Fraser Nelson

This winter, at least 15,000 British pensioners over the age of 75 will die from the cold. Their death is a normal, recurring fact of British life – since 1991 the figures have oscillated between 17,000 and 37,600. For reasons passing my understanding, it attracts minimal media attention and zero political outrage even though much of this is avoidable (the excess winter mortality rates in Norway for the elderly are about half ours).   As I say in my News of the World column today, it issues like the lives of foxes that whip our MPs into a frenzy. There’s something deeply unfashionable about the welfare of the pensioners (who usually make up the lion’s share of our MSRA statistics as well). Last winter, excess mortality amongst all over-65s was 22,300.

This business with the EU and the NHS has been very disorientating. My conscience is pricked by MatthewT, who commented on my previous post: “So you guys are against the EU interfering with UK policies except where you agree with their impact. I didn’t realise Euroscepticism was so nuanced.” Well, m’lud, guilty. My side has failed to make the argument for NHS liberalisation in Britain (and has even failed to convince the Tories) but today I have an option. Why not become all pro-European, and have it forced on Britain by Brussels?   This is what the EU is all about: circumventing democratic debate.

In macabre contrast to James’ post about the effects of the US surge, The Guardian splashes on the mayhem in Basra left by Britain’s shameful under-commitment to the provinces under our care. It’s mainly an interview with Major General Jalil Khalaf, the head of the Basra police, who says he can’t control the militias and (as we blogged last week) that women are getting killed for un-Islamic behaviour. Its website also offers a superb, chilling six-minute online video about what’s happening in Basra in an interview with Khalaf. “ The British did not mean to create a mess here in Basra. The chaos came from the way they set up the security forces. They didn’t do it correctly.

It is rare to have a news story by Irwin Stelzer, he normally writes excellent columns for The Spectator and The Sunday Times. But today's splash in The Sunday Times jumps out for more reasons than the byline. He reveals what I have only heard whispered: that there is paralysis at the very apex of our financial system. There is a dysfunctional relationship between the top three figures: Mervyn King (pictured), the governor of the Bank of England, The Chancellor and the Prime Minister.  Stelzer reveals that Brown is refusing to act to repair the regulatory structure he set up in 1997. It didn't work then, as Eddie George told the then Chancellor.

Gordon Brown’s detractors have long argued that he deserves to be ranked not among Scotland’s economic geniuses but alongside its most notorious confidence tricksters. His great achievement as Chancellor was not to build a great economy, but to create the unshakeable impression that he had done so. He has succeeded, brilliantly, in claiming credit for the economic growth and lower interest rates which — in fact — were common to most developed economies over the same period. Yet he is no more directly responsible for these economic blessings than the conman Arthur Ferguson was for Big Ben (which he ‘sold’ for £1,000 in 1924). This is not necessarily a bad thing.