Monday’s speech and today’s announcement show them choosing their ground for the next election. And since Hunt may find no money for further tax cuts next spring, the option of a May general election is opening up.
We need higher public sector productivity, lower costs of government, and a lower deficit. This can advanced with tax cuts which lower prices, create more supply, and boost incomes and profits to tax at home.
The expensive subsidy creates a domestic training bottleneck, whilst this country’s demand for healthcare workers is met through immigration.
The evidence from the local elections is not that the voters are abandoning the Tories to back Reform or Ukip , but parties of the centre and the left. Their situation is bad, but it can be made worse.
In terms of fiscal policy, if the wider economic picture does not allow the debt to GDP ratio to fall, then the focus of the markets will be on the need to keep the public finances in shape.
My argument is simply one of affordability (including, by the way, by dropping the triple lock) if our public finances are going to be sustainable.
Combined with windfall taxes on both fossil fuel and renewable energy generation, Britain’s business tax regime is getting less, not more, competitive.
Ministers must make a priority of controlling our borders and stimulating growth with a tax-cutting, pro-enterprise agenda.
Ministers have protected some of the most vulnerable people in society, during some of the most challenging times the country has faced. They should now adapt the Social Metric Commission’s measure of poverty as a national statistic.
Universal Support was always meant to sit alongside Universal Credit, specifically focused on helping written-off groups. But it was cut by an impecunious Treasury.
A collection of responses to today’s statement from the CPS, IEA, ASI and others.
“Long term, sustainable, healthy growth that pays for our NHS and schools, finds jobs for young people, and provides a safety net for older people all whilst making our country one of the most prosperous in the world.”
Jeremy Hunt presents to Parliament the Government’s plan centred on his so-called Four Es: Enterprise, Education, Employment and Everywhere.
Tax incentives are all well and good, but the Government also needs to tackle the discrimination faced by too many older people in the workplace.
82.5 per cent of all jobs in this country are in the private sector. Of these, 61 per cent are in the SMEs – small and medium-sized enterprises. In other words, over 50 per cent of all jobs in the United Kingdom are now in small businesses.