Just watching ...

I'm sorry if anyone has been visiting the blog, but I thought that I would take a short time out and watch and listen and read for a while.

I've been watching the Labour leadership contest with wry amusement ... the contest between two Milibands and two Eds and a couple of others has turned into a contest between two brothers with all the others striking increasingly demented poses to appeal to the core.  That David has resisted the temptation to join in the march to the left is to his credit.  Sadly, he still doesn't strike me as a 'Prime Minister'.  As for Ed ... he's joined the march to the left, but has left himself quite a lot of wriggle room ... and his principle advantage in terms of the general public is that he has not had the high profile that his brother has had.  As a consequence, I think the brother that has the potential to be most dangerous to the Government politically is the younger ... we shall find out on Saturday what the Labour party has decided.

I've been watching the Government evolve and argue.  I've been alarmed at the use of hyperbole to attack the financial services industry and even capitalism ... I've been dismayed by the lack of bite in the attack on the Labour Party's dogma on the proposed 'cuts' ... and I've been disappointed by pace of change in the some of the ways in which our Government interacts with us.

Having said that, I understand that much of the hyperbole is just that ... 'all bark and no trousers' is the apposite expression, I think.  No-one who has looked at the UK's economic history will disagree that there are aspects of markets that need to be regulated and controlled - and it should not come as a surprise that controlling the excesses of markets has been part of the legislative program of governments since ... well, you can almost pick a date.  So, the idea of market regulation is not new ...

What is required is regulation that is effective and, at the same time, causes the minimum of disruption and cost to achieve its aim.  So we should look at cost effectiveness when considering a regulation or regulatory proposal ... and only if the benefits outweigh the costs should the proposal be adopted.

A friend tells me that Vince Cable ought to have been Chancellor in the Coalition - but then he's a Liberal Democrat Councillor and it will not come as a surprise to him or to any readers to understand that I think that proposal is just daft ... we cannot afford our Chancellors to indulge their hyperbole in the way in which old Vince tends to; it frightens the markets in a manner that it not dissimilar to a wolf amongst the horses - and instability is not what is required now!