In his Budget statement last week, George Osborne set an ambitious goal for October’s comprehensive spending review, namely an average 25 per cent reduction in spending across all Whitehall departments; in light of such stretching targets, are the arts being lined up as an easy hit?
George Osborne claims there’s a “trade-off” between cutting welfare spending and departmental budgets. It’s a false choice and reflects only his ideological masochism.
Assessments of the Budget’s fairness have ignored the impact of spending cuts. Including tax and spend, the poorest households are hit the hardest.
This story is jointly written by Will Straw and Tom Phillips George Osborne is fond of saying that, “We’re all in this together”. But after this week’s regressive Emergency Budget, Left Foot Forward can reveal that local spending cuts announcedtest
Conservatives increase in real terms funding for NHS will be far short of the increases under Labour and will struggle to keep pace with the pressures of medical technology and an ageing population.
The poor benighted Regional Development Agencies took yet another blow to the solar plexus in Tuesday’s budget. Buried away on page 31 of the Budget Report was a commitment to see them “abolished.”
Progressive Politics is dying, and unless Charlie Kennedy and Diane Abbott can pull a very surprised rabbit from a hat, not a single party shows any inclination in making this country a fair and decent place to live.
To cut income tax – a progressive tax – at the same time as increasing VAT – a regressive tax – is always going to hit the poorest hardest.
George Osborne repeatedly said that this was the “unavoidable Budget”. But the rise in VAT was only necessary to pay for a series of tax cuts elsewhere.
With swinging public sector spending cuts on his Budget radar, the Chancellor must be careful with regions like Northern Ireland that are heavily reliant on public expenditure…
