The problem with politics is it’s complicated. Take the issue raised this week by Sir Andrew Green in his ConervativeHome article on immigration. In making his argument about reducing immigration, Green carelessly glossed over some staggeringly complex arguments about what the current and future shape of the UK economy should be.
Fast-growing small businesses are the latest group to speak out against the immigration cap, saying the restrictions on hiring non-EU migrants are forcing them to turn away work because they are unable to hire the right people. The news follows twin criticisms of the cap last week from the prime minister’s election speechwriter and the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee.
The British right praised Irish policy before the recession, during the recession and continue to praise it now. They have been consistently wrong.
If Ireland tightens fiscal policy to reduce the deficit, output growth will be even weaker in the short-term, pushing the deficit back up again. And if it cuts taxes or increases spending to boost economic activity, the deficit will also increase. It is damned if it acts, and damned if it doesn’t. Unfortunately, the only way out may be recourse to the IMF.
The UK economy grew by 0.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2010, twice as fast as expected by City economists. As in the second quarter, growth was boosted by a large increase in the output of the construction sector, but manufacturing output also increased strongly and there were solid increases in output across the service sector. Growth in the last three quarters has averaged an annual rate of 3.2 per cent.
Figures released today by the Bank of England suggest households’ demand for borrowing remained weak in September. Net lending secured on dwellings (i.e. mortgage borrowing) increased by only £0.1 billion in the month and was just 0.8 per cent higher than in September 2009.
This afternoon the government confirmed the first trickle of successful Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), the bodies designed to replace the eight regional development agencies in England.
The UK economy grew far more rapidly than expected in the third quarter. Real GDP (the total output of the economy) increased by 0.8 per cent and was 2.9 per cent higher than in the third quarter of 2009, according to figures released today by the Office for National Statistics. Economists had expected an increase of just 0.4 per cent.
The latest YouGov poll, commissioned by The Sun newspaper, paints a mixed picture of how the cuts have been received by voters – however the poll data does not represent a conclusive endorsement of the Coalition Government’s, which The Sun would have you believe.
Alan Johnson yesterday set out plans for taxes on banks & banking which he says will raise £7.5bn by the end of the Parliament, but what should he spend it on?
