By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. My take on the EU is that a renegotiation push is unlikely to result in many powers being returned to Britain, and that leaving the Union would bring short-term economic pain but medium-term gain. This is why I would vote to leave the EU were a referendum to take […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. To the Carlton Club yesterday evening…for a Taxpayers' Alliance's dinner to celebrate the 1988 budget, the silver anniversary of which takes place this year. That's the one in which Nigel Lawson, the then Chancellor, cut corporation tax from 27p to 25p, raised personal allowances by twice the rate of […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. The Coalition may get its welfare bill passed but it may do so at a cost to its relations with the House of Lords. The Upper House repeatedly amended the welfare bill – sometimes by large majorities. Labour, crossbench and Lib Dem rebels defeated, for example, the benefits cap […]
By Jonathan IsabyFollow Jonathan on Twitter Yesterday saw the first day of a two-day debate in the House of Lords on the Government's recently published proposals for introducing a predominantly elected second chamber. Over 100 peers are due to speak in the debate over the two days and yesterday a number of senior Tories – […]
Former Chancellor Nigel Lawson took part in yesterday's question time in the Lords on the Cancun climate change summit. Lord Lawson of Blaby: "My Lords, I join my noble friend in his satisfaction with an outcome that binds no country to anything at all. In that event, however, does he not agree that the position […]
Lord Saatchi’s scheme fails the Thatcher Test – because it abandons the principle that the tax system should be as neutral as possible between different businesses.