Hundreds of Lightwater residents turned out for the Remembrance Day service by the War Memorial. Unlike David Blackburn in the Spectator, we have no crumbling war memorials, neither do we lack youngsters ready to acknowledge our war dead, nor are we short of residents understanding and wanting to pay their respects. 

The procession from the service at All Saints Church, led by the vicar Martin Sheldon, contained the choir, councillors, and plenty of youngsters - guides and St John Ambulance volunteers. Arriving at the War Memorial, the procession met a local brass band and a large crowd ready to join in the service.

The bugler’s playing of the Last Post, followed by Reveille is always poignant. This day remains an important part of what defines our nation.

UPDATE: Double enjoyment, I managed to get to Camberley’s Remembrance Day service. I Promised our mayor, Cllr Craig Fennel, that I’d attend, and so I got a knowing wink from him as we marched by his reviewing dias.

A tax on financial transactions, referred to as a Tobin Tax, has been a hot topic in the last few months which, for example, the Guardian likes, and the Economist dislikes. As a tax on financial transactions would be seriously harmful to the UK’s financial sector, as proposed by Gordon Brown, one must wonder about his motivation for suggesting the idea. In the BBC’s report is this,

“The BBC’s Business correspondent Joe Lynam said the G20’s agenda “was somewhat usurped by a very interesting verbal hand grenade thrown by the prime minister into the debate” by mention of the idea of a transaction tax.”

Having wrecked the UK’s pensions industry, spent all our money bailing out failed banks, now Gordon Brown appears to want to ruin another of the UK’s world-class industry’s. Gordon’s policies have been a disaster. There should have been no bail-out for Northern Rock. Sure, shareholders would have lost lots of money, but stocks and shares have always involved risk. Employees would have lost their jobs, harsh I know, while the government deposit protection scheme would’ve protected the small saver. Meanwhile, who knows, the Royal Bank of Scotland might’ve had second thoughts, and not bought the basket-case that was ABN-Amro Bank, and therefore saved the taxpayer £40 billion.

Pure conjecture, yes. What’s seemingly not conjecture, is Gordon Brown’s scorched-earth policy, to leave a likely incoming Conservative government the worst possible financial mess. What other conclusion can I come to. In case you’re wondering what to do about banks. Simple, introduce a Glass-Steagal type law now, as many eminent economists recommend.

Now to watch Match of the Day, and hope that the Wolves have beaten Arsenal, maybe even drawn.

PS: Not intended as a comment on previous post, in case that’s what you were thinking.

The press and the media criticise Conservatives for lack of policy detail, wrongly in my view, it’s persistent warped spin from Labour that’s uncritically accepted by the left-leaning media.  When the Conservatives continue to announce and explain their policies in fine detail, the commentariat go missing.

Such is the case with Michael Gove’s, Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, speech yesterday on the  Conservative’s priorities for education, which a BBC report has summarised in “Tories set out schools objectives”.  From the commentariat in the press today, nothing, nada, zippo, nix. Why is this? Two reasons perhaps. Firstly that Michael Gove has already won the argument on reforming our education system, through his intelligent analysis and clear-headed policy announcements.  Perhaps also because the liberal education elite are afraid to argue their case, fearing Michael’s intellect.

Enough of that, let’s get to Micahel’s speech. If you’ve got children in education or about to enter the education system, then this is a ‘must read’ speech. The speech is a long one, containing the appalling data on the education outcomes under Labour, outline policy direction, and priority actions.  

No matter what the problem, education is nearly always the answer. Michael’s, and the Conservatives, zeal to create a more equal education system that better educates children, is an engine of social mobility, and that encourages aspiration and achievement, is something worthy of comment by the media.

Readers might remember my surprise on finding that the press, for reasons unknown to me, publish about only around 15% of the school exam results, and that to find the full national exam tables is a tortuous excercise.

At the end of that post, on September 1st, I said that I’d aim to ask our MP, Michael Gove, of his plans to improve this situation. Well, I’m pleased to report I’ve managed to ask him, face to face.

I know you’ll be pleased with his answer. Yes, a conservative government will publish all the school exam results at the same time, and make it easier for parents and students to access them online. Michael also said that many other statistics would be included, sadly at the time, I failed to write down what they were.

Don’t want to drone on about economics, so will keep it short.

Today the Bank of England announced a £25billion increase to its asset purchase policy - otherwise known as quantitative easing, or printing ‘funny’ money. Two points to note, one from the Bank’s press release and the other from Stephanie Flanders, the BBC’s economics editor,

• In the Bank of England’s press release is this comment about future inflation prospects,
  •  ”Inflation is likely to rise sharply to above the 2% target in the near term, reflecting higher petrol price inflation and the reversal of last year’s reduction in VAT.
• Stephanie Flanders comments that “… it is far from ideal” for the Bank to spend £173billion out of £175billion of QE on government debt, known as gilts. She says that the Bank would like to buy corporate bonds, but can’t because there’s an insufficient supply available to buy. Most odd. Don’t the likes of Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, or other very large businesses have a need for capital? I just wonder how hard the Bank tried.

Due next week is the Bank of England’s quarterly inflation report. Depressing reading, I imagine.

Yesterday I was at two events. Both were in very different fields. Gently, I introduced Europe as a conversational topic to both audiences. Here’s a summary of their views,

• All recognised the necessary pragmatism of David Cameron’s announcement of no referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
• All voted to join the EU in our 1973 referendum
• All would now vote to leave the European Union
• Some see the UK Independence Party prospering
• Some suggested the split in voting patters, were we to have a ‘in or out’ referendum, with young people voting to stay in, while older people would vote to leave
• All thought our relationship with Europe, though important, was of little concern compared to the many other problems in our society

I didn’t start out to canvass opinion, I’m just relating the opinions I heard. I wonder how popular are these opinions? Very popular, methinks.

Tina, who she. Much favoured by Mrs Thatcher as “There is no alternative”, hence Tina, she has returned to the world of politics, although in truth she’s never really been away.

Our policy in Afghanistan, of training the Afghan Army and police force to take on the role of security and policing, is one such case for Tina. While to be immensely regretted it’s difficult to see how the death and injury to our brave troops can be avoided. It is a war, after all.

Sage like, Iain Dale, has noted that the Liberal Democrats are inexorably moving toward a position of exit from Afghanistan, mostly for political advantage. The heroism and casualties of our armed forces would be compromised, were we to exit now. Unpalatable as it maybe, I think we need to commit greater resources to the battle in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

President Obama needs to quickly come to a decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. Delay strengthens the enemy’s hand.

I’ve been banging on here about our economy, and our national advantages for ages, and how Labour’s idiotic policies are at the root of our problems. Irwin Stelzer in today’s Daily Telegraph is correct when he criticises both the Tories and Labour, saying:

“And it is Osborne’s team who tell me they want to reduce the relative importance of financial services to the British economy ….. and ignore the financial sector, in which Britain has a huge competitive advantage conferred by the English language, a time zone that makes it easy to do business around the world, and an intellectual infrastructure of traders, bankers and advisers.”

Spot on Irwin. Sure manufacturing has it place, but economic growth will only come from investing in our financial sector, and creative and media sectors.