Author Archives: rogeroffice

More than a decade ago, Ken Clarke and his fellow €urophiles were warning us that unless we joined the €uro, our economy would be wrecked.  Financial services would move en masse to Frankfurt.  Foreign investors would shun us.  We should … Continue reading →

June 6th found me reading the Financial Times (sigh of relief from readers tired of me quoting the Telegraph!).  I was on a plane, and it was the only English-language paper they had, apart from the New York Times. The … Continue reading →

For years now we’ve been vilifying that banks.  It’s easy to get an audience howling with rage if you say what dreadful people bankers are — and howling with approval if you propose punitive measures against them. It is true … Continue reading →

I have to confess that I haven’t spent a great deal of time studying the Iran question, or looking at the long and tortuous attempts at negotiation over their nuclear programme.  I just know what everybody else knows, from occasional … Continue reading →

Following the Patrick Mercer scandal (and the House of Lords events) we’ve heard a lot about lobbying, and in some sections of the media, it’s being presented in wholly negative terms.  Wicked and unprincipled industrial interests subvert democracy to undermine … Continue reading →

Paul Oakden, who runs my UK Office in Market Harborough, recently received a call (I don’t think he got the name of the caller) whose opening gambit was “Is your boss an idiot?”.  I understand that Paul’s immediate response was … Continue reading →

I always have the greatest respect for the observations of our greatest living statesman (and National Treasure) Tony Blair, so I was struck by his comments on the prospect of an EU referendum.  He said (more or less and so … Continue reading →

Dear Tim, I was delighted, not to say surprised, by your change of heart on man-made climate change, after all your years of campaigning for green orthodoxy.  You have announced that climate change (what little there is of it) is not … Continue reading →

  I recently met Phil Johnson, an old friend and campaigner for smokers’ rights who was, with bitter irony, struck down by throat cancer. One tends to infer cause and effect, though there are other reasons people get throat cancer: … Continue reading →

Last Friday I visited a company in Lincoln, Welvent Limited, who are agricultural storage specialists.  Large volumes of agricultural products like wheat or potatoes frequently require storage under controlled conditions of low temperature and humidity.  Welvent equips farm buildings essentially … Continue reading →

So much has been written about the Woolwich atrocity that I hesitate to add to it.  But I would like to draw attention to an excellent piece by Professor Michael Burleigh of Buckingham University. He castigates the “Prevent” strategy, which he … Continue reading →

The BBC Radio 4 Today Programme on May 27th (Bank Holiday) carried a discussion of Foreign Secretary William Hague’s efforts to persuade the EU to lift its arms embargo on Syria, so that Hague could pursue his pet project of … Continue reading →

I’ve had a fairly astonishing 65 comments (and counting) on my recent blog on Green Energy. Martin Lack lists all the learned organisations that accept the climate orthodoxy, as though that proves something, and seems quite upset at my suggestion … Continue reading →

Last Tuesday I visited the Arlette Gruss Circus, in the pretty Alsace town of Colmar, an hour’s drive from Strasbourg.  I was a guest of  the Association for the Promotion of Traditional Circus Arts, APTCA. It is decades since I … Continue reading →

  I always thought that John Cridland, Director General of the CBI, was a pretty sensible sort of chap.  I wouldn’t say I know him well, though I’ve met him a couple of times over the years.  But what I’ve … Continue reading →