Europe’s Right has been dealt a major blow since we last spoke with the electorate voting decisively against austerity both in the UK and France. While Cameron and Osborne lick their wounds on this side of the Channel, Francois Hollande faces a daunting task on the other.

Think back to when you were a child. You blew a bubble, it grew and eventually it burst. That’s how some of my former colleagues in Hong Kong are feeling about China’s prospects at the moment – something I experienced first hand last week.

ALL this talk about ‘plastic Brits’ representing Team GB at the Olympics got me thinking the other day. When I first started working in the City, it was all about pinstriped suits and the proverbial stiff upper lip but it now seems that Britain’s fortunes are firmly linked to the wider international community.

I was having breakfast at Franco’s in St James’s last week when I noticed the din from my fellow diners was louder than usual. There wasn’t a spare table in the house and Jason, the affable maitre’d, told me they hadn’t been this busy for months. The reason?

MARCH is going to be a defining month for the eurozone yet it’s still unclear whether the region will emerge on the other side with a spring in its step.

Is the cold snap about to end? My friends in the City certainly think things are warming up. The January PMI surveys suggested a strong start to 2011 for the private sector with expansion in the services, manufacturing and construction sectors.

AFTER looking at my bank account the other morning, I’m loathe to use the phrase “austerity Davos”. The wine was expensive, the skiing was great and the hotels were packed to the rafters. Yet I can’t help thinking that things were not quite the same as the great and the good gathered for the annual World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

The eurozone debt crisis remains unresolved and after a relatively quiet start to the new year, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s dealt the first major blow to sentiment when it stripped France of its treasured AAA credit rating and downgraded eight others in the region.

Naked Rambling

Hate to say this but I for one am completely bored with the phone hacking thing.

Honestly aren’t there more important things going on in the world? Yes I know it’s bad the hacking went on and it’s awful for those affected.

But for now I’ve switched the news off. I can’t take any more of it. Yes, okay, we have some corrupt journalists, politicians, and police.

But we really did know all this already didn’t we, sad though it might be.  [read more →]

Great to see the Government taking action regarding the sexualisation of children. About time.

Let’s let kids be kids for as long as we can. They should be playing innocently not dressing up in mini skirts and the like at 6.

I’ve also seen 9 and 10 year olds with Ipads with access to the internet with downloads of rap and videos which they really shouldn’t be seeing.

Girls especially get so much pressure so young to wear skimpy clothes etc.  [read more →]