, and once more, it seems that the political leaders cannot pluck up the courage to take the right steps.But is this true?The Cat thinks this is the more likely explanation of the stasis… . . . → Read More: CuriosityCat: IMF’s Christine Lagarde’s Maggie Thatcher moment
By LeDaro, on September 23, 2011, at 2:40 pm When these leaders make speeches; pay attention to their language and the symbolism behind such language.An American president, in this case Obama, will use the language like “we are one nation under God” partially implying American exceptionalism … . . . → Read More: LeDaro: British PM David Cameron addresses a joint session of Parliament
By Nancy Leblanc, on September 23, 2011, at 6:44 am It appears that David Cameron’s speech yesterday to Parliament made a big splash. Beyond the parts where he played up to Canada and made a case for increased trade and business friendly economies as his preferred solutions for economic growth, his word… . . . → Read More: Impolitical: Serious times: Harper talking recession
By redbedhead, on September 23, 2011, at 6:30 am I feel like I’m repeating myself, having just written that the global crisis is not a crisis of debt but, rather, that the debt is a symptom of the long term decline in the rate of profit. Now, I read Stephen Harper and British Tory Prime Minister Davi… . . . → Read More: RedBedHead: Harper-nomics Is Recipe For Global Depression & Trade Wars
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