David Cameron has been praising the Latvian tax system, calling it ‘attractive-sounding’ during a speech at the Northern Future Forum Conference in Riga. But one study by the IFS, looking at four plausible and revenue neutral flat tax scenarios, found two main reasons why flat taxes might not be as attractive as they sound.
A poll conduced at the end of February by Ipsos-MORI for The Economist shows that the economy continues to be the public’s most pressing concern. This is potentially a double-edged sword for Labour. The public still blame Labour, rather than the banks for the deficit. Moving beyond that will be easier said than done.
Home energy prices went up sharply in late 2012. If the energy companies want us to trust them, they shouldn’t be telling one story to their investors and a completely different one to their customers.
New figures from the ONS show that a quarter of workers earned less than £12,800 a year in 2012. James Plunkett of the Resolution Foundation has written an interesting piece for the Huffington Post, in which he argues that low pay is “fast becoming one of the defining economic challenges of our age”.
Business minister Michael Fallon MP this week blamed both the financial crisis and the deaths in Mid Staffordshire hospital on the “regulatory culture” of the Labour years. However deregulation risks babies and bathwater territory. What we need is better and more effective regulatory systems so that failures cannot be ignored again and stakeholders are protected.
Today’s figures from the ONS confirm that GDP fell by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2012. Whilst the upward revision is obviously good news, there is no disguising the fact that these are disastrous figures.
The Financial Times has this morning produced a blinding set of graphs which highlight how fiscal austerity has negatively impacted on the GDP of various European economies.
Iceland is a good example of the fallibility of the rating agencies. During Iceland’s financial crisis, no one – and least of all the rating agencies – seemed to wonder why three banks from a tiny island with no history of banking could out-earn foreign banks despite borrowing at a relatively high cost.
The Welsh Conservatives are aping their colleagues in Westminster by calling for tax cuts for the very highest earners at a time when living standards are falling for the majority.
Sterling has been in apparent freefall of late, as currency traders have looked at the UK economy with increasing pessimism. Left Foot Forward explains what a falling pound means for the UK.
