I’ve just voted in the general election. That’s possible as I have a standing postal vote. In Norfolk South West the choice was easy. Lib Dem was the only option to keep out yet another Tory. And that probably won’t succeed. Having said which, if Labour had been the progressive choice with best chance I
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Raise income tax by 6p in the pound, UK told | Business | The Guardian . According to the Guardian: Britain should raise income taxes by 6p in the pound to make bigger inroads into its huge deficit or risk being vulnerable to the next financial crisis, according to a leading thinktank that advises the
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Mervyn King warned that election victor will be out of power for a generation, claims economist | Business | The Guardian . Mervyn King is warning that the victor in next week’s election will be forced into austerity measures that will keep the party out of power for a generation, according to the US economist
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Nick Clegg espouses two ideas from this blog on the leader’s debate. The first is an extra 10% tax on banks. The second is to make sure this is paid irrespective of the losses they have incurred in the past. He’s right. And in contrast Cameron wants to reduce their tax rate. How can Cameron
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Listening to the leader’s debate. Cameron is really mad. Try the logic: 1) He’ll cut government spending. This will reduce the size of the state and public sector. 2) This will increase unemployment. 3) He will cut benefits and refuse it to people who won’t work 4) But he’s ensuring there will be no work
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Jersey Finance ‚Äòis good value’ ¬ª Business ¬ª This Is Jersey. As the Jersey Evening Post reports: JERSEY Finance has rejected criticism that it does not provide value for money. A States spending watchdog has criticised the body that received £1.8 million in taxpayers’ money last year to promote the Island’s finance industry. Hardly surprising
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More American Expatriates Give Up Citizenship – NYTimes.com. Fascinating report: Amid mounting frustration over taxation and banking problems, small but growing numbers of overseas Americans are taking the weighty step of renouncing their citizenship. You’d have thought this would mean this is a big issue to get such prominence. But then note it adds: The
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Yesterday, the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved S. 2971, Foreign Relations Authorization Act, which included policy language on extractive industry transparency that parallels part of S. 1700, the Energy Security Through Transparency Act.  The relevant text is below.  The bill will now be referred to the Senate floor for consideration. SEC. 408. SENSE
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As the FT reports this morning: “Two parliaments of pain” is the phrase used by the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies to describe what is in store for Britain in the years ahead. With the next government, of whichever stripe, needing to cut nearly £37bn a year from public expenditure by 2014 just to halve
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