Wednesday 14 March 2012

Mansion Tax: only the Lib Dems could think of something so dumb

The vagaries of the British housing market have thrown up many anomalies - one of which is that it has produced lots of people in London who are asset-rich but cash-poor. There was a time when having a house valued at £1million marked you out as being successful; now it seems it just points to a little luck over where you bought, and when.

Sunday 4 March 2012

Three Days in May - a review and historical perspective

I went down to Whitehall last night, a stone's throw from the seat of Government power, to see a play which dramatised on one of the most crucial, but little-known, strategic decisions of The Second World War.

The theatre, Trafalgar Studios, was modern by central London standards - for once there was adequate leg room. And although fairly short and with no fancy sets, the acting and the sheer enormity of the subject matter being acted out made it worth the £30 ticket.