Friday, July 31, 2009

So What Would You Cut?

Equipped for every eventualityFollowing yesterday's post, a number of correspondents have suggested to Tyler that he can't criticise Cam's lack of clear surgery plans unless he says what he'd cut himself.As it happens, Tyler is currently working on a detailed cuts package with some like-minded fiscal patriots. We hope to publish it after the summer hols so we'll keep the powder dry until then.But in the meantime, we might remind ourselves of the...

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Canadian Cutting Lessons

Very good... but I'm not sure we've got time for the songsHow is Cam's government-in-waiting actually going to cut public expenditure?We and many others have been fretting about this for years, but the size of the necessary cuts is now larger than even our worst fears. Somehow, he's going to have to find cuts of at least £50bn pa - and soon.So what's he actually going to do?We have no idea. On Sunday's "Andy Marr Show" he once again dodged the question,...

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Purge The Treasury

The sudden departure of John Kingman, head of UKFI (the Treasury offshoot running all those bank shares we own), underlines a very important point: when he walks into HM Treasury next May, George is going to be a very busy boy.Because as an experienced business turnaround specialist put it to Tyler recently, George can forget all about those mythical 100 days.He's got 10.Max.He's got just 10 days to take The Big Bath, frame and trail the massive...

How come nobody mentioned the funnel?Just for fun, let's see if we can work out the relationship between the following four statements:1. "The coming summer is 'odds on for a barbecue summer', according to long-range forecasts. Summer temperatures across the UK are likely to be warmer than average and rainfall near or below average for the three months of summer." (Met Office press notice 30 April 2009)2. "You will need a brolly on holiday in the...

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

For Richer For Poorer

A previous Tyler family Big Hat FestThe bride dazzled, the sun shone, the champagne flowed, and our son's wedding was just about as perfect as it could be. The Tylers have gained a wonderful daughter, and have at least doubled the size of their extended family.Weddings are one of life's great set-piece events, and old-fashioned people like the Tylers think it's important to do them properly.It isn't just the formal business of the day - the families...

Monday, July 27, 2009

Glamorous Days

Original / Romaji Lyrics English Translation akehanashita mado ni mawaru ranbu no DEEP SKYAH aoide... Boisterous dance by the opened window DEEP SKYAH look up the sky "kurikaesu hibi ni nan no imi ga aru no?"AH sakende...tobidasu GOhakitsubushita ROCKING SHOEShaneageru PUDDLEflash backkimi wa CLEVERAH, REMEMBER "what is the point of repeated days?"AH screamand run. GOtorn ROCKING SHOESjumping PUDDLEFlash backyou are CLEVERAH, REMEMBER ano niji wo watatte ano asa ni kaeritaiano yume wo narabete futari aruita GLAMOROUS DAYS I want...

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Andito parin sina Ayu at Ai! XD

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Family reunion - Ancestry sea...

Friday, July 24, 2009

Bucking The Trend

We Tylers are off for a weekend of bearing witness, toasts, and big hats. Our elder son is getting married, and we are delighted.These days of course, getting married is pretty well a minority pursuit. We now have the lowest marriage rates since they were first calculated in 1862. The number of first marriages has halved since the early 70s, when Mr and Mrs T got shackled. Does it matter? Will the relationship between our son and his fiancee be strengthened...

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Fear And Loathing At The Audit Commission

One of these men will soon be looking for a jobWe know all about the fear and loathing it induces in Surrey, but the Audit Commission spreads its bureaucratic misery far beyond the leafy enclaves of Guildford and Dorking.On BOM we have generally focused on its £210m pa cost, pointing out that taxpayers get no tangible benefit. But it's actually much worse than that. The Commission is an instrument of central control, and just like government inspectors...

Free Tamiflu

Question 1 Do you feel lucky? Yes/NoSo can anyone think of a good reason why millions of us will not hit the new NHS Tamiflu hotline and grab our personal supply while it's still available?According to the BBC's health correspondent, you just go onto the new website, answer a few questions, and get your free Tamiflu voucher.So given that there's not enough to go round, why wouldn't you do it on Day One?The official answer from the Chief Veterinary...

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Major On Mobility

Sometimes the Major can be quite blunt:"I'm sick to death of all this claptrap on the BBC about so-called social mobility. I mean, look at you, Tyler. You're pretty well from the absolute bottom of the heap. You've never played polo, you've never been on the grouse moor, you don't hunt. What's more, you have no social polish whatsoever - in fact, when you're at home, I'll bet you still eat peas off your knife. Yet, despite all that, I'm quite prepared...

All that remains from the fat yearsThe latest public borrowing figures are worse even than Tyler expected.Last month the government managed to borrow £13bn, taking the total for this financial year to £41.2bn - twice the comparable figure for last year. It tells us that borrowing for the year as a whole will almost certainly be over £200bn, rather than the £175bn forecast in the budget. As for debt, we've already reached 57% of GDP, well on the way...

Monday, July 20, 2009

Rule By Amateur

Keep them well away from thisAs we've blogged many times (eg here), despite more than a century of promised reform, the governance of Britain remains firmly insecurely in the hands of bumbling amateurs. For reasons that defy all logic, we continue to entrust our security and half our national income to a bunch of incompetents we certainly wouldn't trust to run the family whelk stall.In the last couple of days we've had two further prime examples.First,...

The Public Teat

£700bn feeding frenzyHis Extreme Eminence Bishop Hill has managed to get some fascinating information out of the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF). It's a spreadsheet listing all the individual payments that went into the department's £66bn spend last year (see here). And it makes for a riveting read.His Grace has been busy combing through it and highlights a number of payments going to some of BOM's oldest friends. You should read...

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Fear And Loathing In Surrey

A typical weekend in GuildfordTyler lives in Surrey.Well, he would, wouldn't he. Surrey is nice and leafy, yet close enough to the fleshpots up the Smoke.True, Surrey has been described as Britain's biggest carpark, and Surrey housewives are not to everyone's taste. But it's also got more Waitroses than anywhere else outside London, and important National Treasures like Cliff Richard live here.Unfortunately, it is expensive. And one of those expenses...

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Cutting The Burden Of Welfare

Some of the hardest cuts George will have to make will be in welfare.The current social security bill is running at £165bn, with another £22bn going on Brown's complex array of tax credits. Added together, they will absorb 13% of our GDP this year - and that's on the optimistic Budget forecasts.Worse, as the slump unfolds, the burden is going to get even heavier. And we simply can't afford it.When cradle-to-grave welfare was introduced back in the...

Friday, July 17, 2009

Still Heading For The Cliff Edge

This ain't no way to run a governmentYesterday the IMF published its annual Staff Report on the UK economy. It is an alarming read.First, they are far gloomier than Darling about the depth and length of the slump. They say that GDP will contract by 4.2% this year, and will not recover its previous peak for more than four years. That's far worse than those Tory recessions Brown always used to go on about, and is the worst performance we've seen for...

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Tribute To Gaia

So let's get this straight. On the very day our buckling economy delivers the biggest ever recorded fall in employment, the government imposes its latest tribute to Gaia.It will work like this: all over our green and pleasant, and right across our silver seas, we will build 7000 giant religious statues known as "wind turbines". They will be a visible sign to Gaia that we miserable sinners repenteth our sins, and bow down before the one true god.Yea,...