George Osborne

Nearly 50,000 hits for Clegg-Osborne “liar liar” video

Nearly 50,000 people have viewed a music video against the coalition’s cuts, which features a montage of Nick Clegg, George Osborne and David Cameron droning on about us “all being in this together”, and even a star-turn from Mr Clegg’s (alleged) political inspiration – Mrs Thatcher.

High inflation puts on Plan B on hold – is there a Plan C?

George Osborne has announced the biggest tightening of fiscal policy over a four-year period since World War II, to be achieved mainly through cuts in public spending. He believes that it will lead to lower long-term interest rates and, by increasing certainty about future levels of taxes, boost consumer and business confidence.

Now the coalition wants to cut its meagre bank levy

So much remains in doubt on bonuses. But what we know for sure is that the Treasury’s entire bank levy revenue estimates between 2011-2014 were made when bonus payments were anticipated to be higher than they had been in 2008. And the idea that the banks should be offered another sop when they should be paying for the mess they created simply demonstrates where this conservative coalition’s priorities lie.

Osborne’s banking levy falls short of IMF benchmark

George Osborne’s planned financial services levy is a lamentable failure according to international benchmarks. The IMF has called for any banking tax in Britain to be set at £6 billion. Last week, Left Foot Forward highlighted the socially regressive nature of the £2.5bn tax which will mean banks contributing 50 per cent less than families (child benefit and tax credit cuts) to the government’s fiscal consolidation programme.

IFS: Tax and benefit changes are regressive

Today the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that the Government’s plan for fiscal consolidation is regressive, and will hit the poorest disproportionately hard, once cuts to welfare are fully taken into account.