
Do I sense proper NHS reform?
Have Tony Blair and Gordon Brown been reading Picking Losers? Probably not. But there are hints that someone is mentioning the P word over at the Department of Health. But don't get too excited, all is not what it seems. The FT are…

A backlash is brewing and it can not come soon enough...
So what can we expect from Wednesday's budget, apart from Gordon Brown boring us all to tears? Well, the buzz word at the moment is green and it's an expensive word at that. It seems the biggest losers on Wednesday will be the evil folk…

Independent from reason or responsibility
The Independent led yesterday with a report on Greenpeace's attempts to prevent BA opening a service from Gatwick to Newquay. Their strap-line in the print version read: -"The battle of Newquay. British Airways faces a showdown with the…

Whatever you do, don't get an education
Or your children will suffer. Headline in The Times today: University squeeze on children of graduates. Is there any need to say anything more? Can't get a much more obvious example of government picking losers. It's us. All of us (rich and…

Stop being such a pessimist and give me all your money
So it was finally announced yesterday how much the Olympics is really going to cost us (at least until it is re-calculated in a year or so when they realise they still haven't got it right). After conning the British public and the rest of…

What is Boris exactly?
Don't forget to vote in the "what is Boris anyway?" poll. I agree with bgprior - Boris is a sharp cookie and is playing the rest of us for the fool. His blog is excellent (if only it were updated more often) and his knowledge on a range of…

Reform of party-funding - all yours for £13.50
In a move that is almost beyond parody, Sir Hayden Phillips - the man who thinks our political parties would be cheap at £25,000,000 a year - thinks £13.50 is good value to tell us what good value the parties are. That's what a copy of his…

Review of the Papers, Friday 16 March
Government The government was accused yesterday of losing control of the finances of the London Olympics after it revealed the total budget for the 2012 games has nearly trebled to £9.3bn. There was fury from National Lottery distributors…

Policy Announcements, Friday 16 March
Government The chairman of the Commons Treasury select committee has outlined the key themes of Gordon Brown's forthcoming Budget. John McFall, an ally of the chancellor, said that support for education, families and welfare to work…

Eat up your bones, they're good for you
Sharp as always, Wat Tyler at Burning Our Money has posted today about the Waste Resources Action Programme or WRAP (how clever - I wonder what came first, the name or the acronym... mmm, I wonder?). Now, as you will have probably guessed…

"Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"
With the budget coming up next week, it is that time of year where Gordon Brown lays it on thick that this country has never had it so good and that we have seen ten consecutive years of growth and he has been the longest serving chancellor…

£3bn overspend in DfT
Who are these people in Government who simply can not make a decent estimate? It seems every single Government major investment project runs vastly over budget. Where on Earth do they find them - it's not like it's one department or the odd…