http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articlearchive.php Recent Press Articles from Chris Huhne MP en-GB Chris Huhne MP http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/ Prater Raines Ltd http://www.praterraines.co.uk/ (c) 2010 Chris Huhne MP 2010-03-17T02:45+00:00 United Kingdom http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000094/assetseizing_powers_out_of_control.html Powers originally given only to the police and police agencies to seize criminal assets are now being extended to councils and other public bodies, including the Royal Mail. Once again, legal powers voted in to deal with terrorism and organised crime are being rolled out for use against minor offences. The most famous example is the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa), which could originally only be used by nine organisations (such as the police and security services). It can now be applied by over 800 public bodies. After mission creep, ministers have invented mission gallop. As a result, highly intrusive techniques are now routinely used to spy on ordinary people, their children, their pets and their bins. 2009-11-05T00:00+00:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000093/a_robust_cure_for_human_frailty.html We have had disgraced bankers, and now disgraced MPs. The links between parliament and the City of London go deep. The City was a parliamentarian redoubt during the Civil war: City merchants did not want arbitrary taxes from wanton Kings, and were desperate for the solid predictability of the rule of law. Oliver Cromwell could always rely on City money to fund his campaigns. 2009-05-25T00:00+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000092/is_the_bottom_of_the_recession_yet_in_sight.html This recession is different. As I have written here before, it is bigger and scarier than anything else in the post-war period. The question is whether we can begin to sketch the scale of likely decline, and the duration of the downturn. As recession gradually turns to recovery, how strong will it be and how soon will it come? 2009-04-17T00:00+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000091/the_tide_of_deregulation_has_turned.html Long waves in economics or in policy are difficult to prove - there are too few instances - but I have a feeling we are at the cusp of a major change in the regulation of private business, and not just financial services. The thirty-year tide of deregulation is at the ebb. 2009-03-12T00:00+00:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000090/debt_red_ink_and_the_ruin_of_nations.html One of the hoary old legends of the British government gilts market is that, come what may with those fly-by-night countries like Germany, Japan and the United States, the United Kingdom has never defaulted on its debts. (Strictly speaking, neither has the United States, although individual states like Mississippi were less committed to debt service). In the long view, the British Government's creditworthiness has been tested and found sound in the most extreme of economic circumstances, rather as the British political system has been tested by strains that brought revolution or coups d'etat elsewhere. As track records go, no violent change of Government since 1688 is not bad. 2009-01-26T09:00+00:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000088/we_need_whistleblowers_the_leaking_of_official_information_by_civil_servants_is_unfortunate_but_necessary_given_our_toothless_executive.html If you were to believe Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, we live in a simple world where the leaking of government information is plainly wrong. The Home Office and the Cabinet Office were, in her view, fully justified in calling in the police since the leaks were both persistent and involved a potential threat to national security. The alleged crime of the leaker was misconduct in a public office. 2008-12-09T08:56+00:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000089/keynes_fiscal_packages_and_the_next_election.html The British Government this week became the first of the leading industrial countries to adopt an explicitly Keynesian approach to the recession, but it is clearly not going to be the last. Barack Obama's team are talking about a package of some 3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, or three times the size of Britain's. France, Germany, Spain and Italy are all talking about fiscal stimulus with the EU Commission explicitly recommending this week a package worth 1.25 per cent of GDP. Suddenly we are all Keynesians now. 2008-11-28T09:00+00:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000087/cruel_and_unusual_punishment_extraditing_conspiracytheorist_hacker_gary_mckinnon_who_has_been_diagnosed_with_a_form_of_autism_is_inhumane.html Last week, the computer hacker Gary McKinnon was given a Thursday deadline to apply for an oral judicial review, which is the last legal challenge that could stop his extradition to the United States. 2008-11-12T16:30+00:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000077/holocaust_denial_and_a_case_that_shows_flaws_in_the_eu.html THE CASE of the odious Holocaust-denier Dr Frederick Toben is destined to become a cause celèbre precisely because such hard cases test fundamental liberal principles. "I disapprove of what you say," said Voltaire, "but I will defend to the death your right to say it." This is my position on Dr Toben. 2008-10-24T00:00+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000076/tories_talking_britain_down_cameron_and_osborne_are_peddling_skewed_facts_and_scaremongering_on_public_finances.html You do not normally expect opposition politicians to leap to the defence of the government of the day, but there is an important national interest in doing so on the key issue of public finances. If David Cameron's view that the "cupboard is bare" gains ground, not only will policymakers feel more constrained, but we will risk thinking and talking ourselves into a worse downturn. 2008-10-24T00:00+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000078/crisis_risks_turning_into_a_disaster.html There is not much good news about, so let's get it out of the way first. Never has so much money been thrown at so few by so many. If the bank bailout ultimately prevails, and if normal lending resumes, the recovery from this impending recession could be more rapid than usual. 2008-10-20T00:00+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000086/lib_dems_doomed_rubbish.html The new conventional wisdom at Westminster is that the Conservatives are heading for an overall majority at the next election, and that the Liberal Democrats are therefore bound to take a pounding. On this view, the Lib Dems' fortunes are inextricably linked with Labour and we are supposed to lose seats as we did when the Conservatives won in 1951, 1970 and 1979. 2008-09-15T00:00+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000079/browns_bubble_has_gone_pop.html It will go down in folklore as the Brown boom, a worthy successor to the Barber and Lawson booms. Like all good parties, it was great while it lasted, but the hangover hurts. I only hope UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown never believed his own propaganda about the end of boom and bust during his time as Chancellor of the Exchequer, let alone the canonisation of prudence. Rarely has an economic reputation exploded so resoundingly. 2008-08-18T00:00+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000083/fear_is_the_key_to_a_vintage_slump.html The Mansion House speeches of Chancellor Alistair Darling and Bank of England Governor Mervyn King began to align official views with the reality of the economy. The Bank has been more realistic all along, in contrast to ministers happily singing the bizarre tune that Britain is likely to be less affected than other countries by the slowdown. 2008-06-30T00:00+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/articles/000082/water_is_the_next_crisis_in_waiting.html The sages say that if you ride the big trends, the cycles will look after themselves. It was always good advice, but the problem is spotting the big trends. 2008-06-02T00:00+01:00