The Centre for Policy Studies was a joint supporter of a seminar on 'The Database State' at the Convention on Modern Liberty, held in London on 28 February.


CPS Research Director Sam Talbot Rice was a member of the panel and spoke about the 'transformational government' agenda and the Centre's work in developing an alternative agenda of giving the individual greater control over their data.

For more information visit the Convention website and see Sam’s blog on the event.

- The banking crisis has its roots in mistaken monetary and economic policies; and in regulatory failure.


- In the UK, the main monetary policy failure was the imposition of a single cost of living inflation target on the Bank of England. This led to excessive money supply growth and is the underlying cause of excessive borrowing and mortgage and consumer lending.


- The economic failure was to assume that boom and bust had ended; to conflate consumption growth with economic growth; and, as long as five years ago, not to have recognised that lending, debt and house prices were rising too fast.


- The regulatory failures were to remove responsibility for banking oversight and regulation from the Bank of England; and to neglect the clear signals of imminent problems in the banking sector.


- These failures (all largely the responsibility of the Labour Government) created the preconditions which made a banking crisis inevitable in the UK sooner or later.


- The UK outlook is for vicious house price deflation; a severe recession, a falling stock market and a large Sterling devaluation.


- The depth of the current crisis is such that government borrowing is likely to rise to over £100 billion this year and for the next two years. There is a growing case for trying to advance private sector infrastructure investment and for cutting taxes. The shortterm objective must be to sustain the money supply and economic activity, particularly in the SME sector.


- In the longer term, the UK needs a smaller and more efficient public sector to free up the resources to improve productivity and economic growth.


Click here to read the full report.