The Government formally announced its independent review of tax havens today which was trailed in the Pre-Budget Report.  This is a very positive move and I’m sure a lot of groups that normally get shut out of the closed world of tax policy lobbying will want to make submissions and give...

Read this article and tell me you are not worried. Especially after the tone taken by certain members of the British Government towards blogs, and the internet in general. I half expected this stuff from our leftie, authoritarian government. But from someone who I had a lot of time for, someone who claimed to be a right winger who valued the free market and free expression? Shame on you, Mr Berlus...

In launching the Queen’s Speech, the Government has said that fighting the economic downturn is its over-riding priority for the year ahead. It’s difficult to see how many of the Bills will make any difference on this front. Waging a war on booze and lap-dancing bars, which as far as I can tell is the sum of what the Queen’s Speech adds up to, will have the opposite affect &ndash...

Employment reform will feature in the government's legislative agenda for the new year, the Queen announced today during her annual speech.

"Improved local [education] services for children and parents" will be introduced by the government in the next term, according to the Queen's speech.

The Queen's Speech is usually one of the highlight's of the parliamentary year - but this year it seemed very slimmed down (and as a small state Tory I have no problem with that) but the relative lack of business does demonstrate a certain lack of focus and direction on the part of the government. However, whatever Brown's last full parliamentary year hailed, it was unlikely to beat...

The term Stalinist is frequently misused. It is an insult to the millions of victims of the Soviet monster's gulags and organised state terror when the phrase is deployed in connection with a particularly intrusive and interfering local authority or some silly piece of meddling by a government official. But one does start to wonder when this government owns the banks, promises to soak the ric...

Some time ago Labour floated the idea of "free", i.e. taxpayer funded internet connections for all children, i.e. another vote buying activity. This reappeared in the Labour Conference 2008. The government paying for your internet? Some think that is a good thing, but regardless of your hatred or obsession over "redistribution", there is a massive bear trap awaiting this good intention. Once the g...

The US constitution forbids sitting members of Congress from being named to any government post "the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during his term" – and, unfortunately for Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State's salary has increased during her time as New York senator

I’ve got six or seven people in the Shadow Cabinet capable of working in the government. The rest are useless. So said David Cameron, apparently. Flight to Inverness are still available from the BA website.