
Are Johnson and Sunak preparing the way for a snap election in 2023?
The Budget was, if truly honest, a sign that the Government shuns spending cuts and embraces tax rises – which is ultimately unsustainable.
The Budget was, if truly honest, a sign that the Government shuns spending cuts and embraces tax rises – which is ultimately unsustainable.
It will probe whether or or not Sunak can prepare the country for that future – and perhaps succeed Johnson himself, “one fine day”.
We need to have a debate about which taxes are least damaging to economic growth. Over the long term, corporation tax ranks as being one of the worst.
The OBR’s horrid forecasts of an output implosion and soaring unemployment will do nothing to quell Tory resistance to tougher Covid tiers.
It’s baffling why think-tanks are taking the OBR assessments as truth, given its prediction record.
Research has found that offenders visited in prison by their family were less likely to reoffend within a year of release than those who were not.
Precisely what does Johnson think was wrong with the 2010-2018 deficit reduction agenda? Who knows? The Tories don’t have a clear economic story.
After a decade of forward guidance, credit easing and quantitative easing, it was clear even before the Covid-19 crisis that monetary policy had run out of road.
“We’re certainly going to see temporarily a considerably higher amount of government borrowing”, says Robert Chote.
If, that is, interest rates carry on at rock bottom rates. But we have to take a chance on growing our way out of this crisis.
Here, the recovery of our automotive and construction sectors is crucial – firms in the region directly employ around 46,500 people.
If it proves a temporary blowout rather than permanent, accumulated debt levels being modestly higher looks manageable.
As in 2008, the line between survival and disaster will rest on the bond markets’ trust in the British Government and on the reputation of the Bank of England.
Hopefully it will be crisis averted, and we’ll have a bit more time to fix the hole. But sooner or later, difficult choices on tax and spending are coming.
It should remove those taxes and regulations that will stop business from applying their ingenuity on the problem of rebuilding from the ruins.