By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter The former Chief Secretary to the Treasury gets in early before the coming Liberal Democrat conference, writing in the Sun this morning under the headline "We must tackle our economy and mend our broken society." The piece has three main messages as his party prepares to gather in Birmingham. […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter The perfect world for childcare that doesn't exist. In the perfect world that doesn't exist, parents would have childcare choice. Mothers (and fathers) who want to stay at home to care for their children could do so while the other partner worked. Families who prefer to use informal childcare, […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter The Daily Telegraph reported this morning: "The Prime Minister has been warned that government plans to get people to reduce their bills through efficiency measures are likely to fail. Mr Cameron’s senior energy adviser pours scorn on claims by Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, that rises in gas and oil […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter We should stop fighting major wars outside the European theatre. The thrust of Bernard Jenkins's response last Friday to my article on defence the day before is that we must combat threats he doesn't name with budgets we haven't got. Since Bernard is an intelligent man, he knows that […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter The Economist magazine has put online an article from its print edition urging the government to drop High Speed Rail 2. Indeed – the Economist calls HS2 "The great train robbery" and introduces the article by saying: "High-speed rail lines rarely pay their way. Britain’s government should ditch its […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. Hardly a day passes without someone in the centre right press suggesting that we should cut the aid budget in order to reduce the deficit, cut taxes, increase police funding, protect the military from cuts, reduce train fares or save the BBC World Service. Here's a taste of what […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter I asked yesterday: which taxes should rise if other are to fall? But there is an alternative to hiking taxes still further – namely, for the Government to cut the deficit and meet the competitive challenge of Asia by renewing its drive to reduce the growth of spending. So […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter The debate about replacing the 50p income tax rate with a new mansion tax was bubbling away when I went to France a week ago, and I found it still doing so on my return. While I was away, David Willetts lined up with Vince Cable – who also […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Figures released by the Treasury's annual Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses today have shown a record gap in yearly public spending on people in Scotland, and people in England. The total public spending per Scot last year was £10,212, compared to £8,588 in England. The gap is now £1,624, an […]
The Tory leader was speaking at his monthly press conference. MORE SOON. 10.30am, Highlights from Mr Cameron's press conference On Trident and defence cuts: Mr Cameron was asked on three occcasions about making savings from the defence budget. He said that the Conservative Party supported all of the items currently in the 'forward defence programme' […]
As a former chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, David Davis was always likely to want to contribute from the self-imposed freedom of the backbenches to the debate about how to get the public finances under control. And today, through an article in the FT, the former shadow home secretary addresses the question of where […]
Boris Johnson's office has released a press statement condemning the 50p tax rate as "an assault on London". Research by the Greater London Authority says that 145,000 Londoners will be hit by Darling's "banker taxes". That 145,000 includes those earning £100,000 and affected by changes to allowances. Boris Johnson believes that London already pays more […]
(1) The media have decided that the Conservatives have won the next election. There has long been an expectation of Tory victory but it's become a near certainty because of recent events (particularly the Budget and misuse of expenses). One BBC journalist told me that his colleagues and editors were now more interested in an […]
Speaking to the Tory Spring Forum in Cheltenham the Tory leader said tax increases were the right thing to do when Britain last faced a (less serious) debt crisis in the early 1990s. Echoing George Osborne's remarks to Sky News earlier he promised that, in due course, he would tell voters about Tory spending plans […]
Labour has run out of ideas: "They have run out of ideas. The economy is on its knees, enterprise is suffocated, we’re falling behind in the race to the future. And what is there proposal? A return to the 1970s with a 50% top rate of tax. With the dishonesty of trying to present a […]