By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Today's autumn statement is being treated in the Westminster Village as though its contents will decide the election. Ed Balls wants higher borrowing. David Davis wants tax cuts. Tim wants a growth strategy and a pitch to middle Britain – to the heirs of the voters who first put […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter I supplied ten thoughts on the Autumn Statement yesterday. I don't have much to add today except to point you to two blogs. THE ECONOMY IS IN MUCH WORSE SHAPE THAN FEARED In the first blog the BBC's Nick Robinson predicts that today will be "defining". "The Chancellor," he writes, […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Ealier I wondered – a little unfairly – if our Chancellor was becoming a bit like Gordon Brown with his nook and cranny interventionism. I also wonder if Mr Osborne is tempted to become a little bit like Peter Mandelson, too. Last week the former Deputy PM made the case […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter It's not often Janet Daley and John Rentoul agree but they did yesterday. Their common complaint was George Osborne's Brownian tinkering with the economy. John Rentoul in The Independent on Sunday: "A few more schemes, complications and subsidies and pretty soon I shall have to go away and rethink my […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter If Osborne has got macroeconomic policy largely right (here) he's been very slow with microeconomic policy. Yes, the welfare, education and planning reforms will enhance long-term competitiveness but British business needs help now. Despite the urging of ConHome – and many more important than us – there was no big […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Andrew Marr's two main guests this morning were the Chancellor and his Shadow. Their get-together coincides with an interview in which Ed Balls heaps praise on George Osborne as the Conservative Party's "best politician". Lord Ashcroft's overnight mega poll found that Mr Osborne enjoys a 56% to 44% lead over […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Lord Ashcroft has conducted another one of his mega polls. He writes about it for The Sunday Telegraph but here's my summary of its most important findings. Rising prices are the voters' top concern. 73% of 8,000 respondents chose inflation as one of three economic worries. "Petrol, energy and fuel […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Three things in this morning's media attracted my attention. Item one is Fraser Nelson's column on the summer's riots. They seemed so seismic at the time. For some they were a wake up call to a criminal underclass. For others they were a sign of a very unequal society – […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. David Ruffley MP, a senior Conservative member of the Treasury Select Committee, and a former special advisor to Ken Clarke during his time as Chancellor, has called on the government to introduce short-term growth measures to stimulate the economy. The Conservative Chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, Andrew Tyrie, also […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter PHOTO BY ALAN DAVIDSON I've given the Chancellor a bit of a tough time recently – eg here – but let's finish today with some good news. The BBC has today, cautiously, acknowledged that the Chancellor is on course to to fulfil his promise to cut borrowing: "The latest data […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. A new poll released today by Survation shows the daunting task the Coalition faces to convince the public its pension reforms are the right way forward. The poll finds people trust trade unions almost three times as much as they trust the government to be truthful about pensions. Whilst […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Public procurement may not be the most exciting of topics for a Sunday morning but the state is now spending half of the nation's income. Much of this spending involves transfers to pensioners, the unemployed and families but the state is still by far the biggest purchaser of goods and […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. For tomorrow's Independent on Sunday and Sunday Mirror, ComRes has conducted polling of the public's current voting intentions. Since it's been a few weeks since the last ComRes poll for the Independent on Sunday/Sunday Mirror, it seems an opportune moment to take stock of recent polling. The headline voting […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. The Chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, Andrew Tyrie, appeared on Radio 4 today, discussing the possibility of the Bank of England receiving greater financial decision-making powers. Mr Tyrie advocated making Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England and Chairman of the Monetary Policy Committee, more accountable. Mr Tyrie […]
By Joseph Willits Follow Joseph on Twitter Yesterday, UK 10 year bond yields were at a historic low of 2.106%. Today's Financial Times stated that "the government’s fiscal austerity programme has reassured investors that the UK is unlikely to lose its triple A credit rating". Figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility suggest that since this year's March Budget, […]