Budget 2021: Think tank response round-up

How have think-tanks and campaign groups responded to the Chancellor’s fiscal and economic initiatives?

Neil Shastri-Hurst: Like a phoenix from the ashes of the Covid crisis, now is the time for a new social contract to arise

The present social contract was written when the number of taxpayers well outstripped the number of retirees. But times have changed.

Spending Review 2020: Think tank response round-up

How have think-tanks and campaign groups responded to the Chancellor’s fiscal and economic news?

Ryan Bourne: Calm down, stay cool – and drop this talk of tax rises. It’s too early to know how everything will settle down.

It’s baffling why think-tanks are taking the OBR assessments as truth, given its prediction record.

John O’Connell: To ensure efficient government spending, we need a new Parliamentary Budget Committee

A dedicated body could focus on scrutinising the economy and effectiveness of future plans. Australia and New Zealand already have similar models.

Three actions that Ministers must take if we’re to live without fear. Or else they and we will be lost.

If the public conversation about lives and livelihoods doesn’t change, we risk being trapped in semi-lockdown semi-permanently.

David Willetts: The Government is wrong to propose cutting back on Universal Credit while the triple lock remains untouched

And when it comes to paying for the crisis measures, as we must, taxes must not fall on younger workers.

Ryan Bourne: A message for Johnson and Sunak on tax rises. Not now. And not these.

Modest consolidation over decades is one thing; large increases over a Parliament would be quite another.

Ryan Bourne: The Right’s glory was its mastery of economic policy. Why has it given up even thinking about it?

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.

Stamp duty cut welcome, but concerns about “tomorrow’s taxpayers”. Centre-right think tanks react to Sunak statement.

Several wonder how these big spending pledges are sustainable.

Ryan Bourne: Sunak shouldn’t try today to restore pre-virus Britain. It’s gone – and we must now adapt.

What normalisation should mean is the return to a functioning market economy where our wants and needs are met in today’s circumstances.

The Government has held 86 Coronavirus press conferences. How many has Coffey fronted? None. Why?

If the Prime Minister doesn’t have confidence in his most senior Ministers, it’s impossible to see how anyone else can.

Neil O’Brien: Salvaging the economy. Could we just live with more borrowing for a bit? Maybe, maybe not.

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.

“Seriously concerning.” “A Gordon Brown-style budget”. Centre-right think tanks resist the Budget’s main platform.

But some free marketeers are concerned about the huge borrowing rise and the reliance on “bureaucrats picking winners.”

Darren Grimes: These devalued degrees are infantalising a generation of young people

There are now so many of them that the degree itself has less impact on employability – this ensuring that they become less economically valuable.