Comments on: Random thoughts from Stockholm

By: Indy

Indy — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:04:01 +0000

It’s worth noting that the case for swingeing cuts in public spending “right now” is not as solid as the commentariat would seem to think. The “serious” people are all banging the drum to shrink the state as soon as possible, ignoring the evidence that the private sector has yet to resume growth. Historically, this is a recipe for a nasty, W recession…

By: Paul Johnston

Paul Johnston — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:42:46 +0000

tardy edit – should have written “I am NOT sure…” etc. Oh well, that’s airports for you (and staying up far too late).

By: Paul Johnston

Paul Johnston — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:41:26 +0000

Well, whatever you concluded Matthew we were honoured to have you and I thought you set out a really fascinating argument with precious little piousness! I am sure I agree with you that it is our prehistoric brains that cause us problems, but I certainly agree that we have got into a pretty strange mindset where we kid ourselves that we have omnipotent control of our own lives and then discharge our negativity by seeing the rest of the world as going to pot. It’s a bit like the way we cannot handle risk – if anything goes wrong, someone must be to blame and government must set up arrangements that will ensure that it will never happen again. Not really a recipe for deliberative democracy or indeed an un-bureaucratic state. Anyway, great talk – we will put the video on the website shortly and I will add the link here when the video is up so that everyone can enjoy your talk and judge for themselves. Thanks for the coming.