The Office for National Statistics has published its growth data this morning, which it has summarised in this tweet: Let's be clear: that's not a great outcome if growth is your aim. Serious forecasters doubt growth for the year as a whole will reach one per cent. I rather strongly suspect growth will be revised downward in that case in due course. This is permitted. Let's also be clear that: The data is not per head, and the population grew. The data takes no account of distribution - so not everyone is experiencing growth or the end of recession. ONS data is, right now, notoriously unreli ..read more

The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee put out the most extraordinary report yesterday in support of its decision to keep interest rates at 5.25%, where they have, wholly unnecessarily, been for sometime now. In seeking to justify their decision, the Committee admitted that inflation is going to fall to below 2% quite soon, and is likely to remain thereabouts for some time to come. They also admitted that the likely impact on prices of current problems in world food and commodity markets has already, probably, been priced to consumer supply chains, and should not have, as a consequence ..read more

I have posted this video on YouTube this morning: The transcript is as follows: Lots of people are calling for wealth taxation to be introduced, not just in the UK, but around the world. It sounds like a really good idea. There are, after all, billionaires and multi-millionaires who are fueling inequality around the world, and also driving things like monopoly power and the exploitation of workers and so much else that needs to be addressed within our economy. But, - and this is an enormous but - much as it sounds like a good idea, I really don't think that it is. Let me explain why I don't t ..read more

My son, Thomas, who is now working with me on the videos that we are producing, has been in Wales this week, visiting University friends. He has also been editing a pile of videos that we recorded before he went away. He also appears to be enjoying himself, working on improving his camera skills. Thomas evidenced quite interesting artistic flair when he did GCSE art. I challenged him to undertake an exercise this week that would require him to think about the interactions of shutter speed, apertures, focus and depth of field control, plus the related use of ISOs, all with an emphasis on mood ..read more

I will be on The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 discussing Natalie Elphicke's defection to Labour and why I am not convinced this is a good idea. Jeremy is not on. Ross Atkins is doing the programme.   ..read more

No one expects the Bank of England to cut interest rates today. That is not because they should not do so. The case for a cut is overwhelming. Inflation is disappearing. High interest rates may be the biggest driver of continuing inflation, most especially through rents. And the evidence that interest rate rises have delivered no benefit to anyone but the wealthy is overwhelming. The Bank will not, however, cut rates. There are three reasons. The first is to spare themselves the embarrassment of admitting that the increases that they imposed were wholly misjudged. The second is to spite the cu ..read more

There are a number of basic elements to politics, but in practical terms the most important one is that it requires that decisions be made. In turn, this requires that a politician has a set of criteria known to them, and hopefully to others, which guide them when undertaking this process. As is now very apparent, whatever decision criteria did once guide the Tories, they are now either now dispossessed of them, or those that remain are so alien to people in the UK that they no longer wish to associate with them. As a consequence, that Party and the country are in a total mass . In response, S ..read more

I posted this video on YouTube this morning: In case the video is not embedded properly (and that happens sometimes) it is available here. The transcript is as follows: The way that banks create money is so hideously simple that everyone needs to understand it. People presume that somehow or other, creating money is really complicated. A dark art, a mystery that is beyond the comprehension of most human beings. It isn't, because you take part in that process every time you ask for a loan, which includes every time you tap your credit card, I stress credit card, on a payment machine, because y ..read more

The FT neatly summarised the situation in Gaza this morning, using this headline: Benjamin Netanyahu’s dilemma: save the hostages or his government The essence of the article is quite simple, and obviously true. Hamas has offered Israel all the hostages it still holds back. The demand Netanyahu made that won him domestic support can be met now. There is no need for any more violence in Gaza, not that I think any of it could have been justified on the scale at which it has been waged, without the slightest consideration for innocent casualties. But, if Netanyahu accepts this offer the extremi ..read more

I liked this ..read more