Some commentators think that the rich will mainly accept the PBR’s higher tax rates, but it hasn’t stopped all the usual arguments coming out of the woodwork.
Filed under: Financial crisis, Inequality, Liveblogging the PBR, Tax | No Comments »
The onslaught on the PBR has started.
The Conservatives clearly think that they have found their range on the PBR and have a spring in their collective step after some difficult weeks.
Filed under: Liveblogging the PBR, Tax | No Comments »
Much political journalism these days seems to be written by people who would rather be sports reporters. Who’s in the team, who’s heading for relegation or who had a good game are more frequently written about than the policy or ideological issues that are at stake.
Filed under: Liveblogging the PBR, Politics | No Comments »
This isn’t a green new deal, but the Chancellor has dealt a few green cards. £535 million in new investment plus money brought forward for environmental projects is likely to be jobs-rich - in homes insulation and central heating packages, train making and flood defences.
This includes: Read more »
Filed under: Energy, Environment, Liveblogging the PBR | No Comments »
In the highly technical world of fiscal stimulus analysis, we often have to pay due regard to the ‘oomph quotient’: a precise measure of how stimulating any package is. The US stimulus package announced earlier this year was very oomph worthy. As I wrote on this blog some time ago, the US Government sent £85 billion worth of tax rebate cheques to 130 million taxpayers. Those cheques were worth on average £650. That initiative bought the US a quarter of unexpectedly high growth. Read more »
Filed under: Employment, Financial crisis, Liveblogging the PBR, Macro-economic policy, Pensions, Recession, Tax | 1 Comment »
Nick Robinson reports the effect of the planned tax rises for the top one per cent.
Filed under: Liveblogging the PBR, Tax | No Comments »
Last month 10,000 people came to the End Child Poverty rally in Trafalgar square to urge the government to keep the promise to halve child poverty by 2010; the key measure we were demanding was an extra £3 billion in tax credits and benefits for children. Did today’s pre-budget report move us closer to this goal?
Filed under: Child poverty, Employment, Inequality, Liveblogging the PBR, Recession, Tax, Welfare | 1 Comment »
This is our detailed press reaction to the PBR:
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
“The Chancellor was right to inject this extra money into the economy. We welcome the significant extra cash that he has put into the pockets of low and medium paid workers, and the extra help for pensioners. The new Ofgem probe into energy prices has the potential to reduce fuel bills if pursued with vigour.
Filed under: Liveblogging the PBR | No Comments »
The use of this year’s Pre Budget Report (PBR) to bring foward Government spending on large infrastructure projects was trailed so long ago that it feels like old news. Nevertheless, today saw details of those projects announced by the Chancellor.
Filed under: Employment, Environment, Liveblogging the PBR, Macro-economic policy, Recession | 1 Comment »
The Chancellor was right to inject this extra money into the economy. He has changed the political debate by breaking the taboo that the super-rich should never pay more tax.
He did about as much today as he could to boost the economy but we will need further interest rate cuts and action to get credit flowing to effectively bear down on the recession.
Filed under: Liveblogging the PBR | No Comments »
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