Trade Unions were never going to see much for them in this budget. Millionaire George Osborne’s claim that “we’re all in this together” never had much credibility with the workers. Even the promise he made in the June 2010 budget statement of a pay rise of £250 for the lowest paid public sector workers, he broke […]
Posts Tagged ‘Budget’
Labour should target the Tories, not Lib Dems
Jul 6th, 2010 by Jon Lansman.For many of those in Labour’s ranks who’d talked of progressive alliances and tactical voting, who’d backed electoral reform to entice them, rejection of coalition was perhaps even more bitter than rejection by the voters. Disappointment rapidly turned to anger and accusations of betrayal.
New Labour Cuts and Tory Cuts – Both Bad
Jul 1st, 2010 by Michael Meacher.Nobody emerges well from the heated exchanges at PMQ yesterday in the Commons. The Guardian that morning had argued the Treasury estimated that the Budget would cost 1.3m jobs. In the ensuing mele’e Cameron responded to Harriet Harman’s taunt in two ways by claiming that (a) “unemployment will be falling during this Parliament” (words that […]
Budget contradictions keep tumbling out
Jun 28th, 2010 by Michael Meacher.The latest study of the impact of the Budget by the Fabian Society, published yesterday, using a plausible quantitative model of the effects of public service cuts, confirms what we suspected, namely that the poorest tenth in the population will be hit much harder – 6 times harder – than the richest tenth. This […]
Where Britain’s going, no-one will follow
Jun 25th, 2010 by Mark Seddon.Having staggered through one recession – and without emerging the other side of it – Britain now seems destined for another. This time it will really hurt. A Martian arriving in London, or rather at the Mother of Parliaments in Westminster, could be mistaken for thinking that all of Britain’s economic woes could be laid […]
Mr Osborne steers the ship towards an iceberg
Jun 23rd, 2010 by Ann Pettifor.When a small Canadian cruise ship hit an iceberg in 2007 its 154 passengers were nonchalant. Initial reports suggested only a small hole was punched into the hull and so they refused to panic. Twenty hours later the ship ‘had sunk beneath the waves’. Today the public and particularly the Liberal Democrats appear nonchalant as […]
A Budget based on Six Right-wing Myths
Jun 23rd, 2010 by Michael Meacher.This is one of those watershed budgets where the governing party tries, not simply to make budgetary adjustments to the nation’s finances, but to change profoundly the ideological underpinnings of the State itself. But the whole project is built on a string of fundamental myths which give an almost surrealistic atmosphere to today’s proceedings. […]
What to look for in the Budget
Jun 22nd, 2010 by Michael Meacher.There are 3 key criteria for judging today’s Budget. One is the composition of measures for reducing the £155b deficit. The emphasis of pre-Budget leaking has been heavily on public spending cuts, much more moderately (20% as opposed to 80%) on tax increases, and no reference at all to economic growth. You […]
A budget for decline
Mar 23rd, 2010 by Michael Meacher.As is usually the case, this is a very political Budget. It will change the economic future of this country hardly at all. The purpose of this Budget is camouflage to distract attention from the Great Axe that is about to fall within the next two weeks and to give the impression that Britain has […]