Senior Lib Dems express doubt about the Coalition. Big Deal!

Vince Cable has been caught out expressing doubts about Coalition policy, and saying that if he disagreed too much, he could resign. A few other Lib Dem MPs have similarly been recorded saying they are unsure about some policies, notably those on tuition fees and the cuts. The BBC has been all over the story, and rushing to interview Labour figures about it. Aside from the amazing lapses which led Cable and the others to just shoot their mouths off to total strangers, I suspect no-one outside Westminster quite understands what all the fuss is about. The nation yawns, you might say.

Some students have changed the world for the better. But not these ones.

I've already deconstructed the wider issues around Higher Education in this country here. I said that you can't look at the debate over rising tuition fees in isolation from wider issues in HE. But on to the recent protests themselves.

A few weeks ago my Christmas shopping was diverted by a bit of a 'kerfuffle' around Argyll Street near Oxford Circus. The whole street was blocked off by scores of police vans and no-one was being allowed through. I assumed a celebrity of some sort was visiting the Palladium, but it seemed a bit over-the-top. It was one of the days of the student protests against fee increases, but I didn't see any protestors, or any trouble at all. Oxford Street is full of noisy, slightly mad people anyway, so noisy protests are no big deal for us Londoners.

Germans play the economics game right

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been  pushing for bondholders to take some of the hit the next time a bank sheepishly puts its hand up and admits it's got no money. Sounds fair enough to me. Why should it be the poor old taxpayer who has to cough up every time a bailout is needed?

Ireland's pain, Euro's shame

Ireland's Celtic Tiger is dead, a stake through its heart.

Even when the ugly truth has been exposed, people still can't admit to what has gone wrong. The Euro wasn't right for Ireland (or, by extension, for the UK). How much more proof does anyone need? The cause of the Irish crisis was, in essence, that Irish banks went on an orgy of irresponsible lending to fuel an unsustainable housing bubble. Sound familiar? Oh yes....

But here's the thing - the Euro. You can't get away from it. Well, Ireland can't anyway. And that's the problem now.