Do the stamp duty stats add up?

I just got some stats about how many homes bought in the last year would have been covered by the stamp duty suspension were it to have come in 12 months ago. I'm surprised by the number frankly - no doubt I've spent too much time in London where a place for £175,000 is something of a pipedream. Sales last year that would have been caught were as follows:
- Between Jan and Dec 2007 - 320,129 sales
- Between May 2007 and Apr 2008 - 294,846 sales

There...

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Faith schools shouldn’t get special treatment

Since 1997, faith schools have been peddled as a way to deliver high quality education – first by Blair, and now by Cameron and Gove. Sure, they may get impressive results. But to judge them on that basis alone ignores the gross unfairness, elitism and favouritism that lie at their heart.  

As a state funded institution, faith schools should have the same selection policy as any other state school. The discrimination on the basis of faith at entrance denies many pupils the opportunity to get a high quality education. This is hardly in...

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Hail the moderate president

The news is in: the next U.S president will be a moderate. Why? Because whoever is elected in November, the Democrats look set to increase their share of congressional seats and may even win enough seats in the Senate to overcome Republican attempts to block legislation.

Currently, Democrats have a 51-seat majority in the 100-member Senate. They would need 60 seats to end debate on legislation and send it to the Senate floor for an up-or-down vote. All 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats will be up for election...

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The economic storm clouds darken

The respected Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has forecast that the UK economy will shrink by 0.3 percent in the third quarter of this year, and by 0.4 percent in the fourth. In other words, they’re predicting a recession for this year. 

Ok, so it’s hardly surprising news. After all, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics had the economy at 0 percent growth for the second quarter – indicating that we’re already in recession. But it does add weight to the argument that the Tories need to find an alternative to their “sharing the proceeds of growth formula” sooner rather than later.    

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Dice are loaded against Brown

The news that stamp duty is to be axed on houses costing less than £175,000 is rather underwhelming—the Tories proposed abolishing it on homes under £250,000 last year but is indicative of the problems that the government is going to have with its re-launch. The best chance for a successful re-launch would have come from a genuine period of silence over the summer followed by the rollout of a set of new initiatives. Instead, what we are seeing is confirmation that variously extensively trailed ideas are going to be implemented...

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