Frank's Westminster Blog

Is the failure yesterday to sell the next modest tranche of Government debt due to the Governor of the Bank of England's call against further reflation? Or something much more serious at work? It will be sensible to plan for the latter scenario. The magnitude and force of this financial and economic crisis is throwing the public accounts into even greater disarray. Governments of all parties have never found ways of taxing us beyond 38 per cent of GDP. Yet we as voters like governments to...

Jeff Green, the Tory leader in Wirral, has launched what some people may want to see as an attack on establishing new academies in Birkenhead. There are a number of people with vested interests who, it seems to me, are prepared to defend the indefensible even to the point of metaphorically being taken to the stake. The facts are pretty plain. Is it unreasonable to expect that, after twelve years of tax-payers' investment, at least 95% of our young people should leave secondary school with...

A month ago the experts were predicting an era of deflation once the retail price index was published. I cast doubt then and do so now on this analysis. The danger for the British economy is inflation not deflation. This morning's press was again full of the experts predicting a negative rate for the RPI. The guesstimates were for a fall of between 0.5 and 0.8 per cent. (It is the oldest and most comprehensive index. It excludes only some atypical households) For the second month...

Another day and yet another scandal over an MPs' expenses. A setup where a senior member of the Government lodges with their sister, or has their parents living in their constituency house, is clearly unacceptable. There is something wrong with the rules if such payments are in order. Public anger is currently concentrated on the allowance MPs have for a home in their constituency or, if that is where their main home is, a home in London. But only a few months ago it was employing members...

How does our Balanced Migration campaign run outside Parliament? Yesterday, Nicholas Soames and I met up with Roger Godsiff in Birmingham. If we could get a proper hearing here, without our political motives being unfairly questioned, we would have established a bridgehead that would encourage further work. Our first port of call was with the editors of the Birmingham Mail, Post and Sunday Mercury. In the minefield of immigration politics, could we persuade our hearers that our single and...