George Osborne’s decision to raise VAT to 20 per cent from January 2011 has been widely described as regressive, including by the new Head of the Office of Budget Responsibility Robert Chote. Mr Chote has also emphasised the extent to which raising VAT was not unavoidable, and was in fact a choice made by Mr Osborne.
Asked which strategy for managing the budget deficit they agreed with, voters put the Coalition’s plans last. Just 22 per cent supported the Government’s attempt to deal with the deficit by the next election, compared to the 74 per cent who were evenly split between Labour’s proposal to reduce the deficit by half over the next five years.
Most political bloggers are motivated to fight what they see as bigotry, prejudice, and ill-informed, unjustifiable assertion. This is a fine and noble cause, because the spreading of false beliefs – without the evidence to support them – is bad for all of us, as is the displacement of informed argument by mere rhetoric. All the more so when the perpetrator is powerful or influential.
Last week saw the deadline pass for local authorities and businesses to produce proposals for new, local regeneration bodies to succeed the eight regional development agencies outside London, allegedly replacing the “top-down prescription approach taken previously”.
Nick Clegg’s proposals for 5-year fixed terms will put Britain at odds with most democratic countries. The proposals were not even Lib Dem policy.
Wars, like all violence, tend to pull us towards absolutes. We either win, as in the Second World War, or lose, as in Vietnam or with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The former soldier in me is easily ‘pulled’ into seeing the conflict in Afghanistan as a matter of absolutes, of simple ‘Cause, Effect and Solution’. But the analyst in me sees things differently.
Scottish Labour has launched a concerted effort to cap the amount of caffeine in some alcoholic drinks such as Buckfast wine.
The number of families living in poverty has grown by 200,000 in the past year. There are more children in poverty whose parents work than those who do not – highlighting that it is not just unemployment that causes poverty. New analysis reveals that in 2008/2009, there were 3.4 million families classed as “working poor”.
The Government’s axe looks like it will fall on the the frontline. It has been announced that there will be a reduction in the number of service men and women in order to save money, whilst continuing with massive defence procurement spending – drawing criticism from the Pentagon and the tabloid press alike.
One possible theory about the swing from David to Ed Miliband, reported in YouGov’s latest poll, is that the interventions of Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson may have done more to hinder than help the candidate that they were tryingtest
