The timing of tax cuts

The main point I was able to make yesterday in the short speech Parliament allowed was that we need the cuts in tax rates now to promote faster growth. The Chancellor rightly says he wants them in due course. They should not be a reward for managing to grow against the headwind of high taxes. They should be a necessary part of a growth strategy. They will speed  growth and make the rest easier to achieve.

The budget moved huge sums of money thanks to a major rethink over the official forecasts from just six months ago. The OBR has lifted its forecast of growth this year by a massive 2.5% or more than £50bn. It has raised its inflation forecast for next year from 1.8% to 4%. It has slashed its unemployment forecast from 5.6% to 4.9%. It has discovered £44 bn more revenue in the first six months of the year that it forecast in March. I argued that the March forecast was wildly pessimistic. Now the economy is slowing the forecasters have decided to up the projections for this year!

The OBR expects growth to slow to an average of just 1.5% a year in the three years  2024-26. Despite this it proposes a 3.8% per annum real growth in public expenditure. To make such large sums more affordable it is imperative to lift the growth rate. That will require the various measures I have written about to boost underlying capacity in many things from energy to food, from transport to engineered products.

The Treasury needs to review public spending to secure value for money.

172 Comments

  1. Lifelogic
    October 28, 2021

    Indeed. We certainly need the cuts in tax rates now to promote faster growth. Also cutscin red tape, restrictive planning, the expensive & intermittent and net zero lunacy also need to be ditched. We also need easy high and fire. The large increase in the minimum wage is also a big mistake. A law making it illegal for people to worth if both they and the employer want to is idiotic. They can volunteer to worth for nothing but not for £9 per hour in a job they like gardening or at the cafe or pub next door but can work for £10 per hour at at factory 10 miles away that they hate, that costs them £50 per week in travel costs. Yet when travel time and costs are included pays them less than £9.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      Cheap beer and circuses, COP26 being the pathetic, sick, evil circus.

      1. Hope
        October 28, 2021

        NHS wasted £34 billion on a computer system under fake Tories, no one sacked or budget cut for failing. During the pandemic tens of millions trying to create its own app. Which failed. No one sacked or sanctioned. Johnson decides to give NHS another £6 billion!! Absolute idiots ought to realise money alone does not help performance. They have been in power for 11 years, why the December/ January NHS capacity issue? Why keep encouraging mass immigration and illegal immigration?

        JR needs to encourage Johnson to go or be sacked. May still in their party after all her treachery over Brexit which we are told Johnson and Frost trying to recover from!! Anything happen to Cameron for his treachery in failing to plan to leave EU, give away billions to waste on overseas aid or his conniving bringing in his mate to heart of govt. over Greensil? Any pattern?

        Macron knows Johnson is weak he saw I over Covid and the queues of lorries!!

    2. Dave Andrews
      October 28, 2021

      Rather than increase minimum wage, decrease housing costs, which .would have the same effect on people’s wallets.
      Why is British residential property open to all the world to speculate on? Introduce a law that restricts ownership to British residents citizens. Why does the government not do this? Is it because they don’t want to upset their rich global friends (scarily who might have the power to nobble the government), or is it part of the sell-off Britain policy to bring in foreign currency?
      After that measure has taken effect, introduce caps to individual portfolios. Owning some property as part of someone’s pension plan is fair enough, but not holding people to ransom over a place to live, especially in rural areas where we need property for people to work on the land.

      1. Mitchel
        October 28, 2021

        Very interesting article on the Grayzone website :”Superimperialism-the economic strategy of the American Empire.”by Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton,19 October 2021.

        It’s a transcript of an interview with economic historian,Dr Michael Hudson,to complement the publication of the updated third edition of the above titled book(originally published several decades ago and very prescient).Essential reading if you want to understand what’s been going on and how we got here since the end of WWII – from the “rules-based international order” to the “great re-set” and the new cold war with Russia and China – and why the outlook for Europe (inc the UK) is bleak.

      2. Hope
        October 28, 2021

        How about four star hotels for criminals who enter the country illegally? Why do they get such luxury while indigenous people forced to pay higher taxes and sell their homes, that is before we add overseas wasting of our taxes!

    3. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      The timing of tax cuts? Well announced just before the next general election then reversed the day after the election of course. Election in May 2024 one assumes.

      1. Hope
        October 28, 2021

        LL, the record of 11 years shows this to be a dishonest pledge with no intention of fulfilling. Balanced structural deficit by2015! Highest taxation in 70 years, did Cameron convince you he was a low tax conservative? How about Osborne claim of cuts to tax rises, how did that work out! Johnson recently claimed he was fiercely opposed to tax rises!! Who put up NIC without good reason! Who put up community charge against promise to freeze it! Who is stupid enough to believe anything Johnson says, do not forget number 10 controls 11 Javid resigned over it.

        I am a conservative. But I would never vote for this shower in office that stopped with Cameron! Thatcher worked for years, and got grief for it, to clear up budget messes announced yesterday!

  2. Everhopeful
    October 28, 2021

    I honestly believe that the government, by its behaviour, has forfeited any moral right to take money from us.
    Said money is no longer used for our good…just for the government’s personal agendas and virtue signalling.
    Never mind tax cuts. The money stolen from us under false pretences should be returned.
    But in reality things are just going to get worse aren’t they?

    1. Shirley M
      October 28, 2021

      +1 The waste of money is staggering. I see foreign aid will be used to massage pockets and egos again in a year or two. We still give illegal invaders better care than our own law abiding peaceful citizens. We still sacrifice the majority interests to noisy minorities (it helps when a few personal threats are made against politicians). Surrendering to threats is the very best way to encourage more threats and violence!

      Net zero is the biggest con. We bankrupt our country, achieve absolutely nothing except some shiny halos and a very happy abused child called Greta, and China and co reap the rewards!

      This country could have a great future, but the ‘benefits’ appear to be going to those who want to take us backwards, rather than forwards.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        October 28, 2021

        Shirley, never a truer word spoken. I wholeheartedly agree with EVERYTHING you have said. I think many of us have actually given up thinking things will improve. This country will be destroyed by the Tories and wouldn’t be any better under any of the 3 main parties. It’s scandalous when you think how successful we could be with a little common sense and less bowing and scraping to the minority of idiots.

      2. Everhopeful
        October 28, 2021

        +many

      3. Timaction
        October 28, 2021

        +1

      4. Hope
        October 28, 2021

        NHS needs an enormous budget cut to focus its mind to be efficient. It knows the govt will keep giving no matter how useless it is.

    2. Lester_Cynic
      October 28, 2021

      Everhopeful

      + 100

      I lost any hope that anything would improve quite some time ago

      1. Everhopeful
        October 28, 2021

        +many
        Agree entirely!

    3. Everhopeful
      October 28, 2021

      And what is the point of aping the Blair/Brown govts?
      Why decide to push so far towards the opposition that there is no longer any electoral choice?
      It is pure fraud.
      Actually it isn’t …it is another move towards a totalitarian state.

    4. J Bush
      October 28, 2021

      +1

    5. MPC
      October 28, 2021

      The budget may not be Conservative but, overall, it serves the government’s purpose politically, being the first stage in a plan to win the next election. Pain now with generous sounding tax cuts before the next election. The bet is that the Labour Party will continue to be unable to get its act together and include tax cuts in its next election manifesto. Johnson’s political blind spot is Net Zero however. He will overstep the mark there in terms of voter impact. Especially now that the media is at last waking up to what Net Zero really means in terms of cost and damage to prosperity and freedoms.

      1. Everhopeful
        October 28, 2021

        ++
        Spot on!

    6. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      Much truth here. Some taxes even raised by tricking people into motoring offences or compliance fines. Ulez fines or parking fines as perhaps your child needed the loo. An appallingly inefficient and evil way to tax people.

      1. Everhopeful
        October 28, 2021

        ++
        Yes. They are evil in every way.

    7. Nota#
      October 28, 2021

      @Everhopeful +1

    8. Hope
      October 28, 2021

      E,
      It was a good strong socialist budget, tax and spend at its core and NO thought about value for money just shower public services with money! Only £2.2 trillion debt. No need to worry. Inflation is soaring but who cares about strivers, savers and the prudent.

      1. Lifelogic
        October 28, 2021

        Indeed but more “tax and waste” than “tax and spend”.

        Delivered by a man who claimed to be cutting taxes and debts and being responsible while actually doing the exact reverse.

        It will hold back the recovery massively as will the net zero religion.

      2. Fedupsoutherner
        October 28, 2021

        Hope, they only care about those on benefits (not a problem if they are genuine but too many just have lazy arse syndrome) and illegal immigrants. This situation is set to get worse.

    9. BOF
      October 28, 2021

      EH. I am afraid you are right and now we have full on big state (and big brother) socialism.

      There is no Conservative Party left.

      1. Shirley M
        October 28, 2021

        + 10000 BOF. I sincerely hope the memories of this governments choices last until the next GE. The Conservatives are destroying their own party, as well as the country. Who benefits? Any country EXCEPT the UK?

      2. Everhopeful
        October 28, 2021

        +1
        Absolutely.
        One Party State!

  3. Lifelogic
    October 28, 2021

    “The Treasury needs to review public spending to secure value for money” – indeed but zero chance of this under Boris/Sunak. They just piss £37 billion down the drain 0n test and trace and now want to do the same in over a Trillion on the pointless and hugely damaging net zero agenda. So much that could be cut without any loss of value but they are not at all interested.

    Has the office of tax simplification simplified taxes – no they are now about double in complexity since this quango was born.

    1. Lester_Cynic
      October 28, 2021

      LL

      + 100

    2. Julian Flood
      October 28, 2021

      Who got the sack for the Test and Trace scandal?

      JF

      1. Lifelogic
        October 28, 2021

        Or the appalling pandemic planning, or the dire second rate monopoly NHS we suffer under or Greville Tower…

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          October 29, 2021

          It says something about Tory Britain, that a fire kills over seventy people, and it is admitted that test results as to the fire resistance of the building materials used were falsified, and that a different material from that specified was used anyway, and all some people are wondering is whether anyone will even lose their job, not how long anyone will, as a matter of due process, spend in prison.

          1. Peter2
            October 29, 2021

            Odd NHL
            I thought it was all signed off by a Labour Council?
            Please tell me if I am wrong

        2. hefner
          October 30, 2021

          The work was inspected not signed off by the London Fire Brigade after a report by KCTMO (Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation) after the end of the cladding work in May 2017. As far as I can find neither the LFB nor KCTMO are anyway linked to ‘a Labour Council’? But KCTMO had been put in place in 1996 by the Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council, a council that has always had a … Conservative majority.

          Are you starting another one of your poorly researched/argued trolling?
          Are you ever tired to be shown out of your depth on most subjects you are trying to troll?

      2. glen cullen
        October 28, 2021

        If you give your mates the top jobs…you just can’t sack them – you’d be thrown out of the alumni

        1. Peter Parsons
          October 28, 2021

          Or your (enobled) mates wives…

    3. jerry
      October 28, 2021

      @LL; Want simplified taxes, simplify your business(es) and/or incomes!

      There should be no need for IR35, for example, but while some companies insist on trying to disguise otherwise full-time employment and thus escape employer contributions complex tax codes will be needed.

      1. lifelogic
        October 28, 2021

        Complexity is another tax on top of taxes and a creator of vast numbers of parasitic and unproductive jobs and lower productivity. The higher the taxes are the more people will sensibly try to avoid them. It is the moral thing to do when you know how appallingly they are wasted by government.

        1. jerry
          October 28, 2021

          @LL; “The higher the taxes are the more people will sensibly try to avoid them.”

          Who said anything about the tax rate, I though you were talking about the tax code?… By as you bring the issue up, yes some people will try and avoid fair and due taxation, some people would still complain if their tax rate was just a mere 0.01%.

      2. Peter2
        October 28, 2021

        Which inadvertently then ruins genuine self employed and agency workers who during a year work for more than one company.

        1. jerry
          October 28, 2021

          @Peter2; Yes indeed, disguised employment scheme do harm the genuine self-employed, what chance has the genuine self employed subcontractor got in growing their own business when contracts they tender for have been stitched up in-house before the ‘adverts’ have even been written.

          1. Peter2
            October 28, 2021

            No that’s not what I said Jerry
            Many self employed people who work for several companies in one year are being unfairly discriminated against.

          2. jerry
            October 28, 2021

            @Peter2; So basically what you seem to be saying is, because some people can not prove to the HMRC their true employment/tax status IR35 should to be scrapped entirely, not that some people need to do better with their record keeping and contract writing/reading!

            Nor does anything you have said change the fact, if some people did not seek ways to avoid tax the tax code (such as IR35) would not need to exist.

          3. Peter2
            October 28, 2021

            No that isn’t what I’m saying.
            Proving your self employed status isn’t what IR35 is about.
            Do some research.

          4. jerry
            October 29, 2021

            @Peter2; Duh! What did you not understand when I said the following;

            “some people need to do better with their record keeping and contract writing/reading”

            It is you, Peter2, who needs to do the research, start by checking up on what disguised employment means, and yes you can be both self-employed and in (disguised, or not) ’employment’ both at the same time, have you never filed a SA tax return…?

            IR35 is a very specific piece of tax legislation, not the catch-all you and others always try to suggest. The vast majority of self-employed people never come close to having to deal with it, I wonder why….

          5. Peter2
            October 29, 2021

            As usual when your weak arguments are challenged you get increasingly personal in your responses.
            Even Angela has realised this approach is wrong.
            Duh indeed.

          6. jerry
            October 29, 2021

            @Peter2; No surprise there, having told me I have it all wrong with regards IR35 yet he writes nothing of substance himself as way of correction… Nor did I get personal, unless asking someone if they have filed their SA yet is now “personal”. Whatever.

          7. Peter2
            October 29, 2021

            No I never said you had it all wrong with regards to IR35.
            I respect your opinions on this subject Jerry
            Although I think you are wrong and that IR35 has caused has many negative effects.

    4. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      I see the nation is still being bombarded with net zero and COP26 propaganda adverts – no shortage of money to waste here it seems.

      1. glen cullen
        October 28, 2021

        With the run up to cop26 the continued propaganda from the BBC and all United Nations departments (yesterday it was the UN World Meteorological Organization; today it’s the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is managed and endless

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          October 28, 2021

          there is so much crap from the BBC lately they must be in the pocket of the government. I am sick of ethnic, green, climate and gay etc on every programme. BORING!!

      2. Peter from Leeds
        October 28, 2021

        @LL And Smart Meter adverts and “Go Left” adverts (smart motorways). All a waste of tax payer money.

    5. a-tracy
      October 28, 2021

      Lifelogic I read they spent most of the money on testing. “On 2 April 2020, the government announced its new national testing strategy, including a commitment to deliver 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month, and many more beyond that. ”

      The majority of people on the news programs night after night were saying the government wasn’t doing enough testing. They now do surge testing and thousands of tests per day. The teaching profession wanted better testing of all children repeatedly.

      ‘Statistics compiled on 4 September by the Our World in Data project, run by the University of Oxford and the Global Change Data Lab, show that the UK was conducting 2.47 tests a day per thousand people. When the UK is compared to the EU on rising cases it is not easily identified just how comparisons are done as we are one of the highest for testing both at home, at work and in centres. Whether testing is stopping spreading is up to the NHS to tell us, if it wasn’t wouldn’t they stop someone must be reporting to the Department of Health of the results?

      What I didn’t understand is yesterday when Starmer was covid+ the two people he was sat at the table with hours before were in the house speaking without masks on, people are confused now about what the rules are – aren’t they supposed to self-isolate for 10 days being within 1m of a carrier with no barrier and no masks on during that meeting?

      1. Peter Parsons
        October 28, 2021

        Not if they are fully vaccinated, no. The current guidance reads:

        You will not be required to self-isolate if you are notified you have had close contact with someone with COVID-19 and any of the following apply:

        * you are fully vaccinated
        * you are below the age of 18 years 6 months
        * you have taken part in or are currently part of an approved COVID-19 vaccine trial
        * you are not able to get vaccinated for medical reasons

        Fully vaccinated means that you have been vaccinated with an MHRA approved COVID-19 vaccine in the UK, and at least 14 days have passed since you received the recommended doses of that vaccine.

        1. a-tracy
          October 29, 2021

          Thank you Peter, it is confusing in July we were told ’21 Jul 2021 — Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is to self-isolate after one of his children tested positive for Covid, a spokesman has said’ yet at his age he would have had two vaccines at that time. It must have changed recently.

  4. J Bush
    October 28, 2021

    I support your logic. Sadly the overwhelming impression I am getting from the policies the Johnson regime seem determined to implement, are specifically designed to destroy the country, its economy and its peoples with a crushing national debt. None of its policies are even vaguely conservative.

    Further, waving through the extension of the draconian covid act with no debate or vote was an abomination and insult to democracy.

    1. Everhopeful
      October 28, 2021

      +1
      Destroy the currency by vast inflation and impose digital.
      Destroy the workforce by “no jab no job” and min wage and replenish/replace with lower paid newcomers ( maybe unofficially, as has been done in the past?)
      Destroy us without a single regret.

      1. Everhopeful
        October 28, 2021

        PS…I don’t think they can keep the jabberwocky experiment going without the “draconian act”. It is necessary to be in an “emergency” situation.
        So and on it goes……
        As I predicted months ago…a pincushion nation.
        Lovely!

    2. DOM
      October 28, 2021

      It’s designed to provoke you into action, thereby giving the State further cause to impose ever greater repressive laws. The State has become a political activist in its own right

      Johnson is a fake Tory and an extremely dangerous politician simply because he has no moral soul and therefore prone to persuasion on any and every policy however vicious, nasty and oppressive

      Collective punishment is now an informal policy of the British State driven by its embrace of Marxist ideology. No wonder they despised Thatcher when she said ‘There is no such thing as society’. Her embrace of the real world of separate individuals as opposed to the political construct that is society was a hammer blow to the left as it exposed their sheep herding ideology. Johnson has now raised two fingers to MT, What a nasty character Johnson is

      1. glen cullen
        October 28, 2021

        ‘’ Johnson is a fake Tory’’
        You might be incorrect in that comment as I don’t believe Boris has ever been a Tory, never had any politic allegiance or political ideological leaning. I truly believe that he doesn’t concern himself with party ministrations of left or right…he’s above all that – it’s the Boris way
        Its just another tick in the box for him, he’ll be in a new career in 3 years so spend spend spend and they’ll love him
        If you cut through SirJ like a stick of rock he’d be blue while Boris would be a shade of green rainbow

        1. Micky Taking
          October 28, 2021

          I often wonder what shade ego would be- now you provide some insight – a sort of green around the gills with a rainbow hue? Nauseous but able to appear any shade that suits?
          Sounds apt for the case in point.

      2. J Bush
        October 28, 2021

        My only consolation is that when Johnson started spouting meaningless sound-bites, such as Global Britain, Build Back Better etc without ever clarifying what he meant by these, my gut instinct kicked in and subsequently have never voted for his regime.

      3. Jim Whitehead
        October 28, 2021

        DOM, +1, You’re so right. Sunak will find that the ‘brilliant’ Gordon Brown only bamboozled the public for a short length of time. Snake oil salesmen both. How long will it take the populace to awaken from the torpor?

    3. Lester_Cynic
      October 28, 2021

      J Bush

      I’m in total agreement with you, taking actions but failing to notice that there’s a fire raging in the background.

      Sir John continuing to act as a good MP should but failing to notice that nobody is listening to him, a lone voice in the wilderness

    4. Ian Wragg
      October 28, 2021

      The great reset. Build back better. Confiscate everything.
      We are heading for a Socialist nirvana.
      Who’d have thought it from a tory government.

      1. Mactheknife
        October 28, 2021

        +100….. the great reset is upon us.

        those who raised this prospect 12 months ago were called conspiracy theorists. But as the great leftie Robert Preston said on his program it was a budget delivered by Boris & Rishi but could have come from Starmer had we not known.

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          October 28, 2021

          Mac. Yes, Farage said this too. He said it was difficult to distinguish between a Labour budget and this Tory budget. What a joke and yes, I do believe it is the great reset but it won’t affect the rich who will enjoy life even more without us plebs to get in the way.

      2. glen cullen
        October 28, 2021

        Ian you forgot the new Boris line
        ‘‘Socialist Nirvana is good, Socialist Nirvana is right, Socialist Nirvana works’’

      3. lifelogic
        October 28, 2021

        Well I would but I did not think Boris would go completely round the green U-bend, is it Carrie, long Covid or both?

    5. Sharon
      October 28, 2021

      J Bush

      I read elsewhere that the 1984 health act is actually more of an issue than the Corona Virus act, which has lost many of its points. A lot of MPs are trying to get the 1984 act changed, though it’s thought they won’t be successful. ( sorry, can’t remember the specifics of why not)

      1. J Bush
        October 28, 2021

        The only thing I picked up on this, and I don’t know how accurate it was, was that they wanted to ‘update’ the 1984 Act to include the content of the current covid draconian rules, minus the statutory instrument requirement. Marxism writ large.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          October 29, 2021

          I don’t seem to recall Marx writing much about emergency public health law, so there wasn’t much from him to influence the Thatcher government back then in that regard, nor today’s Tories.

          1. Peter2
            October 29, 2021

            No because he had no concern about the health of his public.
            What was it, millions killed?

    6. alan jutson
      October 28, 2021

      +1

      Yep, an opportunity to get back on track with a fresh start, to encourage rather than penalise most with higher taxes when inflation is rising, has been lost.

      As usual its Government spend, spend, spend whilst the public pay, pay, pay.

    7. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      Indeed, as was the waving through of the net zero insanity.

      1. glen cullen
        October 28, 2021

        Sheep, cowards and sycophants
        They could repeal the ‘climate change act’ today, all our troubles are directly attributed to that act

    8. Hope
      October 28, 2021

      JB,
      When we are all poor we will all be level. WEF thinks build back better will achieve this and Johnson keeps stating the mantra. That is the clue in the direction he his headed.

      We cannot afford these fake Tories in power. If I wanted to live in a third world country I would go to reside in one!

      Inflation was about 28% in 1974 so Johnson has a Heath target to achieve!

    9. BOF
      October 28, 2021

      Yes, they laughed it through. Disgraceful and the gratest insult I think I have ever seen to the British people.

      1. J Bush
        October 28, 2021

        Agreed. As far as I am concerned, if they fail to respect and uphold the democratic system that got into the HoC, then why I fail to see why the electorate should acknowledge their undemocratic diktats.

  5. Everhopeful
    October 28, 2021

    Judging by yesterday’s strangely sinister, Bruegel-esque performance, I very much doubt if the government is open to any normal, sensible, reasonable suggestions.
    They are too busily engaged in “Creative Chaos”.
    And surely they are doing that so effectively that there can be no Build Back…and Better?
    Come on!

  6. Mark B
    October 28, 2021

    Good morning.

    The things is, I believe the government and the Chancellor is more concerned with battling inflation than growth. There has been too much money pumped into the system both through QE and furlough. There has also been a growth in demand for raw materials and supply chain problems leading to scarcity which, as we all here agree (demand and supply), can push up prices leading to further inflationary pressures.

    The thing is, the government is embarking on major social and economic change at a time when seeking stability would be the wiser option. There was an interview on GB News between, Nigel Farage and Philip Davis MP. Mr. Davis made it clear that the PM very much believes that controlling our CO2 emissions is necessary despite a wealth of evidence that even if the UK achieved its Net Zero goals, it would not matter a jot. So it is not just our kind host that is not listening. Also revealing was the fact that, in Mr. Davis opinion, parliament currently does not reflect the views of the people it serves. This I believe is due to the fact that many of those selected to serve as MP’s, and I very much include my own MP (Conservative), are both keen to progress their careers and will do as they are told, and have little real world experience. We have all touched upon this here but it was nice to hear it from someone who is, albeit not at the heat of government, but very close to it.

    The Tories need a shock that will make them all sit up and think. I cannot see one as yet but hope springs eternal and they will suddenly have a ,‘Road to Damascus moment’ turn away from this Green Lunacy.

  7. Bob Dixon
    October 28, 2021

    The Treasury and the OBR have not noticed that we have left the EU.

    1. glen cullen
      October 28, 2021

      The whole government and the civil service haven’t noticed

    2. Micky Taking
      October 28, 2021

      because they didn’t want to !

  8. DOM
    October 28, 2021

    ‘It has discovered £44bn more revenue in the first six months of the year that it forecast in March.’

    I’m speechless, genuinely. The figures whether they are figures in a spreadsheet, actual cash figures or merely narrative are now a product of guesswork and dreamt up for political purposes and convenience.

    The political scam that is public spending is simply a weapon of political power rather than any moral vehicle of providing actual services for the end-user ie people who live in the real world outside the fantasy world of State politics

    I have no doubt that the reprobates who run this country will eventually destroy it. We’ve seen it before through history and it’s coming to the west.

  9. Donna
    October 28, 2021

    Tax cuts will be given 2 months before the next General Election as a blatant bribe for disaffected Conservative/conservatively-inclined voters Johnson knows he has alienated with his Covid authoritarianism, Green obsession and socialist policies. I fully expect the tax cuts promised will be delayed to post-election and will therefore be dependent upon the outcome.

    This Budget was pure politics. A Socialist budget now; a Conservative one in 2024 (or possibly 2023).

    My deduction is that despite the (always unreliable) polls, Johnson is very nervous the next election will be a close-run thing.

  10. Everhopeful
    October 28, 2021

    Apparently the per capita tax burden, now set to rise some 2%,is comparable to Churchill’s post war budget when he was ( most unfortunately) imposing the millstone of the welfare state on the country.
    I suppose Johnson thinks that he has won a war or something?
    More like a pillow fight in the dorm. Or a bun fight at the Bullingdon..
    Now we are knee deep in feathers and splattered all over with caviar.

  11. Philip P.
    October 28, 2021

    An economic agenda for this country with positive aspirations for the future is getting very urgent, after 18 months in which only big transnational corporations have profited. The last thing we need would be lockdown restrictions and other impediments to business such as ‘vaccine passports’. Small and medium size companies must have the confidence that they are not again going to be under the hammer of government diktats as they were in 2020-2021.

  12. Nig l
    October 28, 2021

    ‘Ministers need to galvanise the NHS etc’ I suggest you get a new lot then plus Mandarins. As with the OBR defending test and trace, obviously not fit for purpose.

    1. glen cullen
      October 28, 2021

      ”David Cameron PM has pledged to cut the number of unelected quangos to save money and increase accountability”
      BBC 6th July 2009

    2. Micky Taking
      October 28, 2021

      Hands up those who think Test and Trace was/is worth £37bn? Deafening silence….
      Well you don’t hear the sound of £millions and £billions arriving in offshore bank accounts by transfer, do you!

      1. glen cullen
        October 28, 2021

        I still can’t get my head around £37bn……for what

  13. Nottingham Lad Himself
    October 28, 2021

    I see why John wants to discredit the OBR.

    They have analysed, that long term, brexit will be far more damaging to the UK economy than covid19 ever could be.

    Yes, Michael Fish got a forecast wrong in magnitude – but not in kind – in 1987. He said that it would be “very windy”.

    Sensible people have not disregarded every weather forecast since, however.

    1. Peter2
      October 28, 2021

      Where have the OBR said Brexit will be far more damaging….NHL
      Are you making things up again like MiC used to do?

  14. Narrow Shoulders
    October 28, 2021

    Your chancellor and government need to realise, very swiftly, that it is our money they are spending (a lot of it not yet earned). Their generosity is standing on the shoulders of taxpayers.

    Yesterday, I saw further moves towards a command economy.

    Frightening

    #noneoftheabove

    1. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      +1

    2. glen cullen
      October 28, 2021

      Agree

      1. glen cullen
        October 28, 2021

        …and whats so surprising is the number of Tory MPs that are happy with Boris and his direction

        1. Micky Taking
          October 28, 2021

          baffling and soon to be unemployed, but not soon enough it seems.

  15. Old Albion
    October 28, 2021

    Budget !!! What a disappointment. Your Gov. had an opportunity to help with the spiraling cost of domestic energy. It could have removed the VAT, it didn’t.
    Rishi trumpets the reduction in duty on pub served beer, as if it was a magnificent reward to the working classes. 3p off of a pint ! I don’t know which pubs Rishi drinks in, but round here you can’t get a pint under £5.20. If he thinks publicans are now going to offer a pint at £5.17 he’s deluded.

    1. glen cullen
      October 28, 2021

      100% correct, its the sort of budget you’d expect if we where still in the EU with all their constraints, with no parliamentary majority

    2. Micky Taking
      October 28, 2021

      First challenge is to find a pub that a) is still open b) one that sells beer, usually food but hardly any pints c) with more than a tiny chance of still being open in the New Year.

  16. turboterrier
    October 28, 2021

    How sad it is that all these departments set up within departments still need to hear time and time again sound information and ideas on a considered direction of travel. Do these people ever leave the safety of their offices and actually get out and walk the talk with real taxpayers in all sectors of the communities. Are they like all the environmental scientists just glued to their computers planning for the next 30- 50 years writing new programmes just to justify their existence and wages and future pensions?

    1. glen cullen
      October 28, 2021

      MPs economics fact-finding tour of Singapore or MPs economic fact-finding tour of a housing estate in Pembroke ….its about the jolly not the evidence

  17. Nota#
    October 28, 2021

    Sir John – This was a budget not for growth, wealth creation or a future. It was a budget sacrificing a whole country on the religion of ‘ego’

    1. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      +1

    2. glen cullen
      October 28, 2021

      A big fat green ego

  18. Richard1
    October 28, 2021

    No point having a Conservative govt if we’re just going to have Brown style tax borrow and spend (and remember where that ended up)

    No point leaving the EU if we’re going for a euro-style social democratic big state model. May as well sort out the various issues with the EU by rejoining the EEA, Norway-style.

    The only possible positive way to look as it is there might be plans for a radical change with tax cuts next year, pre-election.

    What a waste.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      Indeed, but nearly all Chancellors we have suffered under in my lifetime have been tax borrow and waste people certainly (ERM) Major, (ERM Lamont), Darling, Brown, Osborne, Clarke, Hammond and now the sophistry (at best) of Sunak. Now we have the insanity of net zero on top of all this.

      Ken Clarke (to my mind guilty of appalling treachery and gross incompetence) but now in the Lords and back in the party nevertheless was on talk radio today saying how well Sunak had done yesterday. It rather says all you need to know.

    2. glen cullen
      October 28, 2021

      Don’t worry – Jam Tomorrow

      1. Micky Taking
        October 29, 2021

        oh no – not another XR protest?

        1. glen cullen
          October 29, 2021

          Thats too clever for this forum

  19. No Longer Anonymous
    October 28, 2021

    The BBC reports that the average family is worse of by £3000 per year since Boris came to power (including taxes.)

    We’ve also had lockdown for 18 months. Aren’t we ahead in our carbon cutting ? £3000 is a huge amount to lose per year and will be taken from family budgets for flying and luxuries.

    I note that people are being told by old rich people (Attenborough, Lumley, Sir Patrick Vallance) to eat less meat. Nice ! Old people tend to eat less meat anyway. Their bodies don’t need the protein so much and crave prunes.

    1. glen cullen
      October 28, 2021

      I’d suggest that all the current economic woes are self-induced and directly attributed to the interventions and policies of this government….we’d be better off if this government had stayed at home and did nothing

  20. jerry
    October 28, 2021

    Well of course, but the real question is what those tax cuts should look like, there is absolutely no argument for yet more high end income tax cuts, raising the lower end thresholds (including IHT) perhaps. Surely the best way of promoting & speeding economic growth is to slash either or both VAT and UBR, along with making planning consent a lot simpler/cheaper for those who want to set up a business and those looking to expand. The Chancellor did not go anywhere far enough on UBR in the budget, in fact more frequent reviews will likely mean many small traders productivity drops due to having to deal with UBR review paperwork rather than the actual work of their businesses!

    1. jerry
      October 28, 2021

      Why are Pubs & clubs treated as special cases, at least at the moment (!), why the changes in alcohol duties, the Chancellor claimed the changes were needed to stop people consuming drinks with high percentage alcohol but now we are back to the binge culture of old, getting as many low parentage drinks down as possible in the time available, the amount of alcohol is likely to increase – oh hang on, I see HMT’s point, the changes will actually increase the tax raised, ust hope all the A&E can cope….

      1. Micky Taking
        October 28, 2021

        The Government needs another catchy line – how about ‘drink out to save our pubs’ – oh dear that would never do. Or ‘drink out to save our Government’ not popular with Farage and some Parties.
        The safe one might be ‘drink out to save our NHS, but get a taxi home’ ?

  21. Oldtimer
    October 28, 2021

    The OBR should be renamed the Office for Number Juggling. You pointed out that it’s predictions made in March were worthless. This latest lot will be no better. Revisions to the current year are knee jerk reactions to what has already happened. The numbers posted for the last three years tell us they haven’t got a clue. It is evident that Johnson is either financially illiterate or does not care about the national finances. Sunak has joined him. His actions speak louder than his words.

    1. glen cullen
      October 28, 2021

      Scrape the OBR, its a distraction, its camouflage, its a smokescreen, its justification, its a quango, its take the job away from MPs, its takes the responsibility away from MPs

    2. jerry
      October 28, 2021

      @ Oldtimer; “The OBR should be renamed the Office for Number Juggling.”

      LOL, except that name has already been taken, although most people usually call it by its longer standing, more populist name “The Government”, especially those members who are appointed to work within the treasury by the PM of the day…

      The OBR could have be called ‘The Office of the Official Fall-guy’, but there again that name has already been taken by the NHS!

  22. Sakara Gold
    October 28, 2021

    If we want to offer tax cuts to the electrorate, government should re-think the proposal to adopt the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) funding model as a basis for continuing discussions with EDF for the construction of the proposed Sizewell C large nucear power station. RAB will expose UK energy bill payers to potentially unlimited costs should EDF fail to complete their European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) project on time. The government have announced a £1.7billion subsidy paymment to EDF – just to continue the discussions.

    EDF have been building an EPR nucear plant in Finland for 20 years. It is still not working and has delivered no electricity. They have not proved that EPR technology works. This is a huge risk for UK bill payers with the potential to become another £37billion Test and Trace disaster. If EDF will not accept funding under the CfD scheme, we should walk and award the nuclear contract to the Rolls-Royce small modular reactor scheme.

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      October 28, 2021

      Sakara, it’s the first thing you’ve said that I agree with.

    2. jerry
      October 28, 2021

      @SG; Indeed, and all because govts for the last 40 odd years want to hide spending off balance sheet, almost always for wholly party political reasons. When will the voting taxpayer wake up to the fact, we are on the hook to these projects whether they are funded directly by HMT or via PFI’s/RAB’s etc (either via our taxes or via our energy bills, in this case), the only difference being how much oversight the elected govt/state has.

      If it’s OK for the French State, via their controlling 84.5% ownership of EDF, can build a UK nuclear power station for the UK State why can’t the UK State resurrect the CEGB and build our own, even if that means using older but still safe technologies?!

      1. glen cullen
        October 28, 2021

        ”the UK State resurrect the CEGB and build our own” YES YES YES

  23. Nota#
    October 28, 2021

    Time to get a job working for the State. Guaranteed high wages without productivity, stacks of time of, a pension scheme that is paid for not as part of a wage but before the quoted net amount (everywhere else you get a gross salary, before deductions). If you need more just ask and the Government will dig deeper into the taxpayers wallet. Need to grow you department to build up your importance – just do it. Have a need for more administration and 3 tier management structures before front-line workers just do it – the Government doesn’t care. The Government has money to spare.

  24. Sakara Gold
    October 28, 2021

    The fossil fuel lobby has persuaded the government to “invest” £1.7billion on their “CO2 carbon capture” scam. A moment’s reflection on the unbelievable costs to energy bill payers of this blatant subsidy scheme shows that that if it had any prospect of working, the oil majors would have funded it themseves. The money would be far better spent on a LCOE competition between the various ultility scale energy storage proposals.

  25. Bryan Harris
    October 28, 2021

    Your comments based on experience and intuition regarding the economy strikes me as more than reasonable.

    Why do we have such a negative treasury and OBR?

    Will you press for an in-depth investigation of how the treasury works, and under what assumptions they now make decisions. It is time they were challenged to fully justify their actions!

  26. Nota#
    October 28, 2021

    The idea the state can intervene, subsidise, make clients of everyone, has expanded – and in parallel the sacred cows of the Left like the increasingly questionable NHS which is turning into a money pit have not been subjected to any meaningful reform at all.

    This Government will ‘give’ before the ‘invest for a definable return’

    What is this Government going to do for ME – is the new accepted mantra.

    1. Narrow Shoulders
      October 28, 2021

      Unfortunately for this voter the concern is is What is the government doing TO me.

      But you are correct, the desire for the client state is growing. Intersectionality, the new identity craze on the block, allows so many more to claim special needs.

  27. majorfrustration
    October 28, 2021

    I think Sir J that its time for the real Conservatives to show themselves otherwise the next election will see the return of Labour.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      All 50 MPs (?) of them!

      1. glen cullen
        October 28, 2021

        I only count about 20

        1. Micky Taking
          October 29, 2021

          LL sees inflation!

    2. agricola
      October 28, 2021

      Have a look at the way the Reform Party wish to approach our post Brexit opportunities. At present they are at periscope depth and I assume awaiting the best time to surface.

  28. Sir Joe Soap
    October 28, 2021

    Major philosophical difference then between you and the Party. You see tax cuts as a means to secure growth, and the Party sees them as a reward for the impossibility of achieving growth without ergo they won’t happen. Time to ship out.

    1. glen cullen
      October 28, 2021

      Wire words Sir Joe Soap

      1. glen cullen
        October 28, 2021

        Wise Words

  29. John Miller
    October 28, 2021

    I thought New Labour were appalling. I thought Therea May was appalling. I thought Johnson, previously an editor of the Spectator magazine would be different, but, he is er, appalling.
    Perhaps if he edited some Dickens, he might learn something of Mr Micawber…

  30. Nota#
    October 28, 2021

    Going through some of the ‘soundbites’

    Alcohol duty is being ‘radically’ simplified, different rates for different bevarages is ‘simplifying!’

    A levy placed on property developers, to fund the removal of unsafe cladding. Even though they never participated in its installation. This is the same cladding that was ‘Never’ approved and was completly banned in other countries as not safe. The property owners and landlords of the properties concerned, got to work on the ‘cheap’ and now get a get out of jail ‘free’ card by others. The properties should simply be handed over to the tenants to run as condominium, or a rent freeze until the owners sort the property out.

    Business rates are to be discounted, ordinarily that could be welcomed, but not when it is the whole system that should be replaced. There is no correlation between earnings and payments. The bigger the business the less you pay. In effect the small struggling ‘guy’ as elswhere has to subsidies the larger richer people/organisations. Its another fudge, a subsidy on a subsidy to fix a tax system like all UK tax systems that belong in another era. Any handouts/giveaways/subsidies are just fudges because the systems are inequitable, they inevitably lead to more and more complex costly sticking plaster moves.

    A 70 year high in tax take just gets bigger. Nothing to bolster the econamy and create wealth. A Socialist Budget

  31. a-tracy
    October 28, 2021

    The rise in national insurance is a mistake. At the time when the government have pushed up pay differentials by a whopping 6.6%.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      What sort of ‘pay differentials’ – between state sector and private or what?

      1. a-tracy
        October 28, 2021

        Pay differentials in any private company. If the lowest rank gets a 6.6% increase the next five grades expect a similar % rise, otherwise anarchy.

        If the State sector want to do true comparisons then their sick pay cover needs costing properly so they know how much that is worth per annum or give them the increase to the value of it and just pay SSP. Same with their pension if they want more money today give it to them (this government takes 50% back in tax anyway) and put them on NEST you can’t have both the 25% employer’s contribution is just a time bomb waiting to go off. Isn’t it amazing how they only pick private companies who used to be State owned. You can’t compare the public sector to an ex-nationalised industry who had to tupee. There are so many uncosted perks any comparison is futile from Enhanced maternity and paternity pay through to many extra days on top of the standard 28. It is all taken for granted because it isn’t discussed when comparisons are made.

    2. glen cullen
      October 28, 2021

      Correct – big mistake

  32. They Work for Us?
    October 28, 2021

    If we stopped the push for net or nut zero, no more subsidised wind farms and went for cheap reliable energy from gas from our own resources we could be one of the most prosperous countries in the world with much lower taxes. What do we have to lose?, virtue signalling for our politicians. There is a lack of scientific practical common sense , if a capacity of “x” wind power generates very little electricity on so called windless days then 2x installed wind power still will generate very little.

  33. a-tracy
    October 28, 2021

    One more thing, if people working in the NHS are on sick leave for more than 3 months with say a back problem that causes them problems on a ward are they redeployed into test and trace working from home? Does anyone look at all of the resources as you would in a private organisation and retrain people to offer telephone support in mental health care, a nurse would do this module during training wouldn’t they? Or offer their help to their local GP surgeries that are so overwhelmed apparently that A&E’s are filling up every night. This week a colleague had a mate who went to A&E recently with a leg broken in 3 places, the man had to be taken to hospital in the back of a van because the ambulance couldn’t get to him for 2 hours and he was lying outside in the cold! In another A&E this week a senior doctor came out at one stage and said they were having a problem and they’d be waiting hours, those that could go and see a GP the following day should go home because they couldn’t cope the waiting room nearly emptied! Another colleague took his father to A&E a bungee strap he’d put over a load in his trailer sprang and hit in right in the eye, lost his sight, in agony they sent him home to sleep upright in a chair and told him he had to do that incase the blood clotted on his brain.

  34. Denis Cooper
    October 28, 2021

    The OBR also helpfully volunteers that Brexit will be worse for the economy than the pandemic:

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/28/brexit-worse-for-the-uk-economy-than-covid-pandemic-obr-says

    “Richard Hughes said the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had assumed leaving the EU would “reduce our long run GDP by around 4%”, adding in comments to the BBC: “We think that the effect of the pandemic will reduce that (GDP) output by a further 2%.””

    If you have a year with no economic growth, for whatever reason, then that will inevitably have the effect of reducing your GDP for all time in the future, compared to having economic growth during that year.

    As the trend rate of growth of the UK economy has been somewhere above 2% a year for decades:

    https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2015/11/25/big-surge-in-tax-revenue-forecast-105-2-billion-this-parliament/#comment-790891

    it would not be surprising if the pandemic shifted the curve down by 2%.

    On the other hand I would dispute the OBR assumption that leaving the EU will reduce our long run GDP by 4%. Even the EU Commission says that it would have been only a 3% loss if we had left on plain WTO terms, but we will retrieve a quarter of that through Boris Johnson’s “fantastic” trade deal, and there are plenty of other sources which would put the impact as less than that, and some which say that it could be marginally positive rather than marginally negative.

    And once again we come back to the situation in Northern Ireland, where people have been told by at least two senior UK government ministers – Michael Gove and Brandon Lewis – that they are much better off staying under the rules of the EU Single Market even if that disrupts their trade with the rest of the UK.

    1. Denis Cooper
      November 1, 2021

      https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/budgeting-irresponsibility/

      “Why the OBR is wrong to claim that Brexit will cause a 4% drop in long-term growth”

  35. Derek Henry
    October 28, 2021

    Morning John,

    It’s not when but who you are going to give the tax cuts to that counts.

    Trump’s tax cuts added $1.9tn to the country’s fiscal deficit with little effect on the country’s ability to spend. He gave it to the Republican party donors. Who already have plenty of money how many yachts and big houses were they going to buy ?

    You could get away with that several years ago not now. Everyone is on to it.

    Adding to the fiscal deficit is good as you increase the private sector surplus. As Capitalism is run on sales the tax cuts really need to go to consumers. This will flow through to business as more profits. Give the cuts to people who are going to buy goods and services with it and not hoard it as gilts.

    Just like increased government spending you have to make sure we have enough skills and real resources available to absorb the tax cuts or you will drive inflation.

    NEVER persue government budget surpluses unless the economy is really heating up with inflationary pressures are everywhere and really cooking with gas. That’s when you take more currency out of the economy than you put in. That’s when you take people’s spending power away.

    As Trump showed when he broke every US government spending on record. Government spending is not the devil it has to be targeted at effective demand not aggregate demand.

    Only thing missing is what you do with the competition and MONOPOLY authority. Brexit Britain needs one with some real teeth. What we have is not fit for purpose. Businesses need to be scared of it and be treated like cattle not pets. They are there to produce if they aren’t off to the knackers hard with them.

    You ain’t going to increase productivity by increasing the pension under the myth of affordability. When we retire needs to be slashed to create competition for workers.

    Last piece of the jigsaw is a job guarentee managed from the bottom up not top down. Productivity will soar through the roof. As the employer of last resort the transition job between the public and private sector will set the floor on wages and competition will do the rest.

  36. glen cullen
    October 28, 2021

    With this government I expect tax cuts on the twelfth of never

    1. Peeved
      October 28, 2021

      They can’t cut taxes for the English, they are far too busy subsidizing Scotland to have free, free, free- as usual, paid for by the English.

      Would love to know what John Redwood has to say on this – he claims to speak for England.

      Latest:

      Henry Hill: Budget sees British cash put directly into Scottish projects
      https://www.conservativehome.com/thecolumnists/2021/10/henry-hill-budget-sees-british-cash-put-directly-into-scottish-projects.html

      1. glen cullen
        October 28, 2021

        Do you think that Boris wants to punish the English for our past indulgences; we’re being told that we brought slavery, carbon, industrialisation, a varied diet, war, segregation, rules and language to the world…nobody else just use.
        So 300 years ago there wasn’t any slavery, the environment was clean, everyone worked the land, everyone was vegetarian, there was peace in the world, everyone was equal, people didn’t need rules because every lived in harmony and self identified
        Sorry off on a tangent but why should we keep paying for others

  37. Pieter C
    October 28, 2021

    The rule about OBR forecasts is that they are ALWAYS wrong.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      October 29, 2021

      I’d widen and deepen your research old chap.

  38. glen cullen
    October 28, 2021

    Robert Jenrick (con) MP said today on the BBC midday ‘Politics Live’ programmes that the chancellor had introduced a fuel duty tax cut. The chancellor in the budget maintained a fuel duty tax freeze not a cut, do the Tory MPs believe their own hype.
    I hope someone is going to correct his statement to the nation

  39. Fedupsoutherner
    October 28, 2021

    Its’ not looking good John judging by the comments today. Please God, we can get a better alternative. When you think about it with first pas the post we don’t really have democracy. It means we will keep getting one of the three useless parties we have at the moment when I think there’s another alternative with some common sense.

  40. formula57
    October 28, 2021

    The poor U.S. third quarter G.D.P. number today may suggest the U.S. is now in recession, a view suggested by recent research co-authored by Dartmouth’s Blanchflower (he sometime of the M.P.C.). Accordingly, your call for tax cuts to stimulate growth becomes all the more urgent.

    Is the O.B.R fit for purpose at all, or is it like the Home Office and Defra?

  41. ukretired123
    October 28, 2021

    After decades of watching government inability to get things done it seems spending at record levels is the last resort to impress sadly!

  42. agricola
    October 28, 2021

    I saw it as a socialist budget, a distribution of largesse from the money tree. That which was given away like groundbait will be swallowed and overtaken by inflation. It rewarded the grey unproductive blob, the permanent sea anchor. There was little to facilitate the take up of all those advantages that Brexit has gifted us. In one word disappointment, if you need a second, despair. Cue the Reform Party stage right.

  43. Geoffrey Berg
    October 28, 2021

    The budget wasn’t what was needed either politically or economically. Sunak sprayed around bits of tax reliefs here and there. Many made some sense but the only one for which there seemed to be a really compelling case was reducing the taper on Universal Credit from 63p to 55p per £ for those in work. It would be much better politically for the Conservative Party had he instead bundled up all the small relief amounts and instead cancelled the forthcoming increase (contrary to their Manifesto promise)in National Insurance, at the very least for employees.
    The other element of the Budget was even worse-increasing the spending budget for every single government department. John Redwood asks to see what value it is buying. He hardly need bother. Unlike in a supermarket where you collect your purchases in a trolley and pay at the end, with Government all you might collect are promises while you pay-promises that will be broken through incompetence with nobody personally liable for the mistakes.
    Governments might ‘create’ employment by putting people in inefficient or even worthless jobs but governments certainly don’t create wealth. So real growth needs to come via the private sector, not the public sector. This Budget that is boosting public spending through taxing private sector income is just no good economically nor politically

  44. Andy
    October 28, 2021

    Taxes have had to go up to pay for your epic Brexit failure.

    When we undo Brexit, which we one day will, we can cut taxes.

    We just need to keep a little big back to pay for all the extra prison cells we need for the Brexitists.

    1. Peter2
      October 28, 2021

      Just like taxes are falling in your beloved EU
      Loo

      1. hefner
        October 29, 2021

        Wrong type of comment P2, what you should have pointed out is by how much taxes have also recently increased in EU countries.
        But obviously that requires a teeny weeny bit of work …
        So much better to be trolling. You’re so good at it, and it certainly doesn’t require much of a brain.

        1. Peter2
          October 29, 2021

          Oh hi heffy
          You seem very keen to respond to my every word.
          In a sense I’m a tiny bit flattered

          But can you try to do it on a same day basis.
          One or two days later is rather poor.
          PS
          I’m confused.
          Are you agreeing with me that taxes are rising and standards of living in the EU are falling.?

          1. Peter2
            October 30, 2021

            Oh dear it seems having demanded every post needs to be supported by research data hef has disappeared in a cloud of his own pomposity.

          2. hefner
            October 30, 2021

            What is to be preferred, pomposity or vacuousness?

  45. JoolsB
    October 28, 2021

    Interesting how a few extra billion of English taxes can be found to bung to the devolved nations on top of their already over generous block grants. Meanwhile in England where we receive thousands less per head, we English can look forward to a massive hike in our already exorbitant council tax bills next year thanks to them being denied funds for social care. Do you or any of your colleagues think this is unfair John or do they hold England in the same contempt as Johnson and this anti-English Government?

  46. Fedupsoutherner
    October 28, 2021

    25000 people expected to turn up to tge farce that is COP26. Please tell me it’s a joke. It just gets worse. We really have lost the plot and I’ve lost my patience with this ridiculous government.

  47. Sir Joe Soap
    October 28, 2021

    Not a good set of comments today is it?

    A sense of an out of touch government spending money like confetti on a useless NHS, devolved nations which thank the English by spitting at us.

    Next we’ll have Johnson on live microphone calling us all bigotted, but he’ll end up in the same place as Brown, out on his backside. His only salvation is that Knee bender Starmer would be worse.

    Not good, not good at all. Save us, somebody.

  48. Lindsay McDougall
    October 30, 2021

    Let’s have a review of the public expenditure side of fiscal policy. There are many projects that require capital expenditure, including more profitable private sector projects and defence expenditure on our Navy. Yet even with the tax increases, the OBR forecasts that the borrowing requirement in FY 2021/22 will be £173 billion. Given GDP of approximately £2 trillion, that means a borrowing requirement that is roughly 8.5% of GDP. If anticipated real GDP growth is 2% and money supply is expanded to finance the borrowing requirement, then we can look forward to 6.5% inflation. What other inflation forecasts are around? The BoE thinks it will peak at 4%, the Chancellor thinks that it will average 4% and people placing bets in the money markets reveal that they think it will be 6% [Source: Liam Halligan, an experienced financial journalist].

    Two conclusions: (1) Base rate and interest rates will rise very soon. (2) To begin to reduce the fiscal deficit, we will need to take an axe to welfare expenditure. How about this package? Reduce the Universal Credit cap from £20000 to £15000, raise the threshold at which any income tax is paid to £20000, and reduce the top rate of income tax to 40%. That will get the dynamics of human behaviour right.

    1. Lindsay McDougall
      October 31, 2021

      My policy might be very hard on single mums with young children, who really shouldn’t be working. But I’m only prepared to pay them more Universal Credit if the State makes a major and systematic attempt to track down absentee fathers and extract a contribution from them. “What’s it got in its pocketses?” is the question that should be asked. Scandanavian countries insist on financial contributions from absentee fathers; why shouldn’t we? And just to be clear, first families come first.

Comments are closed.