Category: Political Commentary
Cynicism about politicians is healthy...up to a point
The steady flow of stories about MPs, MEPs and Peers abusing expenses are doing huge damage to their credibility, standing and support among the general public. This, in turn, damages and undermines the entire political system. I know many senior...
Posted by David Worsfold on July 1, 2008 8:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Political landscape changes but Labour are still in power
For the first time in a decade there is a realistic prospect of a change of government at the next General Election, now certain to be in the first half of 2010. Regardless of one's personal political persuasion, this has...
Posted by David Worsfold on May 9, 2008 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Heads down for long haul
There now seems very little chance of a General Election taking place in 2008 such has been the huge shift in the political landscape over the last few months. Gordon Brown's premiership is, at the very least, in dangerous waters...
Posted by David Worsfold on January 3, 2008 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Do we need more MPs?
I ask this question becasue the full extent of the proposed changes to constituency boundaries for the next General Election has just been analysed. Among the many consequencies – including the loss of John Greenway's Ryedale seat – is that...
Posted by David Worsfold on February 6, 2007 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Ed Balls impresses
Every time the (relatively) new Economic Secretary to the Treasury Ed Balls speaks to an industry event he impresses. His latest platform was yesterday's Institute of Insurance Brokers annual Parliamentary Reception. He spoke with authority on a range of issues...
Posted by David Worsfold on December 13, 2006 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Parliament moves fast on 'budget' debate
Having criticised Parliament for not devoting enough time to debate the economic and financial crises we find ourselves in, I have to praise it for moving quickly in the wake of yesterday's Pre-Budget report. The Speaker has agreed that there...
Posted by David Worsfold on November 25, 2008 5:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Silly games over Lords reform
The vote by the House of Commons for a 100% elected House of Lords came as a complete surprise to most commentators as well as the majority of the cabinet. Tony Blair showed just how far out of touch he...
Posted by David Worsfold on March 12, 2007 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tax bomb has started ticking
While the very public rows about the causes and consequences of the economic crisis continue to grab the headlines, we can see one of the key battlegrounds for next year's General Election emerging: tax policy.With government spending now so far...
Posted by David Worsfold on March 23, 2009 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Goodwin's pension is obscuring the issue
There is no coherent argument that can be offered for defending Sir Fred Goodwin's pension and it was disappointing to see yesterday's hearings of the Treasury Select Committee largely wasted in pursuing the City minister Lord (Paul) Myners over the...
Posted by David Worsfold on March 18, 2009 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Brown has lost the regulatory reform battle already - he just can't bring himself to admit it
As hard as he might try, it looks as if Gordon Brown has already lost control of the debate on the future regulation of the world's financial services industries. His pleas to President Obama and the US Congress for...
Posted by David Worsfold on March 6, 2009 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
I'm not the only one who sees the 1970s looming on the horizon
Despite one commentator's optimism in response to my predictions that we are heading for a decade of economic misery and industrial conflict on a par with the 1970s, there is plenty of expert opinion this morning lining up on my...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 24, 2009 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Budget points towards a decade of gloom and conflict
I've been trying to pick my way through the detail of yesterday's Budget statement to find some good news and have been getting ever more depressed as I do so. I have come to the conclusion that we are heading...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 23, 2009 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Darling shows he has run out of ideas
The initial reaction to Darling's Budget speech has to be that he has demonstrated that the government has now run out of ideas on the economy. He will score with left of centre voters for his attacks on high earners...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 22, 2009 1:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Budget: who will come out on top?
One of the most fascinating aspects of tomorrow's Budget Statement is going to be who will come out on top - Alistair Darling, George Osborne or Vince Cable?The Chancellor is obviously under huge pressure to deliver a package of measures...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 21, 2009 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Treasury Committee picks off its targets one-by-one
The Treasury Select Committee looks to be pursuing an interesting strategy when it comes to reporting on its in-depth inquiry into the causes of the banking crisis. Usually Select Committees publish single reports at the end of such inquiries with...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 20, 2009 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Is breaking up the RBS and Lloyds a good idea?
I am totally unconvinced by the new Conservative policy of breaking up the partially state-owned banks as their ownership is returned to the private sector. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne's speech advocating this earlier this week was full of glib phrases...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 9, 2009 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
G20 points to a new era of regulation - but by whom?
There will be hundreds of thousands of words written over the next few days analysing the outcome of yesterday's G20 Summit in London and I will be looking hard for an answer to this question: who is in charge of...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 3, 2009 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
MPs need the shake-up, not their expenses
I have been watching the current frenzy over stories of MPs expenses with a growing sense of despair. We are already facing a crisis because of the lack of respect for politicians and political processes in this country which is...
Posted by David Worsfold on March 30, 2009 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
What can Brown salvage from the G20 Summit?
I am still struggling to see where this consensus the Prime Minister keeps talking about over fiscal stimuli and international agreement on future regulation is going to come from. His current mini-world tour in the run up to next week's...
Posted by David Worsfold on March 25, 2009 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
MPs' expenses greed is shocking but we need to get over it
It is clear from the leaked information on the expense claims of ministers in the Daily Telegraph this morning that MPs are in for several weeks of constant, almost humiliating scrutiny of their financial affairs. It is hard to have...
Posted by David Worsfold on May 8, 2009 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Daily Telegraph's expenses spotlight falls on John Greenway
It seems that very few MPs will escape without having to do some explaining in the wake of the Daily Telegraph's continued sifting through the minutiae of their expenses claims over the last four years. Among the latest to blush...
Posted by David Worsfold on May 27, 2009 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
MPs are fast losing the plot in their attempts to excuse the mess they have made for themselves
I was going to leave the subject of MPs' expenses alone for a few days at least but I can't let Nadine Dorries' hysterical outburst today pass without comment.Quite simply, Methinks she doth protest too much.I can understand her point...
Posted by David Worsfold on May 22, 2009 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Viggers' duck house brings the curtain down on a distinguished career but raises the stakes in the body-strewn political battlefield
I suppose it was inevitable that one of the long-standing members of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance & Financial Services would be caught in the expenses scandal and it happened last night when the Daily Telegraph revealed that...
Posted by David Worsfold on May 21, 2009 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Insurance industry makes a pitch for privatisation of social benefits
Neither the government nor the insurance industry will be rushing to stick the "privatisation" label on the proposals from the Insurance Industry Working Group, chaired by Aviva's Andrew Moss, which were published yesterday but that is what they are. It...
Posted by David Worsfold on July 28, 2009 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Vince Cable's book The Storm is worth reading for a real insight into the causes and consequences of the financial crisis
The Storm: The World Economic Crisis and What it Means is a breathtaking tour of economic policy that amply demonstrates why Vince Cable has eclipsed all other politicians with his response to the financial and economic crises of the last...
Posted by David Worsfold on July 14, 2009 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Regulation of banks, building societies and insurers now looks to be a significant political battleground
The initial reaction to the Chancellor's announcement of a relatively tame and limited package of reforms of financial regulation has to be that the most significant aspect is actually the Tories' response. The Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, told the House...
Posted by David Worsfold on July 8, 2009 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Flood defence spending and Thoresen review get legislative nod from Gordon Brown
The government has been very slow to put any flesh on the bones of the Prime Minister's statement on Building Britain's Future yesterday, in which he set out the draft legislative programme for the session that will start in November...
Posted by David Worsfold on June 30, 2009 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Some MPs still don't get what needs to be done to put the expenses scandal behind them
There are many honest, hardworking MPs. There. I've said it and I know it to be true.Sadly, there are also far too many who have been exploiting a woefully inadequate system for dealing with the many challenges and legitimate costs...
Posted by David Worsfold on October 30, 2009 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
John McFall puts the "too big to fail" issue on the political agenda and John Greenway bows out
Interesting to see that the Treasury Select Committee chairman, Labour MP John McFall, has tabled an Early Day Motion (no 2008) in the House of Commons calling for the big banks - those deemed 'too big to fail' to be...
Posted by David Worsfold on October 14, 2009 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Back to Westminster and it is as if the summer never happened
If ever there was a day when this discredited and demoralised Parliament - and that includes the government - should have realised that its number was up, yesterday was it.The long summer break, the party conferences, the certainty of a...
Posted by David Worsfold on October 13, 2009 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
So many of the big issues for financial services were overlooked at the party conferences, although Cameron did remember at the last minute
I have watched, waited, searched and searched again for signs that our three main political parties are looking for answers to some of the key issues surrounding the future of the financial services sector. My wait appears to have been...
Posted by David Worsfold on October 9, 2009 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Obama bank plan puts UK on the defensive and EU in the shade
Barak Obama has clearly run out of patience, not just with Wall Street but with other governments and financial regulators around the world. His shock announcement yesterday of a a radical new regulatory regime for the banking sector has obviously...
Posted by David Worsfold on January 22, 2010 3:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Welcome to the five (or is it three) month election campaign
Today seems already to have been declared the official start of the General Election campaign with a barrage of announcements from all the major parties. I wonder how this will play out with the electorate?Politics and politicians have never been...
Posted by David Worsfold on January 4, 2010 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
UK financial services is now a clear EU target
There is only one way to sum up the shake-up in the European Commission portfolios from a UK perspective - we were totally stuffed. We lost out lock, stock and barrel, leaving the UK financial services sector looking very exposed...
Posted by David Worsfold on November 30, 2009 8:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Plenty to keep the insurance industry occupied in Parliament's final session but what will make it over the finishing line?
The political arguments about the Queen's Speech might still be raging but my plea to the insurance industry is not to be fooled by those into failing to have a good look at what is coming up in Parliament in...
Posted by David Worsfold on November 23, 2009 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Paying for access to ministers. The question is as much about the mugs who get taken in by the likes of Byers as it is about underhand, grasping MPs
I have long been shocked by how much people will pay for what they are told is privileged access to the machinery of Government. This isn't a new issue but has crossed my path many times in the 19 years...
Posted by David Worsfold on March 23, 2010 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Will this be the Twitter election? UK political parties look for Obama lessons
Just how important is social media going to be in the forthcoming General Election campaign? After the huge excitement generated by the Obama campaign's use of social media during his successful campaign in 2008 all three main parties in the...
Posted by David Worsfold on February 18, 2010 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Expenses scandal just won't go away. Do we pay? No?
The colourful, shaming saga of the abuse of Parliamentary expenses just refuses to go away. It is hard to see how it can until several things happen. A new Parliament has to be elected; a new expense system has to...
Posted by David Worsfold on February 8, 2010 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The election could be good news for Equitable Life policyholders
Suddenly, there are very few certainties in this election. Amid all that uncertainly, however, we do know that anything other than an outright Labour victory, which looks extremely unikley at the moment, should result in a proper compensation scheme being...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 19, 2010 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Was the Leaders' Debate an election game-changer?
Image via WikipediaAs I write this the first wave of post-debate polls have just been published and they all give the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg a huge margin of victory in the first of the three leaders' debates. Does...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 15, 2010 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Labour rediscovers an appetite for mutuality, co-operatives and a People's Bank
Image via WikipediaMutuality is back on the political agenda - at least that is what my initial reading of Labour's election manifesto suggests could happen if they win the election. Of course, whether it is noticed depends on how the...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 12, 2010 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Incisive Media uses social media to bring you top class coverage of the election for the financial and IT sectors
Image via CrunchBaseIt has been said many times already that this is the first election of the Twitter age, a shorthand reference to the significant role that social media is expected to play in the political battles of the next...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 9, 2010 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Rushing through major pieces of legislation is just nonsensical and out-dated
Image via WikipediaI have always thought the frantic rush to force major pieces of legislation through Parliament in the few days between when an election is called and Parliament is dissolved is totally nonsensical. It seems especially so this year...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 7, 2010 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Retiring MPs will see a huge exodus of experience from the House of Commons at the election
Image via WikipediaThe next House of Commons will be a very different place. So far, almost 150 MPs have announced that they are not standing at the election, more than at anytime since before the Second World War. Rumours suggest...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 6, 2010 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Who won the 'Ask the Chancellor' debate?
Millions of words will be written on last night's Ask the Chancellor debate on Channel 4 as people strive to analyse whether any fresh shafts of light were thrown on the economic policies of the three main parties (answer: no,...
Posted by David Worsfold on March 30, 2010 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Budget shows we have too many politicians who are frightened of policies
Image via WikipediaMany - indeed most - commentators have quickly labelled yesterday's Budget as 'political' by which they mean it was more to do with the forthcoming General Election campaign than with the management of Britain's ailing economy. That seems...
Posted by David Worsfold on March 25, 2010 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
IMF bank tax proposals tick off one election issue with a minor victory for Labour
The leak about the proposed double tax on banks from the International Monetary Fund strikes directly at one of the policy differences between the three main parties in the UK General Election campaign. Although a relatively discreet issue, this topic has already surfaced a...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 21, 2010 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Is #nickcleggsfault the UK General Election's Twitter moment?
Image via WikipediaThere was a huge amount of speculation in the run-up to this election about the possible influence of social media on the campaign. So far, it has been relatively low key, if not minimal. This morning it has...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 22, 2010 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Second Leaders' Debate will give all three some satisfaction
Image via WikipediaI am going for the instant reaction again, rather than wait until the morning to see which way the wind is blowing. So here goes.The second leaders' debate was much closer than the first and for that reason...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 22, 2010 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
There is such alot of nonsense talked about hung parliaments
Talking about hung parliaments is all the rage on the electoral merry-go-round at the moment. What a shame that so much of what is said is nonsense. I find particularly bizarre the assertion that we need a single party government to...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 27, 2010 8:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
We've gone back to a two horse race. But they are wearing different colours
Image by conservativeparty via FlickrThe gentle recovery in the Tory vote since David Cameron's relatively poor performance in the first Leaders' Debate two weeks probably gained some important momentum tonight. We could yet see a Conservative government heading for Downing...
Posted by David Worsfold on April 29, 2010 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Its back to a three horse race as Labour claw their way back into contention but tomorrow is as much about individuals as it is about parties
Image via WikipediaNo-one could have foreseen the unpredictability of this election campaign and the dramatic swings in fortune over the last few weeks. The top pundits have all admitted they have never seen anything like it and few are now...
Posted by David Worsfold on May 5, 2010 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Liberal Democrat MPs have learnt that social media is a two-way street
Image via CrunchBaseWhatever the outcome of the increasingly frenzied negotiations between the political parties at Westminster today, I think we have started to see how influential social media can be in modern political debate.All through the election people were waiting...
Posted by David Worsfold on May 11, 2010 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
There are few certainties in this changed political reality - except that the FSA stays put
Image via WikipediaIt was former Prime Minister Harold Wilson who first said that a week was a long time in politics. He was stating the obvious but has there ever been a week in British politics more packed with drama,...
Posted by David Worsfold on May 12, 2010 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
All Party Group on Insurance & Financial Services set for post-election lift off
I lost count of the number of times that I was asked before the election and during the campaign about the future of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance & Financial Services. Commonly, these questions focussed on the need...
Posted by David Worsfold on May 19, 2010 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
UK political parties still have alot to learn from the US about digital political campaigning
Image via WikipediaI was a little skeptical when, just a week after the General Election, US digital campaigning expert Joe Trippi (pictured) told a seminar organised by the Personal Democracy Forum that the UK was a major election behind the...
Posted by David Worsfold on June 4, 2010 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Tories have got their way over the future of regulation - that's the story behind the abolition of the FSA
Last night's announcement by the Chancellor, George Osborne, that there is to be a massive overhaul of financial regulation with the Bank of England moving firmly into the driving seat and the Financial Services Authority falling by the wayside, is...
Posted by David Worsfold on June 17, 2010 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Angela Rumbold played a key role in raising the profile of insurance in Parliament
On reading that former Tory minister Dame Angela Rumbold has died, aged 77, my mind was taken back over a quarter of a century to the early 1980s when she played a part in helping raise the profile of the...
Posted by David Worsfold on June 21, 2010 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Cable hints at the battle in the Coalition over the FSA
Image via WikipediaVince Cable's candid interview in today's Guardian confirms that the decision to abolish the Financial Services Authority and split its role between a beefed-up Bank of England and a new Consumer Protection and Markets Agency was a matter...
Posted by David Worsfold on August 9, 2010 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
100 days of the Coalition government. What has it meant for financial services?
Our first post-war coalition government has now lasted 100 days; not a great achievement in itself but a convenient moment at which to pause and consider its impact on the financial services sector.I thought it would provide an interesting perspective...
Posted by David Worsfold on August 15, 2010 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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David has been a financial journalist for 30 years and is currently Group Editorial Services Director at Incisive Media.
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