If you read George Osborne’s budget speech in the Commons, and then read his own Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) analysis of it, it is like reading Fifty Shades of Grey and then turning to the Handbook of Morality and Sexual Ethics. They’re so much like chalk and cheese that it’s almost impossible to take […]
Posts Tagged ‘Budget 2014’
A budget aimed at the Tory faithful, not the economy
Mar 20th, 2014 by Dave Watson.Shiny new coins did nothing to cover up the Chancellor’s blatant attempt to shore up the core Tory vote next year. The budget giveaways were relentless targeted on the comfortably off, rather than those who have been hit the hardest by austerity economics. Changes in tax thresholds may take some out of tax, but they […]
Share:
What’s in the box, Gideon? Hand-outs for the rich and a phoney recovery
Mar 20th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Osborne didn’t mention the most important fact about the budget. While the OBR’s growth forecast for this year has been raised to nearly 2.7% (though their previous four have each been grossly over-optimistic), they recognise that this ‘recovery’, such as it is, will fade after 2015. In other words, this is not a real recovery, […]
Share:
Today’s Budget and the crisis in Ukraine
Mar 19th, 2014 by Ann Pettifor.This year’s Budget takes place at a time of high international tension. The issue of energy security has once again shot to the top of the political agenda. The crisis in Ukraine demonstrates once again the extent to which Britain is exposed to political and economic risks beyond our control. The fact is Britain’s dependency […]
Share:
A budget to counter the Osborne wasteland
Mar 19th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Yesterday I focused on Osborne’s overblown and hollow claims about recovery which will pervade his budget tomorrow, but today I propose to answer the obvious retort: so what would you do? First, the haemorrhaging of public service jobs should be ended. Already 642,000 jobs have been cut from the public sector since 2010, and Osborne […]
