Utopia, you are standing in it!

The office of Prime Minister is a creature entirely of constitutional convention. While legislation references the office itself, setting out pay for example, this is only statutory recognition of the existence of an office which arises purely by virtue of convention. It is by convention that the Monarch appoints as Prime Minister someone who is capable of commanding the confidence of the House of Commons and it is by convention that he exercises certain prerogative powers only on the advice of the Prime Minister (or another minister in his government). The mechanism for choosing a Prime Minister is, however, not entirely covered by convention. While they must command the confidence of a majority of MPs in the Commons, it is not necessary that they be chosen directly by the Commons. This is because of the party system and the presumption that the leader of a given party has the confidence…

Mass civil unrest is odds-on in power starved Germany and Britain this winter, thanks to the so-called wind and solar ‘transition’.

With thousands likely to freeze to death, the collective sense of humour will soon evaporate, along with any remaining faith in the ability of wind and solar to deliver power, as and when it’s needed.

Everything about renewable energy policy is political; no one woke up 20 years ago thinking what a good idea would be to watch power prices triple and suffer power rationing every time the wind dropped and the sunset. Instead, it was a political ‘sell’ (aka lie) that the world would be an altogether happier place if only we were powered exclusively by sunshine and breezes.

Well, that didn’t pan out so well.

The political response to the disaster is all directed at preventing the proles from turning seething anger into outright revolt.

At the…

Retail electricity prices in Australia are expected to rise by 50%  over the next two years, with  Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers said to be weighing up market intervention to stop those costs spiralling further.

The  Australian Treasury has assumed in the federal budget  presented  in Canberra  last  night that retail power prices will increase by an average of 20% nationally in late 2022 and a further 30% in 2023/24.

These  startling  rises  stem  from  Australia’s  drive  to  decarbonise  its  electricity  supplies. After  enjoying  a long  run of  cheap  electricity, Australian consumers  are  now  facing  what  will be  a  severe attack  on  household  budgets.

By  comparison,  with  80%  of our  electricity  already  coming  from  renewable  sources, New Zealand may escape  such  rises.

I’m in Europe to give a couple of speeches about fiscal policy, so I’m going to spend all week commenting on the continent’s (mostly miserable) fiscal policy.

Let’s start with comments about Italy, the nation most likely to suffer a crisis.

Normally, I tell people to focus on government spendingrather than red ink. After all, the economy is hurt whether spending is financed by taxes or borrowing (or printing money).

But I’ve also noted that governments sometimes spend so much money and incur so much debt that investors decide it is very risky to buy or hold debt from those governments. In other words, they begin to fear default.

When investors (sometimes known as “bond vigilantes”) reach that stage, they probably try to get rid of their holdings and definitely refuse to buy more debt. The net result is that profligate governments have to offer…

Blogging is not easy on time, which for all of us is fixed. Nobody can make any more of it. Time is the enemy for a lot of people. I have a busy work life, and a couple of other interests keep me occupied, hence the time I can dedicate to this blog is regretfully limited. I would rather spend the reasonably limited amount of time I have for writing here dedicated to things that are useful and informative, rather than comment on the day-to-day socialism and slow degradation of this once great country through either the Labour or National governments.

The Supreme Court decision in the Peter Ellis appeal is one such useful and informative matter that I feel the general populace of this once great Westminster, parliamentary democracy needs to understand. So I thought it would be helpful for the generally small number of readers here for me…