The Conservative Party’s summary of the Autumn Statement is as follows. Backing business all the way: Local businesses will benefit from a cap on business rate rises and an extension of rate relief. The increase in business rates next year will be capped at 2 per cent – businesses were […]
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For City AM: It’s time to end the cruel delusion of cheap money and reckless spending
City A.M. asked me to comment in advance of the Autumn statement. I wrote: GEORGE Osborne will present his Autumn Statement to a country in the grip of a cruel economic delusion, perpetrated against the poor and the aspirational. Welfare states everywhere are spending chronically beyond their means while papering […]
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I won’t support Labour on fuel duty – or duck the issue of spending
Today, we’ll be debating an Opposition Day motion on fuel duty, which I want cut. It’s shocking that 60% of the pump price of petrol is tax. Nevertheless I won’t be supporting Labour. It’s one thing to be supported by Labour on a important constitutional point — Parliament’s control over […]
Read MoreAutumn Statement chart of the day: living beyond our means for years
Via the Autumn Statement, page 25, forecast Government receipts and expenditure through the Parliament as a percentage of GDP: See also this chart, showing how our national debt is forecast to increase as a consequence. The legacy this Government was handed remains a scandal.
Read MoreAutumn Statement chart of the day: tax and spending
The economic facts behind the Autumn Statement, in as far as they are known or forecast, are available in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook from the Office for Budget Responsibility. Table 4.7 provides forecast current receipts. Table 4.18 provides total managed expenditure. So, here’s a chart of current receipts (i.e. tax) […]
Read MoreAutumn statement chart of the day: public sector net debt
Via the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement (PDF), the revised trajectory of public sector net debt: City AM reported back in July on a poll that, asked whether the coalition would be keeping the national debt the same over the next four years, increasing it by £350bn or cutting it by £350bn. […]
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