“Higher public spending and debt interest payments have blown a £10bn hole in Rachel Reeves’s budget plans just days before the Chancellor launches another tax raid. In the final set of borrowing figures before Ms Reeves delivers her second Budget, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the deficit stood at £17.4bn in October. That was £3bn higher than expected by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and means the Chancellor has already borrowed £116.8bn this financial year to plug the gap between tax receipts and public spending. It means borrowing to date was £9.9bn higher than predicted by the watchdog in March. The ONS blamed higher inflation for pushing up costs, including higher welfare payments and pay rises for public sector workers. With just days to go until the November 26 Budget, economists widely expect Ms Reeves to embark on another tax raid on households and businesses, with some predicting increases of up to £25bn to balance the books. While debt interest payments eased to £8.4bn in October, the annual figure is expected to remain above £100bn a year for the rest of the decade. Ms Reeves is widely expected to extend a stealth tax on incomes, and raise more money from expensive homes, gambling taxes and pensions through salary sacrifice schemes.” – Daily Telegraph
Comment:
>Yesterday:
“Childhood was ‘brought to a halt’ by draconian Covid lockdowns, the damning official inquiry found yesterday. Young lives were blighted even though the ‘vast majority’ of children were immune to the deadly virus, it added. Their education and wellbeing were sacrificed to save their elders. In her highly critical report, Baroness Hallett, chairman of the Covid-19 Inquiry, said closing schools and nurseries in early 2020 ‘were steps taken to protect the adult population – they brought ordinary childhood to a halt’. She added: ‘For most children, the closure of schools, the inability to see friends and the requirement to stay at home, were of profound consequence.’ Teachers and parents are now struggling with children who are slow to pass key milestones, due to the huge impacts of the unprecedented 2020 shutdown. In a landmark report into the devastating effects of the pandemic, Lady Hallett concluded:
Last night Jacob Rees-Mogg, who served in the Cabinet throughout the pandemic, said the inquiry was right to conclude that children had been let down.” – Daily Mail
Comment:
“Sir Keir Starmer is expected to formally approve a new super-sized Chinese embassy in the heart of London next month after being given the green light by MI5 and MI6. The Times has been told that the Home Office and the Foreign Office will not raise any formal objections to the plan, providing that appropriate “mitigations” are put in place to protect national security. The two departments, which represent the security services, are expected to submit their formal responses to the planned embassy in the coming days before a decision is made on December 10. A Whitehall source said the embassy’s approval was likely to be a “formality”. Starmer is also expected to travel to China next year as Britain seeks to bolster economic relations with Beijing, despite concerns that it is carrying out large-scale espionage against the UK. Tensions between Britain and China have grown since the collapse of a spy trial in which two men — Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry — were accused of passing information on to Beijing. The pair deny wrongdoing, and the case was brought to a halt after the government refused to describe China as a threat to national security. China had warned of “consequences” if its new UK embassy was not given planning permission. A decision on the development at Royal Mint Court, near the Tower of London — above a vast web of fibre-optic cables used to carry information into the City of London — had been delayed repeatedly.” – The Times
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