Good coverage of monthly “manchester monitor”, which surfaced in the guardian, on the basis of the city’s economy being rather crestfallen and unsure, with little to drive investment or confidence. This is grist to the mill of the “time for plan b” brigade, whose basic case is that too much cutting, too quickly is leading us back into recession. Too basic. Whilst there is no doubt that a consequence of fiscal contraction is the economy’s inability to create a sustained recovery, it is not its cause. That goes back over a decade to global imbalances, the credit boom, the almighty bubbles it created, especially in property, and lax regulation that enabled financial engineering to ride roughshod over the long-term consequences…

view more »

My favourite jurist as an english law student, was lord denning, who first made his mark as a junior judge in the “high trees” case, where he essentially invented the doctrine of promissory estoppel, a legal way to stop someone going back on a promise. His dictum (obiter) was not followed, but his intellectual prowess cast a light decades in the future, where it eventually became settled law. I often use high trees to justify coming to the right answer, even when I know it is unacceptable at the time. Someone has to lay out a path. Today, jean claude adopted the same tactic, setting out a bold vision of a single european ministry of finance. The ecb has long…

view more »

Some men add up to more than their pieces; so it was with gil scott heron. I learnt much about music from my friends, but nothing stuck stronger than gil, who I think I’ve seen more times than any other singer. Impossible to categorise, harder to find, it was precious gil scott heron vinyl we were all searching for whenever there was a chance to duck into a record shop; hard to imagine now when everthing is just the click of a button away. Poet, author, rebel, philosopher, teacher, best known for his songs (buy the best on glory), above all he was a poet, which was perhaps why I’ve listened to him from my first hearing to today. You…

view more »

The bosnian war was still raging when I first travelled to former yugoslavia; and it was not long ended when I visited the war crimes tribunal, state of the art in the long arm of international justice for the most terrible crimes. Slowly, the key perpetrators of the worst atrocities that are usual guts of war, have been brought to the hague’s serene proceedings to have their actions dissected and exposed: milošević, karadžić and now mladić. The tribunal lit the way to the permanent criminal court and is the high watermark so far of the value and virtue of peace and justice through international law, and one of the most lasting achievements of the united nations. Mladić was not gunned…

view more »

I have many fond memories of croatia, and still friends there. When briefing on enlargement was part of my job I kept a close eye on its progression to accession (see so much further yet to march), hanging many a potentially tricky treaty revision on the changes that each new country triggers. Such was the inevitability of the enthusiastic croats joining, that when france changed its constitution to block any further enlargement without a referendum (later dropped), croatia was exempt. Years later, talks are dragging, with still only 30 of the 35 “chapters” of the acquis closed. Not so turkey, which started the negotiations on the same day: ankara has managed just one. Whilst croatia is on course to enter…

view more »

One more quick election story, from bury, in a corner of which I was brought up. With 25 seats of the 51-seat council, the labour party were on the verge of an unlikely breakthrough in this previously conservative seat, and had polled very well in ramsbottom. After three recounts, the two leading candidates both had 1,822 votes, and so they drew straws (or actually cable ties). The labour candidate won, giving labour both the seat and the council, alongside seven others in greater manchester, including jim mcmahon in oldham, the youngest council leader in the uk. Last year in stockport, where I now live, there was also a tie, which was decided by the chief executive picking a voting slip.…

view more »

Several reactions to my blog yesterday, under the impression that the scottish national party was of the far-right; forgiveable because of its name and that I have a strong opinion about such parties (see 26 march 2011). I was under the same impression an era ago when I remember a scottish friend of mine saying he’d voted for them, and I, and indeed the whole crowd, reacted incredulously. In fact, the snp is very much leftist, though it is the other part of its ethos that seems to dominate, namely nationalism. That is why it’s european parliament affiliation is the ineffectual ragbag of the european free alliance and it’s magazine called independence. That is the issue that has always fired…

view more »

I do admit to being a junkie, anorak, or whatever other pejorative term people use, about elections and indeed electoral systems, and so the uk this week was an interesting time. Firstly, scotland’s still new electoral system came of age, delivering exactly what it was designed to confound: a majority for the scottish national party. This is a government decidedly to the left of london’s, that will fight them on the beaches and in the fields defending scotland against cuts and other horrible “english” things, and now getting round to independence, the snp’s founding idea, but the issue that dare not speak its name. This will now move slowly from theological debate to live political issue. Secondly, and noting…

view more »

Although likely to be the year’s most watched television event, I shall be resolutely not watching the royal wedding. This will be hard, as my mother, an ardent royalist despite her befuddled state, will be in the lounge. I’ve nothing against queen lizzy and her clan, and I could even be convinced that the much-complained-about taxpayers’ millions they get every year do actually yield a positive cost-benefit ratio in terms of tourism and the paraphernalia of the pomp that will be so much on show. It’s just that my son made a wish. He wants to be king. Yes, he could still be prime minister, and yes our latest little princess skipped two classes in two generations, but that’s not…

view more »