Bernard Ingham: Seven pillars of wisdom to support us through the political fog of November

First, the so-called anti- capitalist protesters outside St Paul’s are a bunch of imposters. They are no more against capitalism than the average punter. Instead, as their table of demands demonstrates, their target is the City of London Corporation, which is different.

I’m all in favour of the greater transparency in local government they seek, but I’m blowed if I know what abolishing the ancient Lord Mayor, sheriffs and aldermen or merging the City of London police with the Met have to do with getting rid of capitalism.

Perhaps, the phoney campers would benefit from a dose of communism. They would immediately find their state benefits cut off in their prime.

Then we learned how hard the blessed campaign to cut carbon emissions is driven by subsidies. The Government’s decision to halve feed in tariffs for solar panels even had the CBI on its high horse, complaining of “own goals” and “evaporating trust and confidence” in the Government.

My trust and confidence in this Government can only be restored when it ends (not halves) subsidies for both onshore and offshore wind turbines. With a faltering economy up to its nostrils in debt, we cannot afford subsidies for politically correct but useless technology that would not create a single job without massive hand-outs.

This in turn demonstrates just how damaging subsidised renewable energy is to real jobs in viable companies through soaring energy bills.

Meanwhile, the lunatic Greens’ route out of our economic doldrums is “No coal, oil, nuclear or biomass”. Nor gas, if they are consistent.

Third, we now know that the concept of serving the public is as extinct in our public services as the African western black rhino now that head teachers have voted to strike over reformed pensions on November 30. Nothing, it seems, must interfere with their handsome reward for failing to turn out kids sufficiently competent in the 3Rs to earn their keep.

Fourth, we now know beyond peradventure who runs Europe. Without firing a shot, Germany has colonised 17 nations inside the eurozone.

From now on, they will have to do what it says – always assuming it can stomach doling out cash to rescue the worst from past indulgence. If not, they will have to leave while it tightens its grip on a slightly smaller empire.

Fifth, we now know what a narrow escape we had when Michael Heseltine failed to defeat Margaret Thatcher in the Tories’ 1990 leadership election. Even now he says it was a mistake for Britain not to go into the euro and that we need to become more like the Germans.

He seems to have forgotten that the last time we followed the Germans Nigel Lawson lost control of inflation in the 1980s when, behind the backs of both Margaret Thatcher and the Cabinet, he shadowed the D-mark because of its supposed virtue.

Sixth, the Tories should thank their lucky stars that, if they had to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg is their leader.

Every week he makes himself less electable. He not only believes we should eventually enter the euro but he is resolutely against Britain trying to repatriate powers from Brussels. You have to admire his devotion to a lost cause.

Finally, the eurozone crisis distils into gin-like clarity what we learned at our mother’s knee: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be”. It shows us the wisdom of a world lost to seductive Mammon.

Not to put too fine a point on it, it is the ultimate justification for Thatcher’s widely derided housewifely economics and the ultimate condemnation of the clever-dickery of the likes of Ed Balls.

As Angela Merkel says, we have all spent and borrowed more than we have earned. If the world has any sense after the events of the last four years and now the eurozone crisis, it will concentrate on keeping spending on a tight rein instead of bribing taxpayers with their own money – on prudent housekeeping and balanced books.

What is more, every one of us – and not least industry, which is forever calling for “incentives” – should demand it. If we want stability and a steady carry on – and who doesn’t – then from now on we should put a very big premium on solid, unspectacular politicians who believe in running a tight ship.

Here endeth my seven lessons of November.