Ben Brogan, reporting comments by Conservative MP and former George Osborne advisor Matthew Hancock, has argued that the Coalition’s fiscal policies have lowered interest rates; here we show he is wrong.
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.
The Irish economy, so beloved of the British Right, is in dire straits compared to our own, with unemployment at 12.5pc, GDP down 7.4pc and deflation at -6.6pc.
On his blog, Daniel Hannan preempted the pre-Budget report with a recipe for economic disaster. He urges the UK to adopt Ireland’s catastrophic policy.
The detailed breakdown of the third-quarter GDP figures provide more encouragement for the economy, a recovery which could be endangered by the Tories’ policies
Business investment fell by 21.7% year-on-year in Q3. The falls are widespread. But Conservative plans would create a worse climate for business investment
Neil O’Brien, of Policy Exchange, has written an article for ConservativeHome on the current deficit situation. Not only is it factually incorrect, its prescriptions are downright dangerous. O’Brien argues that: “The interest on all this debt will not be cheap.test
Fraser Nelson claimed that the possibility of a Tory Government is all that is preventing the UK losing its AAA credit rating. An FT interview proves him wrong.
The Conservative party yesterday announced a series of measures aimed at increasing employment. They included a new work-pairing scheme, announced by Lord Freud – the Tory’s frontbench welfare spokesman, to match 100,000 teenagers with sole traders and provide them withtest
David Cameron and George Osborne argue that the national debt is the biggest threat to Britain’s prosperity. By focusing on government spending they are ignoring the implications of the fall in investment. The ONS reported today that: “Business investment fortest
