Questions Asked 19 December 2023 Treasury Carbon Emissions: Taxation HL1367 To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the new carbon import levy scheduled for 2027 (1) balances the protection of domestic businesses against cheaper imports; and (2) fosters international cooperation to address global emissions. Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Homelessness: HL1366 To ask His …
Can You Bank On It?
Church of England Article By Lord Taylor of Warwick Recently I appeared on BBC television, to talk about the banking crisis. Before this year, some of us may have been forgiven for thinking ‘the crunch’ was a type of chocolate bar. Now we are sadly all too familiar with the phrase ‘credit crunch‘. Wall Street and the City of London were …
Will it be Oilright?
Government ministers are experts at saying dumb things. On 20 January, in a House of Commons debate about the oil industry, David Mundell MP stated boldly: “We can deal with the volatility of oil prices and continue to provide the stable regime that is so important to the industry”. Just 48 hours later the death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia provoked an immediate rise in oil prices and sent the …
War Hoarse
“We don’t need to escalate; you see war is not the answer”. These lyrics were written by soul legend Marvin Gaye, for his classic “What’s Going On” album in 1971. Sadly, we did not heed his warning. When Tony Blair became British Prime Minister in 1997 he had no previous ministerial experience. Yet by the time he left Downing Street in 2007, he had led Britain into 5 wars. Although …
Seek and Ye Shall Fund
“I started out with nothing. But after 15 years of working all hours and little sleep, I still have most of it left!” That was the rather sad comment made to me by a man who ran his own small business for years, but wonders whether it was worth the effort. The UK economy depends on small business, but too many are …
Economy
Someone once said, “Greed is good”. That was the dreadfully misguided mantra of Gordon Gekko. He was the mercenary financial trader, a character played by Michael Douglas in the Oscar-winning Hollywood film “Wall Street” in 1988. The film ended with Gekko in ruins when his greed backfired, but Oliver Stone, the film’s director, was dismayed to see that Gekko became …