Posts Tagged ‘ Telegraph ’

Too much tax?

Well at least count yourself lucky that you’re not French. The government of President Nicolas Sarkozy are apparently mulling a ‘Google tax’, according to an article in the Telegraph (and here on the BBC too). Yes, that’s right, a tax that is levied on Google “every time a French internet user clicks on an advertising [ READ MORE ]

The race to succeed Berlusconi

The Telegraph has an interesting opinion piece on what I will call the imminent ‘succession crisis’ on the right of Italian politics. Up until the point at which Silvio Berlusconi was hit in the face with a replica of the Duomo in Milan on 13.xii., I would have predicted the slow and unpleasant demise of [ READ MORE ]

Doesn’t work like that…

Courtesy of James Delingpole, it appears that the next battle in the war between those who lend credence to the climate change hypothesis and those who do not has just begun. The Russians have produced a paper (linked document is in Russian, for those of a pan-European persuasion) that essentially quantifies the way in which [ READ MORE ]

Magdalen goes Harry Potter

+++ Apologies for the lack of blogging this month: there are busy times, there are less busy times, and I’ve had the former for the last few weeks +++ Yes, that’s right, my Oxford college‘s JCR has finished off the 2009 committee session with a set of light-hearted motions in the final General Meeting of [ READ MORE ]

Eton leads the way – again

Just came across this article in the Telegraph, also in the Sun and Times, announcing that Eton College, by far the most prestigious and well-known school in the UK, has offered a full bursary to 16-year-old Razak Farley from Forest Gate in London. This is, I should point out, nothing new – the school has [ READ MORE ]

The Speaker resigns

The BBC has the story here, the Times here, the Telegraph here,  Guido here, Iain Dale here, Devil’s Kitchen here, and Wikipedia here. Some of my main news sources, you see… Here’s the text of his speech: Since I came to this House 30 years ago, I have always felt that the House is at [ READ MORE ]

MPs expenses

When it isn’t smear emails offering some hard evidence of endemic Westminster sleaze, it’s what the blogs have called “troughing” – elected representatives from all shades of the political spectrum not only making one set of rules for the country and another for themselves, but also lining their pockets with multiple layers of the taxpayers’ [ READ MORE ]

Fleecing the taxpayer

Just back from winning (for the first time) the jackpot at the pub quiz at the Old Black Horse pub down St. Clement’s, Oxford. Depending on whether anything got won last week, myself and my team are either due £30 or £400. Either way, it’s a couple of pints gratis, and a sum that NO-ONE [ READ MORE ]

The Budget to end all Budgets

Just got back from a wonderfully pleasant trip into town only to find that Labour have today decided to give up on any semblance of sensible economic judgment. The BBC has produced one of their usual at-a-glance pieces for the Budget, which I have no qualms in saying reads like an obituary for the UK [ READ MORE ]

Deflation problems

No, I’m not talking about balloons, bicycle-tyres or bouncy castles. It’s now official – see the Times, Telegraph and BBC. The RPI (Retail Prices Index), the ‘unofficial’ inflation rate, which includes mortgage costs, has slipped from 0pc to -0.4pc; meanwhile, the CPI (Consumer Prices Index), the rate used to set interest rates by the Bank [ READ MORE ]

The sinking ship

Everyone in the political blogosphere has already seen the polls by the Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday giving the Conservatives a 17pc and 19pc lead respectively, so I thought I’d bring them to the attention of those of my readers who don’t follow them as avidly. Specifically the figures are:  (Telegraph) Con 43pc Lab 26pc LD [ READ MORE ]

Change we need?

The recent turmoil involving Damian McBride, Derek Draper and Guido Fawkes is obviously the big story of the moment, and I was rather expecting matters to quieten down before I came up with a value-judging assessment of the whole affair. As it seems, however, the revelation by Guido, prefaced by this cryptic (and possibly in [ READ MORE ]

School’s out

Well hello again for the first time in a while for my inaugural post of 2009! I hope everyone’s Christmasses and New Year’s Eves were entertaining and gastronomically diverse, and that the increase in amplitude of your waistlines has not proved too alarming. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to start blogging a bit [ READ MORE ]

Is it because I is at Oxford?

I was just wondering this morning whether I could go up to uni this weekend without having to wrap up the holidays with an article about one of my political bugbears, but then this bombshell descended on me shortly after breakfast. The jist of the story is that the Education Commissars up at Whitehall have [ READ MORE ]

Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7504194.stm You know, sometimes when I read the coverage that the major countries in Europe get in the British press, I feel more than a little sick. It simply abounds with negative stereotypes, and there seems to be little that pleases institutions like the Telegraph or even the BBC more than when things are going [ READ MORE ]

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