Over the weekend Chancellor Philip Hammond was reported as saying that public sector workers are overpaid. On the Andrew Marr show on Sunday he was given multiple opportunities to deny the accusation. But while he did not repeat the tone-deaf claim, ne…Read more…
Another graph for Nicky Morgan: Public service cuts make budget inequality even worse
The hapless performance of Education Minister Nicky Morgan on BBC’s Newsnight when confronted with evidence of the distributional impact of her government’s tax and benefit cuts made for cringeworthy TV. Morgan seemed genuinely shocked at the disproportionate losses inflicted on lower…Read more…
Tougher economic conditions, but the IFS suggests the Chancellor’s rules are holding back growth
Yesterday the IFS set out a bleaker view for the economy and public finances in its Green Budget, which is published every year in the run-up to the Chancellor’s Budget Statement. Given the gloomy projections, let’s hope the government takes note, especially with regard to the fiscal mandate….Read more…
Cameron’s NHS “crisis, what crisis?” moment
In response to the growing and widely reported crisis in A&E across the NHS in England, David Cameron dismissed trade union “scaremongering” and referred to the issue as “short-term pressure”. Let’s recap the issues that David Cameron describes as “short-term pressure”: A financial situation…Read more…
Planned future spending cuts return us to the Geddes Axe of the 1920s
On the basis of the OBR projections for future spending cuts, the only more severe consolidation in over a century was the Geddes Axe of 1921-23. That these disastrous policies are the nearest precedent for any prospective economic action beggars belief.Read more…