Labour leadership's reaction to the Budget 2011

I have to say I think Ed Miliband has been quite impressive in his response. His soundbites are good, setting out the difference between Labour's policies and Tory actions, then linking them to the lack of growth is, i think, very well done.

I haven't so far been able to find a video of more than 2 minutes, but i've just come across the "Del Boy economics" soundbite which is pathetic.

I would like to hear Ed Balls more on this, he's out Treasury spokesman afterall.

On the actual Budget, I'm not mad keen. It is, again, very much a philosophical Tory budget: tax cuts, deregulation. Corporation tax cut, but not national insurance. not enough measures to help working people, a bit of populist fluff at the richer, esp bankers and oil companies. some tax rises, as stealthy as can be with index changes and personal allowances and that.

get people into work, grow the economy. that's what it's all about

Does the government need a 'Plan B'?‏

A lot of this is clearly speculative, but I did tell (everyone) so.
Taking demand out of the economy has seen a slowing of the economy. The stimulus package kept the economy going reasonably but the cuts have begun to hit it, and hard. Another problem is confidence as if people think there will be a recession then it is far more likely to happen.
Aside from my gloating, there are some pretty serious issues here. I feel the economic problems with my inability to get a decent job or even security in the shitty one I have.
The political bits of this really are not as important to me as the effects on my life and prospects, but this would be hugely damaging to both coalition parties if the economy tanks. If that's the case Labour will have an open goal for 5/10 years. And given Ed miliband's performances I think we might need it. Ed Balls is a heavy weight so might add something there but has the potential to fuck everything up and piss everyone off.
What matters to me is my job and lively hood, my prospects in the short, medium and long term. The inside of the Westminster bubble does not greatly concern me at the moment

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/02/does_the_govern.html

George Osborne - UK will help Ireland through debt crisis

* Osborne visiting Ireland in 2006:

"A generation ago, the very idea that a British politician would go to Ireland to see how to run an economy would have been laughable... Today things are different. Ireland stands as a shining example of the art of the possible in long-term economic policymaking, and that is why I am in Dublin: to listen and to learn.
In Britain, the Left have us stuck debating a false choice. They suggest you have to choose between lower taxes and public services. Yet in Ireland they have doubled spending on public services in the past decade while reducing taxes and shrinking the State's share of national income."
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/11/george-osborne-ireland-shining-example/


ozzy is lucky that most people don't know that he was praising Ireland a few years back, because he got that very, very wrong.
the thing is, this is no academic excercise. there are lots of people out of work, and i'm in a shit job well below what i'm capable of so i hope the economy picks up. it's just that, sadly, i don't think it will. taking demand out of the economy at a time like this goes against what i believe to be the best way forward, so i'm not hopeful

Johann Hari: A colder, crueller country - for no gain - Johann Hari

These attitudes have real consequences. We're not in this together. Who isn't in it with us? Them, their friends, and their families. They were asked to pay nothing more in this CSR. On the contrary: they are being let off left, right and centre. To pluck a random example, one of the richest corporations in Britain, Vodafone, had an outstanding tax bill of £6bn - but Osborne simply cancelled it this year. If he had made them pay, he could have prevented nearly all the cuts to all the welfare recipients in Britain. You try refusing to pay your taxes next time, and see if George Osborne shows the same generosity to you as he does to the super-rich.

There is one stark symbol of how unjust the response to this economic disaster caused by bankers is. They have just paid themselves £7bn in bonuses - much of it our money - to reward themselves for failure. That's the same sum Osborne took from the benefits of the British poor yesterday, who did nothing to cause this crash. And he has the chutzpah to brag about "fairness."


If true that really is shocking.
While some will argue that Vodaphone, for example, will contribute jobs (and we need plenty of those given Ozzy's Axe), they must pay their bill. That £6million could have saved massive welfare payments. I think it's important to get people into work so I would cut national insurance and get the money from income tax.
As for bankers bonuses, it's beyond obscene.

George Osborne is skating on thin ice

What Osborne and his fellow toilers in the coalition can be sure of is abuse from ungrateful voters who are too busy watching reality shows on TV, defrauding insurance companies (can 40% of all claims really be fake?) or making their bodies a drain on the NHS, not least by devouring crisps, Coke and fags - as one friend put it after visiting a northern maternity unit at the weekend.

interesting Mr White

Alan Johnson's first time facing George Osborne in the commons as Shadow Chancellor

Alan Johnson: Osborne says the deficit was
wrong and his emergency budget measures were unavoidable. Actually I
believe it was the other way round.

i like that a lot

George Osborne: good cop and bad cop in one

as a socialist, i find myself in the odd position of agreeing with the boy george on these.
i don't think people should earn more on benefits than in work. but not everyone on benefits made a "lifestyle choice" to be so. I was put out of work by the boy george's very first cuts after the election and, try as i might, the private sector has not ridden to my aid on its shiny white horse. too little experience for my target job, "overqualified" to take just anything. but yeah, work should pay more than not working.
also, the poor should not subsidise the rich, the rich should help out the poor and needy. it's just a shame that the boy george's policies are not laying a finger on the rich while making plenty poorer

my worst time of year

i hate having to sit through Tory conference at the best of times, but with these smug hypocritical bastards In Government (!, looking at you Clegg) they are unbearable. Quote of the day: "Conservative party traditionalists tell the chancellor his benefit cut for high earners could discourage marriage and hit middle-class single mothers". Now i thought they were against single mothers, but apparently it's only poor ones. Middle class single mothers are to be defended. Hypocrites

today's benefit reforms

i agree that people should be better off in work than on benefits.
however, AxeMan Osborne does not give me any confidence he will do anything other than attack the poor and vulnerable.
anyone who thinks his measures are not ideological are mental. they must be pretty grateful for the Lib Dems to take much of the fire for them from both sides.

ideally, wages should be of a level that means people are decently off in work, but there's in work poverty as well as benefit affluence.


Update: "A government source has just told Nick Robinson that the chancellor's benefits cap is more a "symbol" than a policy whose implications have been fully worked out and will produce real savings. "
oh there's a surprise

you don't know what you're doing!

George Osborne and Guido Fawkes on how great and safe Irish banks and economy are. Much better than those evil Labour people's.
As factually accurate as usual

the economy

from reading Larry Elliot and others it seems there is a real and significant risk of the world economy folding like a crap chair. one that's made of paper, in the rain.
a double dip is a worry, and what with the looming cuts too, it looks like Keynesianism is our best bet.
but our chancellor, Clueless George, has other ideas.

"Osborne's belief is that hacking away at public spending will create space for the private sector to flourish. Britain will cease to be so dependent on consumer spending and the state for its growth; instead, resources will shift to manufacturing and exports, thus reducing both household debt and the size of the UK's current account deficit.

Such an outcome is much to be desired but, as today's trade figures show, it remains a long way off. Far from benefiting from the 20% drop in sterling over the past three years, the trade gap in the three months to July was the worst on record. Only the efforts of the City, which boosted the UK's surplus in service sector trade, prevented an even worse outcome. Not much sign of rebalancing there."

i personally think his belief in crowding out is based more on ideological conviction than any fact. the private sector is weak, confidence is fragile. like a 16 year old virgin boy with acne trying to chat up a girl. that fragile. so pulling masses of money out of the economy in order to go on an ideological crusade is madness, utter madness. the deficit is too big, and that is Labour's fault. but ranting at the past won't solve the present, and making things worse is a hell of a risk in the hope of a better future, to say nothing of the consequenes (see Mr G. Howe in the 1980s)

brilliant picture

cuts

"George Osborne: Ministries face cuts of over 20%

Welfare, tax credits and pensions among areas to be included in fundamental spending review, warns chancellor"

having been made unemployed as a direct result of the new government's actions, i won't be too impressed if they then come along and cut my dole too. if they then do the thing of blaming me for being unemployed, i will be distinctly unimpressed with the tory government

BBC News - Chancellor George Osborne promises business tax reform‏

So far we've had employers being excused from a National Insurance rise which will be played by employees and a corporation tax rise.
To be fair, they have (or at least proposed to) raise capital gains tax so that it's in line with income tax, which I agree with.

""Our aim is to create the most competitive corporate tax regime in the G20, while protecting manufacturing industries"."
'most competitive' means lowest

BBC - Peston's Picks: Will Osborne cut and simplify corporation tax?‏

"It's true therefore that a policy of reducing the various business tax allowances would have the effect of pushing up the tax burden on the kind of companies that make and export things deemed vital to the UK's economic future, even if the headline rate of tax were reduced - whereas the tax burden on banks would tend to be reduced in these circumstances."

It does seem mad that once again the Tories have pursued a headline when the devil in the detail means they would actually be doing the opposite of what they're claiming they want to do.
But then I don't think they ever said they wanted to improve the lot of manufacturers at the cost of the banks, but I may be wrong

George Osborne: Tories can cut deficit without increasing VAT - Telegraph‏

It took some fair digging, but I finally found Ozzy making an arse out of his figures. By praising Labour's handling of the economy when he meant to condemn it, he should have opened himself up to some scrutiny. Luckily for him, Gordy's called the election so his mind-bending mathematics hasn't seen too much light.
That bloke is a real liability and should be reason enough for anyone to vote Labour in the election, though there are plenty more reasons.

'George Osborne's tax cut is a gimmick and a sad joke' - mirror.co.uk‏

I have to say I was surprised to find Danny Blanchflower writing in the mirror.
I was also pretty surprised to see him write :'George Osborne's tax cut is a gimmick and a sad joke' - By David Blanchflower".
Can't say I disagree

BBC - Nick Robinson's New slog: A political three-card trick‏

Very interesting. Sounds like a trick indeed. One that the Tories have been trying to pull for years, and probably something every opposition does.
Talk of 'efficiency savings' is largely waft, and Ozzy's turn around is quite remarkable. Last week he denounced the savings as fiction, this week he's based his budget on them. That's one hell of a difference in a week.
And the reason is that the words are very politically alluring to voters. Want the services you get now but with tax cuts too? Vote for us and we'll give you the same service as lower cost.
If only it was as easy as all that.
Sure, there are areas where less money could be spend with negligible damage to services, but these are largely fantasies drawn up by politicians around elections to fund their impossible promises.
I preferred his narrative from the last conference: 'it's all shit and we're all fucked' is a lot more honest

Alistair Darling turns hard man but Vince Cable gets all the laughs | Larry Elliott | Comment is free | The Guardian‏

Key:
"Osborne went for the populist approach. Voters knew from their own experience that the "sooner you deal with a debt problem, the better", the shadow chancellor said. "We need to cut wasteful government spending instead of increasing national insurance taxes on hardworking people," he added. That may go down well on the doorsteps in the coming weeks, but it is economic nonsense. If the government cuts spending when households are tightening their belts, it simply leads to lower demand and a longer, deeper recession, as Darling, in one of his better interventions, pointed out."

"If the government cuts spending when households are tightening their belts, it simply leads to lower demand and a longer, deeper recession, as Darling, in one of his better interventions, pointed out.""
Exactly. It's so important and we can't get away from that

George Osborne defends tax gamble as prospective chancellors clash live | Politics | The Guardian‏

"The IFS said: "By cutting spending next year and delivering the tax cut a year later, the Conservative proposal would take additional spending power out of the economy for a year at a time when the recovery is likely to be at its most fragile.""
And again. And Ozzy was going on about how great the IFS was yesterday. bed made, lie (in both senses) in it