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PRIME Economics’ Co-Director writes on the accusation that ministers are holding Parliament in contempt for refusing to publish the full Brexit legal advice – is the Attorney General’s client the Government, or the public?
“The Coalition government inflicted quite unnecessary harm on the British people, which it has never acknowledged or apologised for. This Budget has to be judged by the extent to which it sets about repairing that damage”.
Prime Economics Co-Director Jeremy Smith and PEF Council member John Weeks analyse the “bar room budget-brawl” between the Italian government and the European Commission.
“Pandering to the ideas of a fragmented Conservative Party, rather than the needs of Britain as a whole, makes as much sense as managing an allotment entirely for the benefit of the whitefly.”
Much of the Chancellor’s upcoming Budget (October 29) risks being made irrelevant by the culmination of Brexit negotiations in the following month. But we should be aware of one announcement that is likely to have a lasting impact on the shape of government spending – the size of the ‘spending envelope’
In the face of growing pressure to call time on public spending cuts, the Chancellor is using Brexit uncertainty as ideological cover for the continuation of austerity.
Engagement with the deeper reasons for Brexit is a necessary demonstration of respect for the electorate, absent from much of the pro-Brexit lobby. The attempt to undermine these efforts on grounds of being ‘patronising’ is a classic neoliberal tactic, with origins in (neoclassical) economics.
Hammond’s deficit-reduction framework is an edifice with no grounding in economics. By ruling out borrowing for capital spending, the government will be forced to either underinvest in the UK’s future or wreak further havoc on frontline public services.
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