Cable defends his plan for new British business bank September 11, 2012 VINCE Cable yesterday insisted that the government’s proposed business bank will make a difference to small companies, despite fears that it could be little more than a rebranding of existing government lending programmes. Discussions over the format of the bank, which will target firms who cannot access funds from traditional lenders, are ongoing within the [...]
In the real world high taxes restrict economic growth September 26, 2012 HIGHER taxes and higher spending are associated with weaker economic growth. That is the clear conclusion of a wealth of increasingly sophisticated studies conducted over decades. The final report of our 2020 Tax Commission summarised 18 studies from the 1970s, which found higher spending or higher taxes diminished the level or growth of national income. [...]
Osborne should move fast and make Tucker next governor October 9, 2012 FORGET about speeches to the Tory party conference, or even the forthcoming Autumn Statement. George Osborne’s biggest decision of his entire chancellorship will be who he appoints to be the next governor of the Bank of England. No other unelected job in the UK comes with so much power: the governor is not just in [...]
Osborne should move fast and make Tucker next governor October 9, 2012 FORGET about speeches to the Tory party conference, or even the forthcoming Autumn Statement. George Osborne’s biggest decision of his entire chancellorship will be who he appoints to be the next governor of the Bank of England. No other unelected job in the UK comes with so much power: the governor is not just in [...]
City says Osborne’s Autumn Statement won’t boost GDP December 4, 2011 THE policies unveiled in George Osborne’s Autumn Statement are unlikely to boost growth, according to the City A.M. / PoliticsHome.com Voice of the City panel. Some fifty-seven per cent of panellists said they were “sceptical” that the measures would boost growth, compared to 19 per cent who said they were “somewhat confident” and just one [...]
It’s business as usual as Osborne fiddles December 5, 2012 WHEN expectations are low enough, anything short of a disaster is inevitably hailed as a good performance. That, I’m afraid, is the best way of looking at George Osborne’s Autumn Statement, and the main reason why so many Tory MPs were happy last night. There were no massive, pasty-tax style blunders; all of the bad [...]
We’ve been here before: Britain’s decline and fall is not inevitable September 3, 2012 THERE is one, single policy issue that dominates British politics today: the economy. It is the preeminent issue that determines the welfare of British citizens. Whether they have a job, how well paid they are in that job, what taxes they have to pay, what healthcare and pensions they get, how good their children’s education [...]
Half-term holidays give a boost to Gatwick’s passenger figures December 10, 2012 HALF-TERM getaways helped Gatwick Airport post a 4.2 per cent rise in traffic during November, Britain’s second-busiest airport said yesterday. Gatwick credited the earlier autumn half-term break this year for some of the uptick, which took its passengers for the month to 2.23m. In the year to the end of November, traffic has risen 2.8 [...]
Back to work September 2, 2012 THE COALITION announced a raft of new policies yesterday in a desperate attempt to get the economy – and their poll ratings – back on track. But critics said ministers’ infighting and U-turns were making matters worse, creating extra uncertainty for businesses while failing to come up with any meaningful solutions to the double-dip recession. [...]
M&S’s board still backs Marc Bolland but its patience will not last forever January 9, 2013 THIS was no ordinary trading statement. If Marc Bolland, the Marks & Spencer chief executive, had sold an item from his womenswear ranges last autumn every time the retailer’s advertising slogan had been parroted back at him, he’d have wiped the floor with the rest of the high street. Last night’s hastily-released quarterly trading update [...]