Monthly Archives: June 2010

The government was right yesterday to say it would await the findings of the police investigation before discussing our gun laws. The Prime Minister was right to say we cannot legislate to prevent a madman going on a murderous rampage, much as we would like to. Of course we need to do everything in our [...]

Alan Budd’s job at the Office of Budget Responsibility is to inject realism into the inherited forecasts from Mr Darling’s Treasury. He inherits some racy forecasts for economic growth. The last government thought the UK economy would sprint to growth of 3-3.5% next year, and stay above 3% for the following two years. The average [...]

In opposition the Conservatives were sympathetic to the idea that the Treasury needs a more dynamic model to forecast the consquences of changes in tax rates. Many in the debate over CGT rates seem to still believe that higher rates yield more revenue, when past experience suggests higher rates may reduce the revenue.Sales of properties [...]

Tonight I have been asked to talk to a group of Economists about the state of the UK economy. I will start by praising David Cameron’s stated aim of creating conditions for a strong private sector led recovery. It is the best way to curb the deficit and raise living standards. It is no good [...]