Society

Even in the most economically tumultuous of times, there are people who stand to make money — some of them literally. British money printer De La Rue has told Reuters it’s made contingency plans to print drachma notes, in case Greece makes a euro exit. If Greece leaves the common-currency zone, there’d be such a huge demand for drachmas that Athens may have to outsource its money-making to companies abroad, says the unnamed industry source (one assumes hopefully). ‘It will be a huge job which the state printing works will do, but they will probably pull in some additional volume from outside and De La Rue will be in with

Writing here on Tuesday, I made two accusations regarding the government’s deficit reduction plan. First, I said that cuts so far had been minimal. Second, I argued that higher taxation, rather than cuts in spending, was being used to reduce the deficit. On this basis, I said, government and opposition alike are being mendacious when they speak of ‘savage cuts’ in public spending. In reply, Matthew Hancock said that I was using the wrong periods for comparison. The government, which took office in May 2010, could not be held responsible for spending in 2010-11, so it was misleading for me to use Labour’s last year in office (2009-10) as my

Mervyn King unfurled a mast of metaphors this morning. ‘We are navigating through turbulent waters, with the risk of a storm heading our way from the continent,’ he said. ‘We don’t know when the storm clouds will move away.’ The eurozone, he said, is ‘tearing itself apart’.   So poetic was his language — a rare gift in a central banker — that it almost made one forget the painfully prosaic nature of his facts and figures. Inflation, already at target-busting levels, will be much stronger than the Bank initially envisaged, remaining above 2.5 per cent for the rest of the year. That’s almost a whole percentage point higher than

Does it matter that academy schools are defying Jamie Oliver’s fatwa against sweets? An organisation called the School Food Trust has found 89 of 100 academies guilty of harbouring tuck shops. Selling crisps, chocolate and even cereal bars. The Guardian is shocked and has made the story its page two lead. Schools with tuck shops, says the Trust’s director, ‘should be named and shamed for profiteering at the expense of pupils’ health… Mr Gove is putting ideology above children’s wellbeing’.   I plead guilty to having once been behind the counter at the tuck shop of Rosebank Primary in Nairn, blissfully unaware that I was poisoning Highland children with this

Does anyone believe Chinese GDP figures? Officially, the economy is roaring at 9 per cent a year. But thanks to WikiLeaks we know that Chinese Politburo member Li Keqiang thinks that the official GDP data is ‘for reference only’ — and that if you want to know how fast China is growing you should look at electricity consumption, rail cargo volume and bank lending etc. So today’s announcement of China’s electricity consumption figures for April showing a year-on-year growth of 3.7 per cent is quite significant. This is growth beyond George Osborne’s wildest dreams, but by recent Chinese standards is pretty paltry. Last year China’s electricity consumption grew 12 per

Is the reality television programme The Only Way Is Essex turning British girls into an army of feckless, drunken, sluts who are perpetually up the duff and care about nothing more than alcohol, drugs and money? Or were they of that disposition anyway? The Girl Guides blame the repulsive TOWIE, having commissioned a survey that showed young girls were more admiring of the lifestyle of the venal air-headed bints on the show than they were of more improving pursuits. I’m not so sure. It is a nice thought that, without TOWIE, our young females would all be beavering away trying to get a job as head of the Human Rights