Economics
Making the case for higher taxation
Posted on May 10, 2013 by David Graves | 5 Comments
Last Thursday’s local elections covered all 27 of the English counties, in eight unitary authorities and one Welsh authority, as well as two mayoral elections in Doncaster and North Tyneside. The results of these elections in 2009 were overwhelmingly Conservative dominated, but with mounting Con-Dem unpopularity and a huge surge in UKIP support, the local [...]
Osborne’s wrong but we need to consider a Scottish currency
Posted on April 23, 2013 by Peter McColl | 1 Comment
George Osborne is in Glasgow today to lecture us on how independence would be a bad idea. This is, he argues, because the rest of the UK wouldn’t allow Scotland to have a say over monetary policy in a shared currency – the pound sterling. His position is that currency unions are not a good [...]
The one kind of immigration that’s not so great
Posted on April 21, 2013 by Adam Ramsay | 2 Comments
I spend a lot of my life arguing that immigration isn’t an economic problem. Immigrants don’t steal our jobs – with every pair of hands comes a mouth. The stuff they buy creates jobs. However, there is one kind of immigration which, if I’m honest, does cause an economic problem. Today, the Sunday Times Rich [...]
The academic case for austerity crumbles… but it won’t change anything
Posted on April 19, 2013 by Adam Ramsay | No Comments
So, it turns out that one of the main academic papers used to justify the government’s massive cuts is wrong. I mean, not in the ‘some academics think it’s wrong, others think it’s right, it’s all really complex’ type way. In the ‘they forgot to copy and paste the right formula all the way down [...]
Today is a mighty achievement for Cameron and Osborne
Posted on April 1, 2013 by Adam Ramsay | 2 Comments
Beware a young man with something to prove. That, surely, must be the lesson of today. As the next round of the government’s assault on the people of Britain comes into force, it is important to consider how much of an achievement this is for the Conservative party. Others have summed up what’s happening today [...]
UK Uncut plan to ‘evict a millionaire’ over Bedroom Tax
Posted on March 24, 2013 by Gary Dunion | 1 Comment
Anti-cuts direct action group pledges to “bring the cuts home to millionaire misery makers… millionaires with loads of spare rooms, who are avoiding tax, or politicians or business people who are directly pushing or benefiting from the cuts.”
An aspiration nation
Posted on March 21, 2013 by Sarah Beattie-Smith | No Comments
An aspiration nation. That’s how George Osborne described the UK in his fourth budget. A budget that brings some fortune to big business, home owners and tax avoiders but gives little hope to the hundreds of thousands who may face eviction because of the bedroom tax, to the single parents wondering how they’re going to [...]
Eight steps to cut economic growth, by George Osborne MP
Posted on March 20, 2013 by Ric Lander | 10 Comments
by George Osborne MP, aka Ric Lander 1. Encourage savings and inheritance Encouraging people to pass on their wealth unused to the next generation is a great way to reduce the amount of money flowing through the economy. I’ve not yet been able to deliver my full plan for cutting growth in this way, but you [...]
Labour party backs bedroom tax
Posted on March 12, 2013 by Adam Ramsay | 12 Comments
Here is Labour frontbencher Helen Goodman confirming that her party supports the ‘Bedroom Tax’. The charge, a deduction from benefits for anyone who lives in social housing and who has ‘spare’ bedrooms – such as because children don’t share a room – has been widely condemned as unjust. Yet the Labour party has now clarified [...]
Community finance: Where’s our Cathy Come Home moment?
Posted on March 4, 2013 by Samir Jeraj | 1 Comment
In 1966 the film Cathy Come Home depicted the struggle of a once happy family thrown into poverty and misery after father and husband Reg is injured and loses his job. The journey of the family through bailiffs, homeless shelters, squatting, and finally the brutal scene where their children are taken into care was a [...]
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