Jeremy Hunt: Liz Truss Economic Plans Were ‘Good Thing to Aim for’

THE GUARDIAN: Exclusive: Leaked recordings reveal chancellor ‘trying to achieve some of the same things’ as former prime minister

Jeremy Hunt said Liz Truss’s economic ambitions were a “good thing to aim for” and her disastrous mini-budget hadn’t left an impact on the economy, according to two leaked recordings obtained by the Guardian.

The chancellor was recorded at a meeting of students when he said he was “trying to basically achieve some of the same things” as the former prime minister, but that he was doing it “more gradually”. » | Jessica Elgot and Aletha Adu | Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Of ducks and clowns… If it looks like a clown, walks like a clown and talks like a clown, then it just may be a clown! – Mark Alexander

Teachers and Nurses Face Tax Increase after Mini-budget Hands Out to Bankers

THE OBSERVER: Research by the Liberal Democrats shows that key workers will be worse off next year but top bank bosses will enjoy huge perks

Liz Truss’s government is promising a cut in the basic tax rate, but freezing the tax thresholdPhotograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Teachers and nurses will see their income taxes increase next year while top bank bosses will enjoy a cut worth more than £100,000, according to a new analysis of Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget.

While the tax-cutting package brought forward a promised reduction in the basic rate of income tax from 20% to 19%, that cut will be more than offset by a decision to freeze the point at which people start paying tax. It means that some key workers will be paying more income tax next year.

A teacher on a starting salary of £25,700 will see their income tax rise by £121 in 2023-24 once the threshold freeze is taken into account, according to research by the Liberal Democrats. An NHS nurse will also face a £107 rise. Meanwhile, a top banker earning £2.5m will enjoy a tax cut of more than £117,000. » | Michael Savage and Jon Ungoed-Thomas | Saturday, September 24, 2022

This woman is shameless! She has a face of brass! The sooner the electorate dumps her, the better it will be for us all.

She appears to like to compare herself to Margaret Thatcher. Dream on, Truss! Margaret Thatcher even though she was in so many ways a wonderful leader, had her faults and weaknesses, too. But one thing she had which Truss doesn’t have is any understanding of Christianity. Thatcher’s background, by contrast, was steeped in Christianity; moreover, Truss’s lack of understanding of Christianity shows in her uncaring policies.

I thought we had reached rock bottom with BoJo, but Truss has stolen the prize even after just a few days in office! – © Mark Alexander

The Guardian View on Broken Markets: Time to Take Back Control

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: The need to rebalance the public and private sectors, and rein in market excess is becoming the new common sense in UK politics

When a poll finds that almost half of Conservative voters favour taking the energy industry into public ownership, and a former adviser to Tory governments describes the privatisation model for energy and water as broken, it seems fair to surmise that a laissez-faire economic orthodoxy that has lasted more than 30 years is on the ropes.

The scale of the looming energy catastrophe, as bills rise to unaffordable levels for households and small businesses, has been primarily driven by the external shock of Russia’s war in Ukraine. But as Sir Dieter Helm, professor of economic policy at Oxford University, argued in an interview with the Financial Times on Monday, the crisis has exposed the deficiencies of a market that was not, in any case, fit for purpose. Energy and water, he said, are “too essential to be treated like another commodity, as some of the architects of the privatisation, liberalisation and competition paradigm believed”. » | Editorial | Monday, August 29, 2022

Coalition Lacks Vision, Says Vince Cable

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, has admitted in a leaked letter that the Government lacks “a compelling vision of where the country is heading” after the financial crisis.

The Liberal Democrat minister described elements of the Government’s economic policy as “frankly, rather piecemeal” and said it was not clear how Britons would “earn our living in the future”.

The leaked letter, sent by Mr Cable to David Cameron and Nick Clegg last month, is evidence of a growing rift between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats over economic policy in the run-up to the Budget. Senior Liberal Democrats have broken with recent convention by being increasingly vocal in their demands for new taxes on expensive properties to fund greater tax breaks for low-paid workers.

There are also growing disagreements over policies to boost economic growth with the Conservatives blaming Mr Cable for blocking initiatives to cut unnecessary red tape for private firms.

In his five-page letter sent to the Prime Minister and his deputy on Feb 8, Mr Cable criticises the Government’s failure to develop a coherent industrial policy.

After praising Coalition measures to restore the public finances, the letter says: “I sense, however, there is still something important missing: a compelling vision of where the country is heading beyond sorting out the fiscal mess; and a clear and confident message about how we will earn our living in the future.” Read on and comment » | Robert Winnett, Political Editor | Tuesday, March 06, 2012

This Profligate President! Barack Obama Is Refusing to Listen to Reason on Economic Policy
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama could learn from the old-fashioned German habit of saving money before spending it, argues Jeremy Warner.

Barack Obama will meet other world leaders at the G20 summit. Photo: The Telegraph
Rarely has the dismal science of economics inflamed such passions. While the "cuts versus growth" debate has been building steadily for more than a year on both sides of the Atlantic, over the past week it has exploded into open international hostilities.

A compromised form of words will already have been agreed for the communiqué to follow this weekend's meeting of G8 and G20 leaders; the sherpas who do the preparatory donkey work for these stage-managed events will have ensured it.

But behind the anodyne platitudes of any statement, the tensions have reached fever pitch. Gone is the co-operative consensus that, in adversity 18 months ago, brought G20 nations together to fight the downturn.

In its place lies a clear line of demarcation that almost exactly mirrors our own political debate in Britain over the economic consequences of George Osborne's Emergency Budget cuts. Yet though this debate masquerades as high intellect, it has about as much to do with economics as the outcome of the World Cup.

President Barack Obama, backed to some extent by Nicolas Sarkozy of France, wants economic stimulus to continue until the global recovery is unambiguously secure. In the opposite corner is Germany's Angela Merkel, now oddly aligned with Britain's new political leadership in thinking the time is right for fiscal austerity.

Like much of what Mr Obama says and does these days, the US position is cynically political. With mid-term elections looming and the Democrats down in the polls, the administration hasn't yet even begun to think about deficit reduction. Obama is much more worried by the possibility of a double-dip recession and the damage this would do to his chances of a second term, than the state of the public finances.

As it happens, the public debt trajectory is rather worse in the US than it is in Europe, yet Obama has adopted an overtly "spend until we are broke" approach in a calculated bid for growth and votes. Read on and comment >>> Jeremy Warner | Thursday, June 24, 2010

Obamonomics: A Definition >>> Mark Alexander | Saturday, March 07, 2009

Eurozone to Speak with One Voice?
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNAIONAL: The EU's monetary affairs commissioner has called for far-reaching new powers for the European Commission. He would like Brussels to have greater control over economic policy in euro zone countries -- and even wants its members to speak with one voice on the international stage.

Opponents of the European Union claim that Brussels already has too much influence over the internal affairs of the EU's 27 member states. They are unlikely to be thrilled by the news that a leading EU official is calling for far-reaching new powers for the EU's executive branch when it comes to member states' economic affairs -- and even foreign policy.

EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia (more...) wants the European Commission to have more clout in all areas of economic policy. In the future, the Commission should be able to supervise and coordinate reform efforts in the countries of the euro zone, in order to promote more competition in Europe's product and services markets, including the market for financial services. The proposals are contained in a report marking the 10-year anniversary of the euro which Almunia will present on Wednesday. EU Commissioner Wants Far-Reaching New Powers for Brussels >>> | May 5, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
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