Green Politics
VAT increase to 20% would be “intently regressive”
Conservative plans to increase VAT to 20%, which have not been ruled out by their HQ, would be "intently regressive." It would mean that the poorest fifth of the population would spend a total of 13.8% of their disposable income on VAT, up 1.7 percentage points. This is more than double what the richest fifth would pay.
Osborne City plan links to Tory backers revealed
George Osborne’s widely-trailed plans to abolish the Financial Services Authority, unveiled yesterday, appear to pose more questions than they answer. […]
Cameron’s quango plans unlikely to result in any cost savings
David Cameron's speech today was billed as a "bonfire of the quangos." But Cameron's poor examples of which quangos would be reformed and the list of new quangos that he hopes to create suggest that little cost savings will result from the plans.