Despite some headline-grabbing measures, last week’s Budget was another chapter in a series of spending decisions that once again highlight how Treasury officials, economists, and the politicians they advise rarely look at how their decisions pan out across the country.
Tory MP Michael Fallon has replaced John Hayes as energy minister.
Last week Fallon questioned whether “specific targets, for example on…climate change, are the best way of focusing our spending where it is most needed”.
Businesses and politicians across Northern Ireland have united in condemning David Cameron’s decision to delay an announcement on devolving powers over corporation tax to Stormont.
Britain has an immigration problem – but not of the sort generally supposed.
The facts show that immigrants are a net fiscal benefit rather than a cost, and that immigration is, except for a small negative effect at the bottom end, a net positive for wages (pdf) and for economic growth (pdf).
The problem is the public do not believe the evidence.
UK GDP fell by 0.3 per cent between the third and fourth quarters of 2012, according to the latest quarterly national accounts from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Larry Summers nails austerity on Newsnight
Despite bits and pieces to encourage provision of a few more affordable homes within the social sector, the big housing news from last week’s budget was that the government is seeking to expand home ownership again after a decline in the number and proportion of homeowners since 2005.
Of all the decisions the chancellor has made, the one he may be regret the most is making the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) independent.
The below graph shows the trajectory of the US and UK economies under both George Bush and Barack Obama and Gordon Brown and David Cameron respectively.
It pretty much speaks for itself.
Just under three quarters of voters do not believe the prime minister and chancellor appreciate the rising cost of living, according to a poll conducted by Survation for Progressive Polling.
