I see it as important that the next administration should have an adequate Parliamentary majority in order to put the SNP in its place.
Its insistence on austerity measures in Southern Europe means that a Grexit and Greek debt repudiation remain likely.
I am critical of some measures which the Government has taken to accommodate some of Labour’s class warfare propaganda.
Tax credits, regulation, EU requirements – all help to explain why employment has risen but output has fallen outside the manufacturing sector, at least per person.
And it won’t even work in its own terms. What on earth is a Conservative-led Government doing in introducing such half-baked proposals?
The FCA has insulated its future size by creating 16 handbooks of “Conduct” which stretch to over four million words.
We have moved a long way from NEDS concentrating on the interests of shareholders and helping to take executive decisions.
There is a significant possibility of HMRC being taken to Court, and of judicial reviews in which the judges may find against it.
The deficit. A feeble savings rate. Low productivity. Public sector pay that’s too high compared to private sector pay. The high middle class tax bill.
Yes, interest rates are bound to rise. But I am optimistic about the economy – though we still need, as ever, to boost the savings rate.
The West must not repeat the mistakes of appeasement – bullies only understand one language.
Since 1998, the cost to the UK of regulations of EU origin has been £88 billion, and these now cost UK businesses £7 billion per annum.
The extent to which EU requirements and directives are now actively damaging our economy and frustrating our ability to put things right is noteworthy.
The post-2010 Government will need to take major and radical decisions and actions to get the balance of the UK economy right.
Or: Why I regard myself as a “mercantilist free trader”.