Posts under ‘Public Spending’

The NPF Economy, Business and Trade Report – some progress made, but a long way to go

by John Penney.

In contrast to most of the other NPF Policy Commission reports the Economy Report proposals are more reflective of the new “Corbynite” Left Keynesian agenda than the poor quality material it produced prior to the General Election. This is obviously good in itself, but peculiar in policy development process terms. Thus, this latest report “touches […]

It’s time for the Left to take defence policy seriously

by John Penney.

The recent, empty point-scoring, hoo hah over the misfiring UK Trident missile test, and the flag-waving, posturing in Parliament and the mass media last year over the, up to £100bn, renewal of the Trident ballistic missile system, has highlighted yet again the ideological vulnerability of the Labour Left on defence issues. Quite understandably, the left, […]

Why Theresa May is lying to you 

by Luke Davies.

In her party conference speech Theresa May promised to transform the Conservatives into the ‘party of the workers, the party of public servants, the party of the NHS’. She declared: ‘it’s time to remember the good that government can do’. Journalists on both right and left have been queuing up to announce a new era in […]

Our understaffed underfunded NHS is the result of government ideology

by Diane Abbott.

Jeremy Hunt had few answers from the barrage of cross bench concern this week’s parliamentary debates on the NHS funding and the impact of Brexit on the NHS. When asked what he was doing to ensure that the NHS gets the £350million a week that it was promised during the Leave referendum campaign, the Secretary […]

The scandal of privatised aid

by Mike Phipps.

If you thought energy privatisation was bad for UK consumers, take a look at Nigeria. The result has been up to 45% higher prices, regular blackouts, workers made redundant and the companies involved being bailed out by the central bank. The process is part of a £100 million project being run by consultants Adam Smith […]

Is George Osborne finished?

by Phil Burton-Cartledge.

They seek him here, they seek him there. Those lobby hacks seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven or is he in hell? That damned elusive … Chancellor of the Exchequer. Okay, so my reworked rhyme lifted from the Scarlet Pimpernel doesn’t work. But neither do Osborne’s sums, so all is balanced in the world. […]

Good riddance IDS: long may this internal warfare continue

by Phil Burton-Cartledge.

When you’re the head of a department that has meted out cruel and inhumane treatment to disabled people, when you’ve sat in the Commons and nodded through cut after sanction regime after tightened eligibility criteria, at what point do you say enough and call time over your complicity in these proceedings? Does one draw a […]

The boom, not the slump, is the time for austerity

by Ann Pettifor.

The following is a letter by Professor John Weeks and Ann Pettifor, published today, 15th March 2016 in The Guardian.  Andrew Harrop’s article on John McDonnell’s public borrowing for investment points out its improvement on the chancellor’s deficit obsession (John McDonnell’s new fiscal rule is strong, but it’s no election winner, The Guardian, 11 March). […]

John McDonnell’s very political economics

by Phil Burton-Cartledge.

What have they been putting in John McDonnell’s coffee? According to some, John’s embrace of fiscal responsibility, tight spending, and deficit reduction is a surrender to “the capitalist parasites“. And proving you cannot please some people no matter what you say, there have been criticisms from the right of the party arguing that his economics […]

Labour right-wing still in the austerity dead end

by Michael Burke.

Rachel Reeves, a former Labour shadow secretary for work and pensions, has produced a short note for Progress which has been hailed in the right wing media, and by the Labour right, as ‘an alternative Budget’. The New Statesman was perhaps the most excitable, describing Reeves as the shadow chancellor in waiting. All of this […]

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