There’s applause for George Osborne’s Autumn Statement from Westminster’s wonks, but many of them think he could go further in cutting back the state.
Madsen Pirie is President of the Adam Smith Institute. In fact, we all work for the government because the taxes we pay support its activities. For most of us that includes income tax and National Insurance. For some it includes tobacco duty, alcohol excise duty and fuel tax. For all of us it includes VAT, […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Matt Sinclair of the TaxPayers' Alliance liked the populist measures – #Crosbynomics according to Matthew d'Ancona – but worried about the Budget's complexity: "Unfortunately, the great limitation of this budget was that it relied far too much on complicated targeted reliefs instead of tax cuts across the board. Simpler, […]
A few think tank reactions to the Autumn Statement… Mark Littlewood, Director General at the Institute of Economic Affairs, focused on the big picture and the fact that Britain is becoming a high debt nation: "The Chancellor has basically stuck to his spending plans, but not to his deficit plans. Low growth and weak tax […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Following the Queen's Speech this morning, several think tanks have reacted to the legislation announced (full details of which can be found here). I've collected them below. 8pm update: Open Europe have given their reaction to the proposed European Union Bill: "The UK government is likely to sell the […]
The TaxPayers' Alliance is, on the whole, pleased with the Budget: “There is a lot of good news in the Budget for families who have struggled in the recession. The cuts in corporate and top rate taxes will improve the incentive to invest and innovate, meaning higher wages before tax. Then a higher personal allowance […]
By JP Floru. More than one year ago Business Secretary Vince Cable announced an end to the practice of “gold-plating” of EU Directives. Sadly this does nothing to reverse the gold-plating of the past. According to Open Europe, the acquis communautaire – that is the total body of EU legislation – is now 170,000 pages […]
By Harry Phibbs Last week I wrote a blog for the Daily Mail asking "Who will campaign for capitalism?" Amidst the complexities of bankers bonuses some of the basic truths have been confused. Dr Madsen Pirie, the President of the Adam Smith Institute has been seeking to address this with an excellent series of YouTube […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Pasted below are some reactions to the GDP growth figures announced this morning. Updated at bottom. Prof Philip Booth, Editorial Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: “It is not surprising that the latest economic growth figures are grim given the headwinds from the Eurozone. However, this should […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Pasted below are some reactions of centre right thinkers to the Chancellor's statement on banking reform. Tim Ambler, Senior Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute, says: “The Chancellor may be rushing out his 80 page response to the Vickers report to get the Business Secretary off his back rather than […]
By Joseph Willits Follow Joseph on Twitter A report produced jointly by the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) and Scientific Alliance suggests that the Government’s focus on renewable energy sources is both misguided and unrealistic, and could lead to an energy crisis by the middle of the decade if pursued. The technologies used to supply renewable energy sources […]
Dr Eamonn Butler, Director of the Adam Smith Institute: “A £40bn business loan scheme, mortgage guarantees, £5bn of infrastructure spending, 'youth contract' apprenticeships, start-up tax reliefs, new R&D tax credits, extending free child care – these are all Gordon Brown-style tinkering measures that look good in the papers but end up being bureaucratic and wasteful. […]
Sam Bowman is Head of Research at the Adam Smith Institute. Nobody likes to shoot the messenger more than a politician. As Europe’s economies disintegrate, markets are often blamed for creating “volatility”, and are a convenient scapegoat for political failures. The EU-wide Tobin tax announced this week by Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy is intended […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. On our Comment pages today Mark Field MP sets out the two great truths of the economic debate: One: We must carry on with the Osborne deficit reduction programme. When you are in a worldwide debt crisis you have to get your debts under control. Two: The Coalition hasn't […]