Ross Clark



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Areas of interest: Business (esp. the impact of regulation); The Countryside; Climate Change; Housing and Property

Journals/Organisation: The Times | The Spectator | The Sunday Telegraph | Daily Mail | Daily Express | Real Business

Email: [mailto:ross.clark@mailonsunday.co.uk ross.clark@mailonsunday.co.uk]

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Representation: http://www.harriman-house.com/authors/view?id=9497&name=Ross_Clark [mailto:pr@harriman-house.com pr@harriman-house.com]

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Career: Writes comment pieces for The Times and property and housing features for The Telegraph and the Mail. Wrote the 'Banned Waggon' column for the Spectator and still contributes regularly. Also writes a regular column for Real Business Current position/role: Regular Op-Ed contributor, columnist


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Books & Debate:

 * The Great Before: a satire (Cambridge: greatbefore.com, 2005) OCLC 64735234
 * How to Label a Goat: Silly Rules and Regulations That Are StranglingBritain (Petersfield, Hampshire: Harriman House, 2006) OCLC 137222427

Latest work: The road to Southend Pier : one man's struggle against the surveillance society OCLC 173499712, 2007

Speaking/Appearances:

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The Times:
Column name:

Remit/Info: Business, The Countryside, Climate Change, Housing and Property

Section:

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

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Day published: varies

Regularity: regular

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Articles: 2014

 * Ignore the absolute poverty of Alan Milburn’s argument - It is nonsense to claim we are more wretched than dirt-poor Bhutan - 10th June
 * Stamp duty is worse than a mansion tax - George Osborne taxes people who move house more than smokers. It’s bad for the economy - 22nd April
 * Even Henry VIII could afford sea defences - The money available from the Treasury for river and coastal projects is completely inadequate - 24th February
 * Top London flats are mausoleums of money, not homes - The apartments of the super-rich are not designed to be lived in - 18th January
 * America has had the guts to go after banking’s rogues - UK regulators believe that prosecuting banks would be destabilising - 15th January
 * Finally, the law that bans absolutely everything - The coalition has come up with something it’s hard to believe - 9th January
 * A ‘triple lock’ on state pensions is absurdly generous - The Government should forget its obsession with the grey vote - 6th January



Articles: 2013

 * Britain must invest or lose the global race - While we dither about airports and power plants other nations are surging ahead - 18th December 2013
 * Aid is missold. Little is spent on emergencies - Britain could do far more for Typhoon Haiyan’s victims if it didn’t fund questionable long-term projects - 12th November 2013
 * These hidden taxes clobber the poor hardest - Green levies in our bills are a way of making the energy suppliers take the blame - 25th October 2013
 * Taxpayers deserve dividends in the post - The Royal Mail should be privately run but not sold cheap to foreign investors - 8th October 2013
 * Is the Daily Mail a force for good or bad? - With Helen Rumbelow - 4th October 2013
 * Let’s stick the legal profession in the dock - Law firms were the worst offenders at phone hacking.We need an inquiry into their ethics - 25th June 2013
 * Osborne is putting politics before prudence - The Chancellor, like Gordon Brown before him, is too focused on his other job – winning votes for his party - 28th May 2013
 * For the best results, keep executive pay down - The bosses of the NHS and G4S earned so much that they had no fear of failure - 24th May 2013
 * Don’t put the Tewkesbury mum in the stocks - The real scandal has been right-to-buy sales, leaving us with a shortage of family homes - 20th February 2013
 * Get children to enjoy sport. Stop teaching it - Taking games seriously spoils a pleasant diversion that we naturally enjoy. Makes you fat too - 18th January 2013



Articles: 2012

 * Drive out speculators, drive down house prices - Home ownership has peaked, with potentially disastrous consequences. We need drastic action to revive the market - 27th December 2012
 * I fear this could be ‘care in the community II’ - This abuse scandal is no excuse for hastily taking the mentally handicapped out of homes - 13th December 2012
 * Reinstating Virgin won’t rescue the railways - Branson’s company is better at playing the subsidy game than looking after its passengers - 28th August 2012
 * How to give our rain clouds a silver lining - We have the technology to stop these damaging downpours. We should dare to use it - 10th July 2012
 * Watching sports officials like a hawk just isn’t fair - Dozens of people get sworn at for trying to do an impossible job - 4th July 2012
 * Give them medals, but not this memorial - The vainglorious pavilion to remember Bomber Command is an unnecessary mistake - 15th June 2012
 * Real country folk worry about more than jubilee sponge - ‘The Archers’ has always been an inner-city product - 6th June 2012
 * Don’t look to the ASA to protect you from bad adverts - Gawd help you if you show a furry animal having a fake mishap - 31st May 2012
 * Staines doesn’t need a new name. It needs a new soul - This is a shopping centre in search of a town - 22nd May 2012
 * Let’s incinerate this Nimbyism. Burning rubbish is greener - Bonfires and fireworks on Guy Fawkes Night emit far more dioxins - 10th April 2012
 * Missing cigars are what has sunk this Titanic - The ship also appears to be sailing backwards across the Atlantic - 2nd April 2012
 * We need the right to buy underwear on the Sabbath - If people prefer to shop than go to church on Sundays, they can do it online. So open up the high streets - 19th March 2012
 * How to shore up the housing market: keep your nose out - The Government is in banking. But only if it can make a loss - 13th March 2012
 * You don’t need to be Clarkson to see fuel tax is tough - Travel by car is eating into the wages of those working in rural areas on the minimum wage - 5th March 2012
 * Encourage cycling, yes – but not if the roads are unsafe - My local city, Cambridge, is the first officially to endorse the Times cycling campaign - 24th February 2012
 * This Big Issue seller is taking us taxpayers for a ride - If Ms Vasile can exploit this loophole, so can every EU citizen - 19th January 2012
 * Blow me down. We have the strongest winds in Europe - Our climate isn’t ‘cold and wet’, but it is persistently crafty - 6th January 2012
 * The RBS chief is just a civil servant. Freeze his pay too - Fat bonuses are undermining efforts to tackle the deficit - 3rd November 2012



Articles: 2011

 * £50,000 for Tube drivers? That’s £50,000 too much - Imagine if they had to steer their vehicles rather than just brake - 5th October 2011
 * Can we no longer afford Victorian hygiene standards? - A council’s decision to end home rubbish collections abandons one of our oldest public services - 22nd August 2011
 * Plagued by travellers? Then build more sites - Force councils to accommodate Gypsies and the problem of unauthorised camps will end - 31st August 2011
 * Those who died in Lincolnshire lived in a parallel world - I have never once seen a migrant worker in a Fenland pub - 15th July
 * This monstrosity must go. Build some proper homes - A 103-bedroom new-build in Surrey is about to become the grandest repossession ever - 11th July 2011
 * If this is meant to be the Big Society in action, it stinks - The notorious head of Suffolk County Council has finally gone - 5th July 2011
 * A Poor List would better represent the Britain of today - Never mind the Sunday Times Rich List, I want to see who is millions in debt - 9th May 2011
 * Oxford’s ‘64 per cent from state schools’ is simply illegal - Under human rights legislation, univerisities cannot discriminate against the privately schooled - 14th March 2011



Articles: 2010

 * Criminals, not citizens, should be behind bars - Electric gates are not just lethal to children, they also destroy community spirit - 8th July 2010
 * fat cats ensure that the poor suffer'' - Nothing is being done to guarantee that power devolved locally is used responsibly - 10th February 2011 (writing in The Daily Telegraph)
 * U-turn needed on our railways'' - It’s the unglamorous commuter services that need government investment, not vastly expensive vanity projects - 26th November 2010
 * cling on to your nice council home too'' - The Tories partly created this mess. But turfing people out of houses won’t solve it - 5th August 2010
 * not citizens, should be behind bars'' - Electric gates are not just lethal to children, they also destroy community spirit - 8th July 2010
 * We don’t want an end to silly laws. We want more of them - Nick Clegg’s wants to hear people’s views on what laws to abolish. It will backfire - 2nd July 2010
 * are not the place to build houses. Try the countryside'' - The new Tory policy is right. Labour has been too afraid of the Nimbys - 10th June 2010
 * should BA’s cabin crew be paid more than nurses?'' - Travel doesn’t seem to have broadened the mind in their case - 24th May 2010
 * the third runway risks breaking up the UK'' - We should be able to reach every corner of the country quickly - 14th May 2010
 * don’t need Big Brother to work out council taxes'' - There’s no more accurate way to value a house than its selling price - 7th May 2010
 * biscuits won’t work. Electric dog collars will'' - You can’t train Fido by “reward-based methods” alone - 25th March 2010
 * eat GM food now. Why not grow it?'' - Britain is missing out on a vital new technology by letting Luddites make all the running - 10th February 2010
 * who’s behind some odd education ads'' - Something called Edge seems to dislike the snobbery of A levels - 20th January 2010
 * irresistible rise of the aid industry'' - Millions will give money to victims of the Haiti earthquake. But will their cash get to the right place? - 15th January 2010
 * we really trust chief scientific officers?'' - The predictions for swine flu (and bird flu, Sars, vCJD) were embarrassingly inaccurate - 11th January 2010
 * picking up the bill for right-to-buy'' - It’s folly that taxpayers pay for poor families to live in luxury homes. We need more social housing - 4th January 2010



Articles: 2009

 * cuts follow years of futile expansion'' - Labour has got the universities it deserves - 24th December 2009
 * lawyers are the real sickness'' - Accident claims are draining the NHS budget - 19th December 2009
 * is more important, religious freedom or sex education?'' - Unless Labour decides, it can expect some almighty battles - 7th November 2009
 * couples can’t have their cake and eat it'' - If they don’t like the law, there’s a solution: get married - 30th October 2009
 * again about the postal strike'' - Private firms cherry-pick the profitable routes. The Royal Mail needs some sympathy - 24th October 2009
 * only Gordon Brown was selling off the family silver'' - There’s no point getting rid of assets that could turn a decent profit - 13th October 2009
 * Harman, hit all perks with a prawn sandwich tax'' - Ordinary people pay for train fares; executives can subtract the cost of their expensive jollies - 19th September 2009
 * Rover debacle is down to sheer cowardice'' - We have not been a great car-making nation for years - 12th September 2009
 * industry beats road haulage at whining'' - We love it when lorry drivers are criticised - 25th August 2009
 * John Sawers should know better'' - Playing with social networking sites when you’re middle-aged is embarrassing - 6th July 2009
 * kids to the pool? Sorry, you need a card'' - ID cards voluntary? Don’t you believe it - 2nd July 2009
 * looms. Why not build flood defences?'' - When it comes to practical measures to cope with the effects of climate change, the Government doesn't want to know - 19th June 2009
 * Heritage has dropped a clanger'' - Diocese of Worcester is told it may not change a frame on to which are mounted the bells of Malvern Priory - 12th June 2009
 * power, no influence, no need for fear'' - The BNP will go the way of all small parties after a good European showing. It will implode - 1st June 2009
 * rail must be for the people'' - If this London-to-Scotland project aims shamelessly at the well-heeled, we should forget it - 6th April 2009
 * only one way to stop boozers'' - How does a government deal with an alcohol problem? Have a look around Europe for a solution - 18th March 2009
 * fascist bid to improve road safety'' - Petrolheads think speed limits are tantamount to dictatorship, but they are a sign of civilisation - 10th March 2009
 * business-like public sector? We wish'' - Private companies are freezing pay as they struggle to survive the recession, unlike their counterparts in local government - 2nd March 2009
 * under the thumb of the worst kind of aristocracy'' - May this scandal hasten the day when the House of Lords becomes a fully elected chamber - 26th January 2009
 * incineration could generate electricity'' - What a mess: the way we recycle paper is rubbish - 5th January 2009



Articles: 2008

 * heard, who can forget Port Sunlight?'' - We've lost the romance in place names - 30th December 2008
 * power to bailiffs is a thugs' charter'' - Weren't human rights supposed to protect us from arbitrary justice? - 22nd December 2008
 * peculiar case of middle-class benefits'' - So it's bad for mothers to stay at home on welfare but it's OK to get state aid for your big mortgage? - 8th December 2008
 * is a rite of passage for the educated'' - Universities always have a Taleban tendency - 24th November 2008
 * might run the economy just like British Rail'' - The hotel on the shortlist to host the next G20 meeting has a chequered past - 18th November 2008
 * interest rate cut is bad economics and bad politics'' - This is nothing but financial hair of the dog - to cheer up credit-bingers - 7th November 2008
 * Scouts should stick to tying knots'' - More and more sex education is failing to curb teenage pregnancy. Scoutmasters need not join in - 21st October 2008
 * beach-sex couple weren't just stupid'' - There is no better recruiter for al-Qaeda than Westerners thumbing their noses at the laws of Islamic countries - 17th October 2008
 * your bra before 20, in a cardigan by 30'' - If you want a real rebel, don't go to someone who stripped off at Woodstock - 10th October 2008
 * sacked ministers have rights too'' - When a reshuffle beckons; employment law is chucked out of No 10's window - 29th September 2008
 * just as wrong to use drugs as it is to sell them'' - George Michael is intelligent enough to know that taking crack is not just an issue of personal liberty - 23rd September 2008
 * says that travel would broaden Sarah Palin's mind?'' - If global travelling makes a good political leader, Judith Chalmers would be prime minister - 16th September 2008
 * building, not heavy rain, made houses flood'' - If we persist in covering land with concrete and tarmac, we must expect more devastated homes - 8th September 2008
 * not to help first-time homebuyers'' - If you don't own property already, falling prices are the best way to get you on the housing ladder - 2nd September 2008
 * of a windfall tax is just hot air'' - Even after the rises of the past two years, energy consumers are paying little more in real terms than they were in 1987 - 27th August 2008



The Spectator:
Column name:

Remit/Info: Business, The Countryside, Climate Change, Housing and Property

Section:

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

Email:

Website: Spectator.co / Ross Clark

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Wednesday

Regularity: Weekly or fortnightly

Column format:

Average length:



Articles: 2009

 * The G20 summit is lousy value for money. Cancel it - Ross Clark looks ahead to Gordon Brown’s summit at which he will try to revive his own political fortunes, found a new global economic order and stage a Bretton Woods for our times. No chance: the whole thing is an expensive sham - 18th March 2009
 * You’d be bonkers to buy abroad. Here’s why - The advert, in a Sunday newspaper, couldn’t have presented a happier scene: a smiling couple, looking as if they were about to go dancing off into the sunset - 13th March 2009
 * Want a big bonus? Get yourself a public sector job - Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling rail against bankers’ bonuses. But, says Ross Clark, the really appetising salaries, perks, expense packages and pensions are to be found in the public sector. A terrible reckoning lies ahead for the last fat cats - 18th February 2009
 * Insolvency - A formula for fecklessness: The Insolvency Service has sent me a questionnaire seeking my views on bankruptcy. At first, I was enthused by this chance to say what I think about Gordon Brown’s reforms... - 11th February 2009
 * Whatever happened to the housing shortage? - The village of Kibworth Harcourt in Leicestershire is an unremarkable place, except that it could reasonably claim to be the front line of Britain’s ailing housing market - 10th February 2009
 * A boom market in economic nonsense - Ross Clark says the current financial crisis has produced a glut of illiteracy and woolly thinking - 28th January 2009
 * Savers are Britain’s new underclass - We are divided into two nations once more, says Ross Clark. Reckless borrowers are helped by government bail-outs, while those who have sacrificed to save are abandoned - 28th January 2009
 * Could house prices fall for 16 years straight? Yes, they could – just look at Japan - If someone had told you in the summer of 2007 that, 18 months on, the Bank of England base rate would be 1.5 per cent and that still your home would be plummeting in value to the tune of 2 per cent a month, you would very likely have told them they were bonkers - 14th January 2009



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