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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
Showing posts with label the budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the budget. Show all posts
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Thursday, 25 March 2010
BBC News - Darling makes pre-election pitch in 'holding' Budget
"Recent polling suggests voters are squeamish about the prospect of cuts to government spending even if they are also worried about the scale of public debt."
Potentially a huge problem and something that gives politicians free reign to take people for fools, because people/the public are being fools.
"The measure to exempt first time buyers from stamp duty on properties priced below 250,000 in the next two years was well trailed.
In other words, this would be a tax cut for some - though the policy was first suggested by the Conservatives in 2007.
But what had not been trailed before the Chancellor's speech was that, to pay for this, stamp duty would rise on properties worth a million pounds or more.
This appears to be at least as much a political as an economic decision, designed to portray Labour as a party that can deliver 'fairness' even when the purse strings are being tightened.
If the Tories were to reverse this, they would of course be denounced as party favouring the privileged rather than the wider population. "
Rather than just party positioning I think this is proper ideology, but one that the party leadership have been scared of getting into. I personally support it and the principle behind it.
But it's ok, because when times are tough Cameron and Clegg have some handy sound bite to get themselves on the news. The pair of them are pathetic and make Gordy look a million dollars
Potentially a huge problem and something that gives politicians free reign to take people for fools, because people/the public are being fools.
"The measure to exempt first time buyers from stamp duty on properties priced below 250,000 in the next two years was well trailed.
In other words, this would be a tax cut for some - though the policy was first suggested by the Conservatives in 2007.
But what had not been trailed before the Chancellor's speech was that, to pay for this, stamp duty would rise on properties worth a million pounds or more.
This appears to be at least as much a political as an economic decision, designed to portray Labour as a party that can deliver 'fairness' even when the purse strings are being tightened.
If the Tories were to reverse this, they would of course be denounced as party favouring the privileged rather than the wider population. "
Rather than just party positioning I think this is proper ideology, but one that the party leadership have been scared of getting into. I personally support it and the principle behind it.
But it's ok, because when times are tough Cameron and Clegg have some handy sound bite to get themselves on the news. The pair of them are pathetic and make Gordy look a million dollars
Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Labour's revenge on Britain's hard workers
""A budget of envy and spite", is the Daily Express verdict which accuses the government of unleashing a savage new tax onslaught against Middle Britain. "
wankers
wankers
BBC News - Budget analysis dominates news pages
From the coverage reported here it's safe to say Darling has taken a proper battering today from the silly papers, while I bought the FT to get a more economic view which is cautiously supportive but would like some detail on how they're going to fix the mess the country is in. I think they, like me, are frustrated by the party politics dominating, while the silly papers have embraced cheap party politics wholeheartedly
BBC News - George Osborne: 'It was an empty budget'
That Ozzy is a pikey little cunt.
I'm not looking forward to him being a chancellor. If all the world's problems could be solved by empty sound bites and silly party politics Cameron and his mate Ozzy would sort us right out, but they can't and I'm waiting for something to actually back them up.
Summer Recession 2010 here we come
I'm not looking forward to him being a chancellor. If all the world's problems could be solved by empty sound bites and silly party politics Cameron and his mate Ozzy would sort us right out, but they can't and I'm waiting for something to actually back them up.
Summer Recession 2010 here we come
BBC News - Vince Cable: 'Chancellor said very little'
Vinny is right in that neither party has been honest about the cuts that are coming.
Cameron is trying to make a virtue of honesty but got scared of that strategy and is now only going on about how he won't cut this, and won't cut that.
Ozzy actually did the decent thing for the first time in his life when he made that bleak speech at the conference about how we're all fucked and all that, but I guess that didn't go down too well in the focus groups and so they retreated from that at a rate of knots.
Not that the Libs are doing anything more than muddling along, with that idiot Clegg trying to be all things to all people, saying taxes will be cut and services won't but that services won't get cut but taxes will and that there's plenty of money for this and they're being totally honest and up front guvnor.
Sad that the great profession of politics is reduced to this, but a country gets the politicians it deserves
Cameron is trying to make a virtue of honesty but got scared of that strategy and is now only going on about how he won't cut this, and won't cut that.
Ozzy actually did the decent thing for the first time in his life when he made that bleak speech at the conference about how we're all fucked and all that, but I guess that didn't go down too well in the focus groups and so they retreated from that at a rate of knots.
Not that the Libs are doing anything more than muddling along, with that idiot Clegg trying to be all things to all people, saying taxes will be cut and services won't but that services won't get cut but taxes will and that there's plenty of money for this and they're being totally honest and up front guvnor.
Sad that the great profession of politics is reduced to this, but a country gets the politicians it deserves
BBC News - Angry cider drinkers launch Downing Street petition
Why not tax the things that cause people to fight and do silly things more? Stella being a prime example. Higher taxes on stella and less on german import or style beers. Is that too closely tailored to my own preferences? Maybe, but only coz I'm right
Budget 2010: Cost of management consultants and PR experts to be cut by 50% | Society | The Guardian
A very interesting subject. Not surprisingly, the management consultant is defending his profession.
In all I'd say the cuts will be worthwhile if I get in on some of that, but it would prove not worth while as they'd have a numpty like me doing the work. That's the paradox.
It does seem a lot to spend on them though
In all I'd say the cuts will be worthwhile if I get in on some of that, but it would prove not worth while as they'd have a numpty like me doing the work. That's the paradox.
It does seem a lot to spend on them though
Budget 2010: How state spending will be cut | Society | guardian.co.uk
All sounds lovely when put like it is at the start, but it can be bloody hard to deliver the front line if the 'back office' isn't there. It's abit like having 3 strikers but no keeper.
But the thing is that it sounds good, and that's politics
But the thing is that it sounds good, and that's politics
Budget 2010 truth check | UK news | guardian.co.uk
Much more of politics should be subject to these sorts of checks.
Darling comes out of it much better than Cameron
Darling comes out of it much better than Cameron
Budget 2010: From Robin Hood to Alistair in Wonderland | Michael White | Politics | guardian.co.uk
Michael white does some cracking work here, made my laugh with his line about the Telegraph.
Now, Darling's growth forecasts are coming under some criticism, but they have done a lot since he's been chancellor and, other than the one time he agreed to do as Gordy told him, he's been largely right. He said the economy would be back to a low level of shaky growth by now. So let's not write him off too quickly.
"The Guardian's Larry Elliott, who wrote a book about the candy-floss financial economy long before the crash, is cross that Labour over-emphasised the City at the expense of manufacturing - he wrote about Birmingham's dwindling clout yesterday - but is glad that this error is now being addressed."
That's a very important thing too - could be key to Labour's future.
"did he [Peter Mandelson] learn to understand interventionist economic strategies watching EU governments close up, I wonder?"
Indeed. Let's hope he's properly seen the light.
"Where most weighty commentary agrees to be disappointed - Financial Times and Times included - is in the chancellor's failure to spell out more convincingly where he is going to cut excess public spending if he is re-elected. It's not good enough to say the NHS will save £400m by tackling staff sickness rates, admirable though that ambition is."
Agreed. All politicians are scared shitless of saying what people don't want to hear. And with some reason. The recent poll showing that a majority of people were against tax rises, spending cuts and a high deficit all at the same time shows how fickle people can be. But maybe the politicians should be brave. We can hope.
"But Anatole Kaletsky of the Times, who is always worth reading, writes that all three main parties were feeble on the key point yesterday - Darling, Cameron and Clegg - but that Darling was least bad. He had a credible vision for encouraging resumed growth - the key to everything, much more so than those cuts that obsess the Tories and their tax-exile media allies"
Very interesting, and I'm inclined to agree (see another post on that)
Now, Darling's growth forecasts are coming under some criticism, but they have done a lot since he's been chancellor and, other than the one time he agreed to do as Gordy told him, he's been largely right. He said the economy would be back to a low level of shaky growth by now. So let's not write him off too quickly.
"The Guardian's Larry Elliott, who wrote a book about the candy-floss financial economy long before the crash, is cross that Labour over-emphasised the City at the expense of manufacturing - he wrote about Birmingham's dwindling clout yesterday - but is glad that this error is now being addressed."
That's a very important thing too - could be key to Labour's future.
"did he [Peter Mandelson] learn to understand interventionist economic strategies watching EU governments close up, I wonder?"
Indeed. Let's hope he's properly seen the light.
"Where most weighty commentary agrees to be disappointed - Financial Times and Times included - is in the chancellor's failure to spell out more convincingly where he is going to cut excess public spending if he is re-elected. It's not good enough to say the NHS will save £400m by tackling staff sickness rates, admirable though that ambition is."
Agreed. All politicians are scared shitless of saying what people don't want to hear. And with some reason. The recent poll showing that a majority of people were against tax rises, spending cuts and a high deficit all at the same time shows how fickle people can be. But maybe the politicians should be brave. We can hope.
"But Anatole Kaletsky of the Times, who is always worth reading, writes that all three main parties were feeble on the key point yesterday - Darling, Cameron and Clegg - but that Darling was least bad. He had a credible vision for encouraging resumed growth - the key to everything, much more so than those cuts that obsess the Tories and their tax-exile media allies"
Very interesting, and I'm inclined to agree (see another post on that)
Budget 2010: Darling finally gets the picture - even if it may turn out to be wrong - Times Online
"The Tory and Lib Dem leaders, by contrast, raged furiously against a host of invisible demons supposedly invoked by Gordon Brown - national bankruptcy, elitism, relegation in imaginary football leagues. Six weeks before an election whose outcome may well be a Conservative-Lib Dem pact, the lack of economic judgment displayed by both of the opposition leaders was worrying."
From the Times no less. And I agree. Very odd.
"Growth is by far the most important determinant of all fiscal planning and the Budget's assumptions, contrary to the Tory and Lib Dem complaints, were actually quite modest. "Having given us the lowest decade for growth since World War Two, Labour are now forecasting the highest," jeered Mr Cameron. But that is exactly what any sensible Chancellor in the present circumstances should do.
Historical experience and economic theory both suggest that the deepest recessions are followed by the strongest recoveries. When the economy starts an expansion phase with enormous amounts of excess capacity and under-utilised labour, as it does today, then very rapid growth is compatible with low inflation."
But Cameron does so love a sound bite, in large part because he prefers to avoid substance for fear of alienating anyone.
"In principle, therefore, the Treasury's decision to base its fiscal forecasts on an assumption of 3 per cent growth next year and 3.25 per cent in the three years thereafter is actually quite conservative." And Darling has been proved right before in the face of much criticism.
"In the four years after the last two recessions, growth averaged 3.4 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively. And if the growth predicted by the Treasury materialises, then the planned reduction in government borrowing, from 12 per cent of GDP this year to 4 per cent in 2014-15 should be achievable and the government debt-to-GDP ratio will stabilise at around 78 per cent, a perfectly reasonable level, leaving government finances in Britain slightly stronger than in Germany, France or America and much better than in Italy or Japan."
I'm very surprised this got by Murdoch, it's like reading Tribune.
"To respond to disappointingly low growth by raising taxes and slashing spending would be economically suicidal, setting Britain on the path to Greek-style debt deflation and almost certainly increasing the government deficit, as Mr Darling quite rightly warned. But Mr Cameron declared: "Every family knows that when your debts mount up you need to start paying them off or things only get worse." From a man quite likely to be the First Lord of the Treasury in two months' time, this pre-Keynesian economic illiteracy was troubling, even if intended only as political knockabout."
Soundbites again.
Speaking of Tribune,
I read an excellent analysis of the Irish approach to the economic fuck up by Michael Burke, formerly of Citigroup (or similar).
It's pointed out in numbers simple enough that I could broadly understand that cutting off a recovery is going to make things worse, and that you end up spending far more by trying to spend less.
The great significance of this is not only from an abstract academic point of view, but because that's what Ozzy is calling for and may do. If that's the case we're all fucked.
From the Times no less. And I agree. Very odd.
"Growth is by far the most important determinant of all fiscal planning and the Budget's assumptions, contrary to the Tory and Lib Dem complaints, were actually quite modest. "Having given us the lowest decade for growth since World War Two, Labour are now forecasting the highest," jeered Mr Cameron. But that is exactly what any sensible Chancellor in the present circumstances should do.
Historical experience and economic theory both suggest that the deepest recessions are followed by the strongest recoveries. When the economy starts an expansion phase with enormous amounts of excess capacity and under-utilised labour, as it does today, then very rapid growth is compatible with low inflation."
But Cameron does so love a sound bite, in large part because he prefers to avoid substance for fear of alienating anyone.
"In principle, therefore, the Treasury's decision to base its fiscal forecasts on an assumption of 3 per cent growth next year and 3.25 per cent in the three years thereafter is actually quite conservative." And Darling has been proved right before in the face of much criticism.
"In the four years after the last two recessions, growth averaged 3.4 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively. And if the growth predicted by the Treasury materialises, then the planned reduction in government borrowing, from 12 per cent of GDP this year to 4 per cent in 2014-15 should be achievable and the government debt-to-GDP ratio will stabilise at around 78 per cent, a perfectly reasonable level, leaving government finances in Britain slightly stronger than in Germany, France or America and much better than in Italy or Japan."
I'm very surprised this got by Murdoch, it's like reading Tribune.
"To respond to disappointingly low growth by raising taxes and slashing spending would be economically suicidal, setting Britain on the path to Greek-style debt deflation and almost certainly increasing the government deficit, as Mr Darling quite rightly warned. But Mr Cameron declared: "Every family knows that when your debts mount up you need to start paying them off or things only get worse." From a man quite likely to be the First Lord of the Treasury in two months' time, this pre-Keynesian economic illiteracy was troubling, even if intended only as political knockabout."
Soundbites again.
Speaking of Tribune,
I read an excellent analysis of the Irish approach to the economic fuck up by Michael Burke, formerly of Citigroup (or similar).
It's pointed out in numbers simple enough that I could broadly understand that cutting off a recovery is going to make things worse, and that you end up spending far more by trying to spend less.
The great significance of this is not only from an abstract academic point of view, but because that's what Ozzy is calling for and may do. If that's the case we're all fucked.
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
BBC News - Is Darling planning a 'sensible' Budget?
"It is hardly an inspirational, rallying cry on the eve of an election - "Let's be sensible.""
More's the pity.
"So instead Mr Darling will point to the better than expected borrowing figures, the gradual fall in unemployment and the first tentative signs of recovery - to argue that the government is slowly but surely turning the economy around."
All good. I'd like to see that put back into paying off the debts.
"but, with an election just weeks away, Mr Darling will be under massive pressure from the man next door to let his "Mr Sensible" mask slip just a little."
He should tell the man next door to fuck off. Gordy would probably be out of a job by now if he'd succeeded in replacing Darling with Balls.
"The temptation will be to use the money to win some decent headlines about helping the young unemployed or supporting business.
But there is a strand of thinking in Labour circles that it may be more politically astute to use the spare money to pay off more of the deficit. The thinking being that this would wrong-foot the Tories and undermine their claim that the government wasn't serious about dealing with the deficit."
I'll have some of that please.
More's the pity.
"So instead Mr Darling will point to the better than expected borrowing figures, the gradual fall in unemployment and the first tentative signs of recovery - to argue that the government is slowly but surely turning the economy around."
All good. I'd like to see that put back into paying off the debts.
"but, with an election just weeks away, Mr Darling will be under massive pressure from the man next door to let his "Mr Sensible" mask slip just a little."
He should tell the man next door to fuck off. Gordy would probably be out of a job by now if he'd succeeded in replacing Darling with Balls.
"The temptation will be to use the money to win some decent headlines about helping the young unemployed or supporting business.
But there is a strand of thinking in Labour circles that it may be more politically astute to use the spare money to pay off more of the deficit. The thinking being that this would wrong-foot the Tories and undermine their claim that the government wasn't serious about dealing with the deficit."
I'll have some of that please.
Budget 2010: What you would do if you were chancellor | UK news | guardian.co.uk
"Income tax up. National insurance up. VAT up. A freeze on state benefits. An extra year at work before the state pension kicks in. As a nation we don't tend to make a fuss, but if Alistair Darling listened to you lot there would be rioting in the streets."
Interesting piece this.
I'm inclined, largely, to agree. The worry is that tax rises and other measures outlined here could choke off demand in the economy and kill any recovery as surely as the Tory proposals to cut everything on that side.
Overall though, good thinking
Interesting piece this.
I'm inclined, largely, to agree. The worry is that tax rises and other measures outlined here could choke off demand in the economy and kill any recovery as surely as the Tory proposals to cut everything on that side.
Overall though, good thinking
Thursday, 18 March 2010
BBC News - Pre-election Budgets of the past
"1987 -NIGEL LAWSON, CONSERVATIVE
Nigel Lawson slashed 2% from the basic rate of income tax and froze a variety of excise duties in a buccaneering pre-election Budget, which saw him boast that the government had achieved the impossible - cutting taxes, cutting borrowing and raising public spending (although he froze child benefit in cash terms). It led to Labour accusations of a "bribe" Budget - and fuelled what turned out be an unsustainable economic boom - but it seemed to do the trick for the Conservatives at the ballot box.
GIVEAWAY RATING: Huge. The mother of all pre-election bonanzas
ELECTION EFFECT: Cemented Tory victory despite high unemployment "
Well worthy of note given that he's an advisor to Ozzy. And mental
Nigel Lawson slashed 2% from the basic rate of income tax and froze a variety of excise duties in a buccaneering pre-election Budget, which saw him boast that the government had achieved the impossible - cutting taxes, cutting borrowing and raising public spending (although he froze child benefit in cash terms). It led to Labour accusations of a "bribe" Budget - and fuelled what turned out be an unsustainable economic boom - but it seemed to do the trick for the Conservatives at the ballot box.
GIVEAWAY RATING: Huge. The mother of all pre-election bonanzas
ELECTION EFFECT: Cemented Tory victory despite high unemployment "
Well worthy of note given that he's an advisor to Ozzy. And mental
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