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In: Stephen Bird, Uncategorized

In a recent piece for The Atlantic, “How the UK Became One Of The Poorest Countries in Western Europe”*, Derek Thomson wrote ” When the global financial crisis hit in 2008, it hit hard, smashing the engine of Britain’s economic ascent. Wary of rising deficits, the British government pursued a policy of austerity, fretting about debt rather than productivity or aggregate demand. The results were disastrous. Real wages fell for six straight years. Facing what the writer Fintan O’Toole called “the dull anxiety of declining living standards,” conservative pols sniffed out a bogeyman to blame for this slow-motion catastrophe. They served up to anxious voters a menu of scary outsiders:Read More →

On:
In: Stephen Bird

In a recent piece for The Atlantic, “How the UK Became One Of The Poorest Countries in Western Europe”*, Derek Thomson wrote ” When the global financial crisis hit in 2008, it hit hard, smashing the engine of Britain’s economic ascent. Wary of rising deficits, the British government pursued a policy of austerity, fretting about debt rather than productivity or aggregate demand. The results were disastrous. Real wages fell for six straight years. Facing what the writer Fintan O’Toole called “the dull anxiety of declining living standards,” conservative pols sniffed out a bogeyman to blame for this slow-motion catastrophe. They served up to anxious voters a menu of scaryRead More →

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In: Stephen Bird, Uncategorized

There is something both off-putting and at the same time intensely compelling about the tragedy currently playing out at the heart of UK politics.  As a Prime Minister who is so utterly unsuited, unable and unworthy of the job for which she has battled, schemed, twisted and turned all her adult life seems to be the only person who cannot see the writing on the wall. Go and for God’s sake, go now! Everyone is to blame, the markets, Mad Vlad and most of all KamiKwasi who had to be tossed under a bus after years of friendship. No amount of past alliances, co-authorship or ideological purityRead More →

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In: Stephen Bird

In the midst of all the preparations for the Royal Funeral, it seems an appropriate time to lift our horizons a bit and have a look at events away from these shores. It may not seem like it with the media doing nothing but wall to wall, 24/7, coverage of the funeral arrangements and constant reheating of the same tributes to a life well lived, but there are things happening across the globe and some of them will have a major impact on our lives. In the US, it seemed just a few months ago that President Biden and the Democrats were heading for aRead More →

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In: Stephen Bird

Over recent months, I have become a bit of a fan of the “The Rest is Politics” podcast. Hosted by Alistair Campbell (Tony Blair’s Head of Communications) and former Tory MP and failed leadership candidate Rory Stewart. Not, I hasten to add because of their capacity to provide answers but for the unintentional irony they serve virtually every week. One of the things I like is that they aim to “disagree agreeably” and that’s a lesson many could benefit from. Just because someone doesn’t see Scotland’s future the way we do doesn’t make them a traitor or any less of a Scot. Equally, not everyoneRead More →

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In: Stephen Bird

“The rules are simple, they lie to us, we know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, but they are still lying.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn “A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” Goebbels “When truth is replaced by silence ,the silence is a lie.”― Yevgeny Yevtushenko There are times when I watch some Unionists dissing Scotland and or nationalism and I wonder if they believe the words coming out of their mouths or if they know we know theyRead More →

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In: Stephen Bird

Well, that’s the 2022 Local Council Elections over! So maybe now is a good time to talk about Local Government. One of the few things we all know about it is that it’s becoming more and more of a misnomer. The old saying has it that “he who pays the piper calls the tune” and this is very much the case in the Council chambers up and down the country. Between finance being provided increasingly from Holyrood (and with the threats of the muppets in Westminster doing another power grab). Once it enters the Council coffers money is increasingly being “ring fenced” giving less andRead More →

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In: Stephen Bird, Uncategorized

One of my favourite cliches is “be careful what you wish for”. Recently I’ve been contemplating just how much this applies to the poor misguided souls who keep parroting the mince about Scotland being unable to afford to be independent. The essence of this argument is that Scotland is subsidised by the poor people of England. Now, I grant you that many of them are good, decent, kind-hearted folk who would help anyone in need. There is, however, also a large group who have a wide streak of selfishness and lack of human kindness. You might characterise it as the Archbishop or the Home SecretaryRead More →

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In: Stephen Bird, Uncategorized

There is a legend that the great Mongol warrior Genghis Khan used a very brutal form of psychological warfare on every city which he attacked. On the original approach his army would, if possible, surround the city and his own tent would be covered by a white cloth. This signified that if the city surrendered immediately only the ruling family would be killed. This would stay in place for 2 days. If the city had not surrendered in that time, the covering cloth on his tent was changed to red. This indicated that if surrendered, only the ruling families and the officials would be killed,Read More →

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In: Stephen Bird

Perhaps nothing has served to illustrate just how small minded the UK media and political establishments are than the events of the last few weeks. Narrow, insular and utterly irrelevant hardly even describe the UK “role” in the world. As the debates raged across the globe about the prospects of the Russians invading Ukraine, here we were given a daily dose of which “party / work event” has now been “discovered” and a side serving of Adele having to cancel some concerts in Las Vegas! Not even a mention of the queues of traffic clogging up the access to the Port of Dover. The Met,Read More →