By James Forsyth The Tories, who have been pumping out information at a ferocious rate all afternoon, are saying that taxes will rise by £2.2bn over the next 3 years. They are basing their calculation on page 164 of the Pre-Budget report and Comprehensive Spending Review, which is—in tune with the political buzz word of
By Fraser Nelson I now have the costings. This is indeed a tax raising budget. By 2010-11 they plan to net £1.4 billion extra in tax. Highlights are: £440m a year by “state second pension white paper reforms”…. Sounds dodgy…. Raise £500m from non doms, lose £1.4 billion on inheritance tax (nb Tory proposal would
The most important line was George Osborne’s: “From this day on let there be no doubt who is winning the battle of ideas.” That’s right. Darling was chasing the Tories in this statement in a way Gordon Brown never did – or had to – when he was Chancellor, although there was a hint of
I now have the costings. This is indeed a tax raising budget. By 2010-11 they plan to net £1.4 billion extra in tax. Highlights are: £440m a year by “state second pension white paper reforms”…. Sounds dodgy…. Raise £500m from non doms, lose £1.4 billion on inheritance tax (nb Tory proposal would have cost £3.5bn)
3:30pm: The House is in confrontational mood and Darling is off on a party political point scoring exercise straight away. First mention of aspiration, the new political buzz word. 3:35 Darling has just, as expected, downgraded his growth forecast for 2008 to 2 to 2.5%. Darling has adopted the Brown strategy of death by figures
This is a posthumous Brown budget. Let’s not forget he finished the Spending Review last year, but held it over to now updating it now and again. So you may see Darling’s lips move, but we will be hearing Brown’s voice. We will be blogging live on this, but we’re aware of the pit-falls. Here
From today’s Guardian: London Olympic organisers have been forced to abandon their original plans for the canoe slalom venue after the original site in Spitalbrook, Hertfordshire was found to be severely contaminated.
From 3PM, Matthew d’Ancona, Fraser Nelson and Allister Heath will be leading Coffee House’s coverage of the Pre-BudgetReport and the Comprehensive Spending Review. Can Alistair Darling wrestle back the political agenda from the Tories and help Gordon Brown put his nightmare week behind him? Join us from 3pm to find out.
At the risk of infuriating Coffee Housers (and Polly), I rather like Polly Toynbee. She’s good company and we chatted happily before appearing on Marr on Sunday. It’s just that she’s wrong, and particularly wrong about tax. See her article in today’s Guardian, calling on Gordon to open up clear red water between himself and
The fall out from the election debacle continues this morning. The ‘young Turks’ surrounding Gordon Brown—principally, Douglas Alexander, Ed Balls and ED Miliband—are receiving much of the blame. One junior minister tells Rachel Sylvester, “I’m in despair about the cack-handedness of these arrogant little sods…These people don’t understand politics, they speak at think-tank seminars, not
It is good for the soul to be reminded what a sharp and funny writer Christopher Hitchens was in the days before he collapsed under the weight of his own pomposity. Over the weekend, to take my mind off the excitement in Westminster, I picked up his 1988 collection, Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays
Tomorrow night from 6:45 pm, we’ll be broadcasting via this site a debate on the motion, “We should not be reluctant to assert the superiority of Western values.” There is an all star cast of speakers involved. David Aaronovitch, Douglas Murray and Ibn Warraq are speaking for the motion while Tariq Ramadan, William Dalrymple and
I hear on the grapevine that Darling will tomorrow announce a “review” of inheritance tax. If so, Brown again risks derision about his claim to be a “conviction politician”. In the long run, it’s worse to be seen as a flip flopper than a tax grabber.
Every time I’ve stood in a queue waiting for these No10 press conferences, the chat is usually “he’s really screwed now.” We’re usually disappointed. Same this time. This was neither the triumph nor the crucifixion many had predicted. Here’s my summary. 1) No speech: Blair would always start his hour-long press conferences with a little
At his monthly press conference, Gordon Brown is keeping up the pretence that the polls had nothing to do with his decision not to call an election. But this is completely absurd as virtually every newspaper was told that Brown was going to study the polling data and then make up his mind.
It’s always a pleasure to hear Will Hutton on the radio, the perfect antidote to the idea that the battle in politics is over. He justified inheritance tax on the basis that “society” deserves a slice of other people’s savings: of course, he meant the government. To me, the dividing line is between society and
In the FT this morning, Philip Stephens neatly sums up how Gordon Brown got into this current mess. There is more to this episode than a miscalculation of the public mood. The story so far of Mr Brown’s premiership has been one of the noise before defeat; of tactics without strategy. It seems an odd
Perhaps, the best guide to the mood in Brown world this morning comes in Jackie Ashley’s column in The Guardian. Ashley admits that Brown has had a terrible week and that his TV performance was less than convincing. Yet, she writes that Brown is unlikely to take his frustrations out on those who so stoked
Official: Gordon Brown bottles it. The News of the World poll showing the Tories with a six point lead in the marginals may have something to do with it. Tee hee: Alex Salmond calls Brown a “big feartie”. Also: “Those whom the gods seek to destroy they first render ridiculous, and this shambles leaves Gordon
Sympathy? You gotta be kidding me. The New Zealand press has not – suprise! – taken France’s stirring victory in Cardiff yesterday very well. Of course, like their neighbours across the Tasman Sea they’re not quite so insufferable in defeat as they are in victory. Even so, schadenfreude* demands that one scour the Kiwi press