What Cameron really meant at the last election: Thanks to False Economy for that one!

Fascinating commentary in the Office for Budget Responsibility Autumn Statement report on the UK- Switzerland tax deal. They say (page 118): The UK-Switzerland tax deal announced on 24 August … is not included in the central projection as it is subject to ratification by the Swiss Parliament and a possible referendum. HMRC and Ministers have stated that the
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Today is a day of national strikes by public sector employees over their pension rights. The average public sector pensioner gets a pension of £5,600 (median). The average pension of a woman who worked for local authority is £2,600 pa Basic old age pension is £102 a week or £5,300. Pension poverty is defined as having less than £178 a
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That’s what Polly Toynbee says today: Class war, generation war, war against women, war between the regions: George Osborne’s autumn statement blatantly declares itself for the few against the many. Gloves are off and gauntlets down, and the nasty party bares its teeth. Here is the re-toxified Tory party, the final curtain on David Cameron’s electoral
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Eva Joly is an amazing woman who I am proud to call a friend. As a result of her work in Iceland after its catastrophic crash in 2008 an institute has been established to develop the ideas of which she is such a powerful proponent. I am pleased to be on the Institute’s Advisory Board
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I feel a comment on yesterday’s fiasco from Osborne is essential, and yet wonder what there is to add. His plan is failing and what can I say but “I told you so”? The reality as as Robert Skidelsky has said in the Guardian this morning: The intellectual debate between George Osborne and his critics hinges on this single
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It’s a day when people are going to try to claim a vision for small business. According to the Guardian Osborne has a vision for small business. He’s going to: 1) Give small companies an extended  holiday on business rates extended  at an estimated cost to the Treasury of £210m. 2) Unveil a seed enterprise investment scheme
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George Osborne has said since before coming into office that beating the deficit and curtailing debt is vital. Today he will admit he’s going to fail to do that in this parliament. He’ll say he’ll overshoot by £30 billion. Others by much more. Since all Osborne’s forecasts so far have been far too optimistic I’ll
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John Harris, writing in the Guardian, has reviewed George Osborne’s infrastructure plan for the UK and found it wanting. He did find an alternative. As he wrote: This week I spoke to Richard Murphy, the economist and tax expert, whose new book has the self-explanatory title The Courageous State and brims with imaginative thinking. Using pension funds
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