Lord Robert Skidelsky

I was saddened to hear of the passing of my former colleague Professor Lord Robert Skidelsky of Tilton Manor. I only met one of his three children but my condolences are extended to them and his wife.

Excellent obituaries have appeared in The Times, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph and that from the Social Market Foundation is particularly informative in terms of his intellectual history.   May I also commend the tribute by Warwick Economics Department including remarks by Professor Marcus Miller: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/news/2026/4/reflections_on_the_life_and_work_of_emeritus_professor_lord_skidelsky/

Robert's early career was marred by controversy over what was seen as too sympathetic a biography of Oswald Mosley.   Inviting Mosley to high table at Nuffield College did not go down well.

Robert joined the Department of International Studies at Warwick in 1976.   Towards the end of the 1980s the University decided that International Studies should be merged with the larger Politics department where I became chair in 1990.   I learnt of this decision when I was in New Zealand.

Robert decided he would be more at home in Economics.   As I recall, not everyone in Economics was happy about this with some members of the department already unhappy that I was co-teaching courses for them, although they found me to be quite a useful external member for their appointing panels.  They eventually conceded that I was literate in Economics and I continued to teach on Economics coded m modules until my final retirement in 2015.   I developed good working relationships with a number of economists such as the late Nick Crafts and Mark Harrison.

Eventually I found myself teaching the third year Making of Economic Policy module with Robert.  He was the most erudite and widely read person I had ever encountered and he treated me and the students with real courtesy.   There was no doubting is intellectual superiority, but there was no condescension on his part.

I read all three volumes of his Keynes biography and I thought that they were brilliant exercises in historical political economy, a view shared by Bill Clinton.   When he came to Warwick to give the last speech of his presidency he sought out Robert for a conversation.

Robert once said that he was too weak to be a leader and too strong to be a follower.   Politically he moved from the Social Democrats to the Conservatives where he was briefly Treasury spokesman in the Lords.  During this period he often had to rush out of the class to deal with faxes.   Sacked by Bill Hague for his views on Kosovo, he ended up as a cross-bencher which suited him better.

I did sometimes pull Robert's leg.   He had taken a lease from a local aristo on Keynes's old home at Tilton (you can see it from the upper floors of the nearby Charleston).  He was trying to raise funds to refurbish an outbuilding Keynes had used, but a condition for any heritage money was that he opened to the public.  I suggested that he could install a large scale model of the Phillips curve in the garden for children to play on.

I was also economical with the actualité on one occasion.   Robert had spent millennium night at some aristocratic country house and asked me where I had been.   My reply was a marina on Southampton Harbour which was true except that I was on the quay not some luxury boat.

It was a privilege to have known him as an intellectual and a person.

Back to the 1970s

I don't have a high opinion of the domestic governing record of the SNP (think ferries and drugs), but their latest election gimmick has all the hallmarks of the daft ideas department.

They are proposing price caps on staple grocery items.   However, if retailers can't make a margin on these items, they may simply stop stocking them.   Getting supplies to remote highlands and islands locations is already a challenge (Lidl are popular on Orkney because they adhere to 'one Scotland price' despite the additional transport costs).

Of course, what they are really hoping for is a confrontation on this issue with Westminster to boost their campaign for a new independence referendum.

Most people have probably forgotten the 'red triangle' scheme devised by Shirley Williams as Labour prices secretary in the 1970s.  This attempted to control key grocery prices.   I have copied extensive records from the National Archives about it, but have never found the time to write it up.

It all bordered on farce with one 'Sir Humphrey' reporting on how the scheme was going down in Blackheath!   (A relatively prosperous London suburb much favoured by bureaucrats).

Why will no party criticise the triple lock?

As a former Labour defence secretary and adviser Lord Robertson has delivered a torpedo to the Labour government.  I have seen it suggested on social media that he is an adviser to two US defence companies, but I have been unable to verify this.

Defence spending was hollowed out under 14 years of Conservative prime ministers.   There were also arguably some poor spending decisions: two aircraft carriers that are sitting ducks without adequate destroyer protection and new destroyers that seem to spend most of their time in port having problems fixed.

Nevertheless the defence budget does seem to be £28 billion short of required spending over the next few years.  The Conservatives would pay for this by cutting welfare or making poor people poorer.

Yet no party will contemplate getting rid of the unsustainable triple lock because they know that older people are far more likely to vote than younger people.   It should be noted that pensions are defined as a benefit under the 1946 National Insurance Act.

Around that time one Labour politician said 'there ain't no fund' (possibly Ernie Bevin).   Pensions have to  be paid out of current taxation, a burden that will increase despite controversial age adjustments.

Yes, state pensions are lower in the UK than in many European countries, but private provision is much higher.  The state pension is an important safety net, but it should be focused on the most needy.

BTW, I think the latest attempt by the media to sack Starmer is not going to succeed.

Starmer's survival chances improve

An intervention by deputy leader Lucy Powell makes it more certain that there will be no leadership challenge to Keir Starmer after what are claimed to be an inevitably catastrophic set of election results for the prime minister in May.

Media commentators have been talking about 'when' Starmer goes, but Labour has little to gain and much to lose from a divisive election contest when there is no clear successor.   For the media, of course, driving a prime minister from office is the ultimate trophy.

Of course, a delay would enhance Andy Burnham's chances of getting elected as a MP and Lucy Powell is aligned with him.

Starmer has seen a little recovery in his ratings through his adroit handling of the conflict in the Middle East and, perhaps more important, has won praise within his own party.

Quite why Starmer is so unpopular is an interesting question.  He is doing a serious job in a serious way, but do voters want a prime minister who is an entertainer or celebrity? Surely Boris Johnson was a warning against having a buffoon in the job?

But then all recent prime ministers have had highly negative ratings.   Voters expect more of government at a time when it is able to deliver less.

I see that the Sunday Times is splashing a poll today that shows cabinet ministers losing their seats either to Reform or the Greens.   

A once good paper has degenerated into a right-wing propaganda sheet, but it should be pointed out that there is no general election tomorrow and that people approach the task of voting in a general election differently from responding to a mid-term poll.

Coping with money laundering allegations

New regulations on money laundering make an already slow conveyancing process in England even more complicated.   When I bought a retirement apartment recently, the compliance officer at my solicitors could not accept that I had built up funds in an ISA over a number of years.

Fortunately the funds platform Hargreaves Lansdown came to my rescue and produced many pages of documents listing transactions over several years, swamping the solicitor with information.

Now I have been helping one granddaughter with her purchase of a property in Wales after she discovered her inner Welsh woman.

First the Welsh solicitors requested that I present myself at their Pembroke office, some 200 miles from where I live, to prove that I am who I say I am.  We have now reached a stage where I have had to provide my last tax assessment by the HMRC.

I do have one weapon in reserve, two native Welsh speaking nephews.   I have found that dealing with officialdom in Wales is often expedited if one writes in Cymraeg.

I have one more granddaughter who is looking at properties, so the challenge is not over.  Fortunately, my great-grandaughter is just coming up to three.

I helped another granddaughter financially a few years ago and did not encounter these problems.   Money laundering is a serious problem, but it seems to me that these regulations are causing difficulties for ordinary people.

A few comments on the by-election

 

I haven't a lot that is original to add to the analysis that has already appeared on the Gorton and Denton by-election.   I did find the Substack contributions of Manchester-based political scientist Rob Ford in the run up to the election very helpful, not least in understanding the complex electoral geography of the constituency.

I am a little surprised at ow little comment there has been on the performance of a credible Conservative candidate, at a time when there is supposed to be a revival in enthusiasm about Kamikaze.

It is also worth bearing in mind that governments do not always lose by-elections: the Blair Government lost none in its first term.

I also find it concerning that over 10,000 electors were prepared to vote for a chancer parachuted into the constituency who in my view expressed opinions that some would regard as racist.  He also came across as a nasty piece of work and a bad loser.

So I am still looking at political asylum destinations.  Apparently my first choice, Finland, is very strict about applications.  You have to declare your intentions on arrival and are then sent to an unpleasant camp.

Luxembourg looks more promising.  Admittedly their adverts urging people to come to live in the Grand Duchy are targeted at youngsters in finance, but I did give some help to the University of Luxembourg when it was getting off the ground.   It also offers free public transport.

Time to catch up with Guy Bland, the fictitious MP for Borestshire South.   Bland has always been a Starmer loyalist and like many in the PLP thinks there is not a credible candidate in the PLP to replace him.   Letting Burnham stand in the by-election would have cost Labour the Manchester mayor's position and the campaign would have cost a party short of money around £1 million.

He does think that Laboir should realise that graduates are among its core voters and something needs to be done about an essentially unfair student loans system, especially those on Phase 2 loans.   Almost all the cost of higher education has been placed on the individual although there are clear societal benefits.

Blamd's loyalty hss been repaid with his appointment as an assistant whip, not for a region as is more usual but for Labour MPs in predomunantly rural seats (albeit difficult to define).   The concordat between the PM and the NFU at least gives him a decent start.  Because all government posts that can be renumerated have been take up, the post will be unpaid.

In his private life his wife, a former BBC religious broadcaster, has felt a call to the priesthood and is hoping to go to theological college when their child is a little older.   Taking communion in Felpersham cathedral, she felt the Real Presence.

Attending a CoE primary school and sharing a flat with a theology PhD (which involved inviting a  priest to Sunday lunch) have given me a lay interest in theological matters, developed further when I spent several years as chair of the friends of my local parish church.   However, the doctrine of transubstantiation has always caused me problems and is one reason why I am not a communicant member of the CoE.  I can still remember a three hour argument with two Catholic colleagues about the topic and I have no wish to repeat it.

Harold Wilson's humble holiday home

Looking back to a  possibly more innocent and less fractious time in British politics when prime minister Harold Wilson tried to boost his down to earth image by holidaying in a humble bungalow on the Isles of Scilly.  He genuinely loved the islands and is buried in Old Town churchyard.

I have posted a few essays I originally wrote for the now defunct Scilly Now and Then which drew on documents in the National Archives at Kew: https://scilliesharoldwilson.blogspot.com/2026/02/harold-wilson-builds-his-holiday-home.html