My views on the economic apocalypse

… will not be reaching a wider audience, you’ll be glad to hear.

This is despite receiving an email today from the director of the think tank Demos, addressed to ‘Dear Lord Lamont’, inviting me to contribute to a forthcoming report. ‘We are asking for short contributions – 1,000 to 1,500 words – from a range of international economists, regulators and commentators. The question we are asking each of you to address is what the architecture of financial regulation should look like in order to guard against future crises of this kind. ‘

I wish I could help. I’m sure I could have written 1000 words, but they would have been wasted words. I guess he’ll now be grateful that bigger financial disasters have happened since the one he was part of.

From my reply:

Being a humble web developer and songwriter, my grasp of  economics would have to stand on its tiptoes to achieve ‘rudimentary’.  I think Demos’s readers would find the views of my ex-parliamentary namesake more enlightening. Possibly.

Unfortunately I don’t know his email address, but I’m sure you can find him through his publisher.

On the other hand if you want songs by the Cliff Richard of despair, write back

The REAL Norman Lamont

While never having been a fan of the government of which he was a part, and finding it irritating that the pronunciation of his surname has largely overwritten that of mine in the common parlance, particularly in England, I bear my namesake no ill-will. I’ve heard he’s a decent man. I’ve forgiven him for not offering me many thousands for the domain name.  I did stumble into a beautiful hotel suite one evening in Leicester when my then employer (a finance company) booked me in for the night before a training course. The booking clerk must have  thought ‘financial services, Norman Lamont… – give him the best suite’. Then I stumbled in, late and scruffy from travel. They realised something was amiss but to their credit gave me the room for the rate of an ordinary one. So I thank him for that.