By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter In his article for The Sunday Telegraph Lord Ashcroft had some advice for George Osborne on how he should present his Autumn statement. Basically stop the Labour-bashing and don't pretend things are better than they are: "Swing voters chastised Labour for failing to see the crisis coming and make provision, […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Ealier I wondered – a little unfairly – if our Chancellor was becoming a bit like Gordon Brown with his nook and cranny interventionism. I also wonder if Mr Osborne is tempted to become a little bit like Peter Mandelson, too. Last week the former Deputy PM made the case […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter There are, crudely, two forms of compassionate conservatism. One form is about helping the strivers – the working poor. Cutting petrol duty, freezing council tax, tackling energy prices and raising the starting threshold for income tax are part of this agenda. The second form of compassionate conservatism is a broader […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Over at the Daily Mail Tim Shipman looks forward to a Boris V George leadership race and notes that the Chancellor is never likely to be as popular as London's Mayor with the public. Osborne's followers hope, however, that people will come to respect his economic stewardship even if they'll […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Last week I looked at the politics of abolishing the 50p tax band and don't want to revisit my conclusion that it needs to go as part of a very broad tax reform package. I'd be very surprised if George Osborne announces such a package tomorrow but that doesn't mean […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter At the Manchester Party Conference George Osborne appeared to become a multilateralist on climate change. This is what he told the Tory Conference: "We know that a decade of environmental laws and regulations are piling costs on the energy bills of households and companies. Yes, climate change is a man […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter It's not often Janet Daley and John Rentoul agree but they did yesterday. Their common complaint was George Osborne's Brownian tinkering with the economy. John Rentoul in The Independent on Sunday: "A few more schemes, complications and subsidies and pretty soon I shall have to go away and rethink my […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter If Osborne has got macroeconomic policy largely right (here) he's been very slow with microeconomic policy. Yes, the welfare, education and planning reforms will enhance long-term competitiveness but British business needs help now. Despite the urging of ConHome – and many more important than us – there was no big […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter This question has two parts. Part one is whether the Chancellor will deliver help for the little guy. There are encouraging signs. It looks like his tax cut priority will be petrol duty – a tax which falls very heavily on the working poor. He also intends to cap increases […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Over the course of today I'll suggest ten benchmarks with which to judge the Chancellor's Autumn Statement. Much of that Statement has already been pre-briefed. Some say this has happened in order to ensure maximum exposure for complicated initiatives like credit easing. Others, more cynically, believe that Osborne is getting […]