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Bob Long

Listed below are comments made by Bob Long between Monday, 22nd December 2008 and Friday, 4th December 2009.

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In the eyes of the law 12:26pm on 04 Dec 2009 Johan: "As a person with a Masters in International Relations: specifically Terrorism Studies at St.Andrews, I can understand the concern that the forces of law and order have with unknown people photographing scenes, especially in today's terrorism climate. They're doing their best to protect us, and every little helps. As a citizen, I'd far rather that they err on the side of caution."
Well, then we should ALL be locked up, shouldn't we? Then the government would know that every single criminal is behind bars. I suppose I shouldn't expect too much from someone that's just read a few books on the issue for a few months ("Masters degree" sounds so much more impressive than "two academic semesters with a ten page essay"), but common sense and experience should surely have hammered out this ridiculous idea that the police are just doing their best to protect us. The police are doing what they think they need to do in order to have a job that pays the rent. If that means artificially increasing the number of people they question, then that's what they'll do.
A bubble, or 'stubble', of our own design 10:40am on 02 Dec 2009 This was always the obvious danger when interest rates reached record lows. It's good to see that the world's economists have lived up to their usual levels of incompetence by not planning for it.
I do often wonder if "degree in economics" means "I couldn't pass any other exams".
Have officials turned a blind eye to Burger? 7:35pm on 29 Jun 2009 Put them in jail. Why on earth would you not?
Watchdog says markets not rational 11:29am on 14 Mar 2009 A free market is inherently unstable and will always boom and collapse; it's a mathematical inevitability.

Economists make a fortune every year selling the fantasy that this is not true and every couple of decades or so reality arrives and proves them wrong. Again.

Then they all stand around and point fingers at each other saying "If HE hadn't interfered it would all be fine". Which is true: if no one was actually involved in the market then it would be stable in the sense that, without any players, the market would not exist.

It's amazing, when you sit down and look at it, how much Economics depends on the purely imaginary. The LSE is just a pretentious version of Disneyland, at the end of the day.
HBOS: Strong men will weep 10:22pm on 27 Feb 2009 Every rule and regulation was brought in because the market could not regulate itself - the invisible hand if it exists at all is a greedy grasping hand that has no long term interests.

Complaining about regulation in the financial markets is just like the Police asking for more powers; there was a time when markets were totally free and the Police had all the powers they could have. The police abused those powers and the markets crashed. Anyone who believes in the ability of any group of people with this sort of power to govern themselves is living in a dream.

All these events are tied up together: accountability is the common factor. The 30-year-rule is in place specifically to prevent politicians being held to account until after they've got their pensions; deals are done behind closed doors to prevent accountability; the banks were allowed to do what they liked.

There is no inherent difference between public and private ownership - British Steel was a disaster not because it was nationalised but because it was not accountable for its losses; HBOS is a disaster not because it was a capitalist privately-owned body but because the people in charge knew they could skim of the huge wages and scarper before they were caught. Brown is a hopeless chancellor and PM because he only has to answer to us every 5 years and in the meantime he can feather his and his friend's nests. Globalisation is a threat not because we should fear foreigners but because it is used as a tool to move decisions further and further from the ballot boxes of the world.

We need accountability, and if the current form of Parliament can't give it to us, then it's time for a new form of government in this country. Because a government which has lost its fear of the people is, at best, one step away from tyranny.
Losing their heads 09:17am on 26 Feb 2009 Prizes of a war long gone; get over it and make a bid.
Don't mention nationalisation 09:13am on 26 Feb 2009 Obama is too weak to do what's needed. His whole campaign revolved around a) not mentioning his colour, and b) not mentioning his policies. It was a subtle campaign but at the end of the day it was almost entirely about Bush's failures, not his own plans.

Obama has had to make too many deals to get where he is today and unless he has the guts to break some of those deals he will get nothing done. I don't think he has it in him .
Map of the Week: Trust and Belonging 10:24am on 02 Feb 2009 In other words: we're all Thatcher's children now.
Significant Information Tribunal decision 7:13pm on 27 Jan 2009 The only reason *anything* done by any government should be hidden is if disclosure would threaten the lives of personnel in either the armed services or the identity of our spies.

In this day and age governmental meetings that are not filmed should not be deemed to have any legal or consitutional standing, and those recordings should be available immediately to the public except in the cases above.

The various 30/50/100 year rules are hold overs from before this country supposedly became a democracy and are simply and routinely used to cover up the sort of corruption that is revealed every year when the records from 30 years before are opened up.

We hear calls for reform of the Lords year after year, but the truth is that the Commons is an utter sesspit which is centuries overdue root and branch reform.

If the government has done nothing wrong then it has no reason to hide from the people who elected it, has it?
Bank of England: wrong and powerless 6:55pm on 22 Dec 2008 #259: "Most [New Labour supporters] simply do not understand economics"

Well, one thing we need to admit is that most economists don't either. For centuries now governments have been advised by economists on how to build a stable economic system and every attempt has failed to deliver.

We're much better off scraping all this deep, futile, analysis and have politicians who concentrate on building a better country. Economics is part of that, of course, but those who think economics is to a nation what engineering is to a bridge are deluded fools.

250 years of failure speaks volumes about economists' claims, does it not?

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Bob Long