Foresight and Hindsight


The fuss being kicked up around the share price at which the business secretary, Vince Cable, sold off the Royal Mail seems somewhat ridiculous, if you ask me. 

 A bit like people who know the result of a horse race complaining that if they had this information in advance, they could have staked much more money on the winner.

 The same thing happens to all governments of every stripe and colour, of course, just as it did for Labour, for example, when Gordon Brown authorised the sale of much of the UK's gold reserves for a small fraction of the price you could get today. 

 Now politics and crystal ball gazing are closely related in my experience because politicians often claim to know what they're talking about and then make a hash of things as they did over the cost of the Scottish Parliament, for example.

 But being wise after the event and with the benefit of 20:20 hindsight is a different game altogether.    

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