Tag Archives: economy

Nick Clegg says coalition “staunch opponents” will work together till 2015

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 22nd May 2013 - 6:30 pm

Much attention has been given in the news to Nick Clegg’s and David Cameron’s remarks on the future of the Coalition. Both were keen to emphasise that the Government would stick together until 2015. I’m never sure it’s wise to assert these things so strongly when there was never a realistic prospect of a split anyway. The attempts of some in the Conservative Party to deflect attention from their own torrid internal relations by spreading nonsense about a plot to unseat Nick Clegg, or suggesting his jacket is on a shoogly peg if the European elections don’t go well are …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged coalition and nick clegg | 3 Comments

Opinion: Art for Wealth’s sake

By Simon de Deney | Wed 8th May 2013 - 11:58 am

Pity the artists. The writers, sculptors, composers, musicians and actors. We believed we were struggling in our 21st century garrets, eking out an existence, surviving on our day jobs. At least we were suffering for our art. Only it turns out that we have been bitterly deluded. The latest report from Arts Council England (ACE) demonstrates with forensically gathered evidence and logic that we’re off the scale when it comes to ROI (that’s Return On Investment as any thespian will now tell you).

Outperforming

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR)’s study for ACE shows ACE gets less than 0.1% of …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged arts and arts council of england | 11 Comments

Clegg defends Coalition: “We inherited from Labour an economy teetering on the edge”

By The Voice | Wed 1st May 2013 - 8:58 pm

Nick Clegg was interviewed while on the campaign trail in Lewes today for Channel 4 News by Gary Gibbon — here’s a 6-minute excerpt in which Nick explains the steps the Coalition has taken to rescue the economy since 2010:

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Posted in YouTube | Also tagged gary gibbon, local elections 2013 and nick clegg | 13 Comments

Relief as 0.3% GDP growth shows economy flat-lining not shrinking. Has the Coalition’s mid-term slump bottomed out?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 25th April 2013 - 11:35 am

Reading too much into quarterly GDP figures is, of course, a mug’s game. They’re noticed mainly by avid Westminster-watchers and frequently revised both up and down.

None of that means they don’t matter, though. They frame the way politics is reported in the here and now. And that can affect what happens in the future. They can create momentum, or they can stop it dead.

A triple-dip recession, against market expectations of a modest 0.1% increase in GDP, would’ve been a severe blow to the Coalition’s message that, surely but slowly, the medicine’s working. As it is, the actual 0.3% …

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Posted in News | Also tagged featured, gdp and nick clegg | 9 Comments

Vince Cable talks about helping regions

By NewsHound | Sat 20th April 2013 - 4:06 pm

From the Guardian:

The business secretary, Vince Cable, has highlighted the serious disparities between different parts of the country in economic performance and job prospects.

He was speaking at a conference designed to boost local enterprise partnerships, the government’s chosen vehicle for regional business growth.

Cable said: “There are worryingly high disparities between economic performance and employment prospects in different parts of the UK, and those areas that become highly dependent on the public sector face particularly difficult challenges.”

Liberal Democrat ministers have often talked of the need to ensure that all parts of the UK benefit …

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Posted in News | Also tagged regional growth fund and vince cable | Leave a comment

Opinion: Putting the political back in economy

By Joe Bourke | Tue 16th April 2013 - 10:59 am

“The Liberal Democrats are working for a stronger economy in a fairer society enabling every person to get on in life.” What key policies will reinforce this simple message? How do we ensure that economic liberalism supports and advances social democracy?

My answer to these questions lies with the words of J K Galbraith – “economics does not usefully exist apart from politics. The separation of economics from politics and political motivation is a sterile thing. It is also a cover for the reality of economic power and motivation. And it is a prime source of misjudgement and error in economic …

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Posted in Op-eds | 16 Comments

Blair misses the point on the pre-crisis deficit

By Nick Thornsby | Thu 11th April 2013 - 2:34 pm

Writing in this month’s centenary issue of the New Statesman, former prime minister Tony Blair writes:

Labour should be very robust in knocking down the notion that it “created” the crisis. In 2007/2008 the cyclically adjusted current Budget balance was under 1 per cent of GDP. Public debt was significantly below 1997. Over the whole 13 years, the debt-to-GDP ratio was better than the Conservative record from 1979-97. Of course there is a case for saying a tightening around 2005 would have been more prudent. But the effect of this

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged austerity | 52 Comments

Opinion: Osborne’s mortgage scheme is the worst of both worlds

By David Thorpe | Mon 25th March 2013 - 9:53 am

Perhaps the best outcome from the Chancellor’s budget announcement that the UK Treasury is to underwrite billions of pounds worth of mortgages has been the muted reaction to it.

In a budget which was distinctly underwhelming, the Chancellor must have hoped that his latest attempt to ‘get the banks lending more’ would be hailed in the same way that previous populist capitalist measures, such as the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme were.

Most economic decisions are empirical, and there are valid points to make on either side of any argument.

But the Chancellor’s plan has nothing to recommend it. It will do …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged budget 2013 | 53 Comments

On Budget day: What Lib Dem members think of the Coalition’s economic policy and ring-fencing of spending

By Stephen Tall | Wed 20th March 2013 - 8:10 am

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 650 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

Just 26% of Lib Dem members support Osborne’s ‘Plan A’

Thinking of the current state of the economy and the Coalition’s approach, which of the following statements is closest to your own view?

20%

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll and News | Also tagged education, featured, foreign aid, NHS and schools | 8 Comments

The boom years were the dream. This is reality

By Nick Thornsby | Thu 14th March 2013 - 11:44 am

Pieces of writing can do lots of things: challenge, comfort, exasperate, inform, entertain. Occasionally, though, one reads a piece that, in prose far more clear, lucid and fluent than one’s jumbled thoughts, nonetheless perfectly describes those thoughts.

I’ve long been a fan of The Economist’s David Rennie, and have praised him here on the Voice before. Last summer he took over the paper’s Lexington column (in tragic circumstances), but before that he was for two years British political editor and author of the weekly Bagehot column.

In May last year he wrote one of those columns I describe …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david rennie, featured and the economist | 65 Comments

Opinion: Is Vince writing for the Economist?

By Joe Otten | Wed 13th March 2013 - 8:13 am

A leader in the latest Economist offers the UK a growth plan that involves structural reforms, infrastructure spending and monetary policy changes while maintaining fiscal discipline. Particular highlights include a more welcoming attitude to talented immigrants, and Land Value Taxation.

The tax system could also be changed to promote growth. One reason why companies sit on development land is because they do not pay taxes until the offices and warehouses are built. It would be much better to tax the land value: that would make hoarding expensive and force owners to sell to someone who can use

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged the economist and vince cable | 1 Comment

Opinion: Cable’s New Statesman article presents a classic Liberal Democrat dilemma

By David Thorpe | Tue 12th March 2013 - 9:05 am

The reason Vince Cable stood so far above his Labour and Tory counterparts during the financial crisis was his unique combination of economic subtlety and political guile; his rivals possessed those attributes the reverse way around.

In his much mentioned essay in the New Statesman entitled ‘When the facts change should I change my mind?” Cable shines a light on the dilemma serious politicians face in trying to balance the economic and political concerns inherent in policy making.

The essay, which takes its title from a famous JM Keynes quote, debunks a number of the left’s cherished myths, and delivers …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged vince cable | 6 Comments

UK loses its triple-A rating – George should’ve listened to Danny

By Stephen Tall | Fri 22nd February 2013 - 10:40 pm

The BBC reports tonight’s predictable news:

UK’s AAA credit rating cut to Aa1 by Moody’s
The UK has had its AAA credit rating cut by Moody’s, based on its expectation that growth will “remain sluggish over the next few years”. The ratings agency became the first to lower the UK from its highest rating, to Aa1. … The UK’s net sovereign debt was the equivalent of 68% of the country’s annual economic output, or GDP, at the end of last year. All three major credit agencies last year put the UK on “negative outlook”, meaning they could downgrade its rating if

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged credit agencies, Danny Alexander and george osborne | 54 Comments

The Independent View: Clegg is right to worry about the North

By Graeme Henderson | Thu 21st February 2013 - 3:27 pm

The North once again compared fairly unfavourably to the south in yesterday’s unemployment figures. It’s safe to assume it will do so again in next month’s figures, and the month after that. While political commentators note the UK’s slide towards a triple dip, most people outside London don’t need clinical economic definitions to tell them that money is tight.

But let’s be clear, this disparity is not a consequence of idleness, nor has it happened by chance. Public policy and investment decisions have made it all but inevitable. London has vast infrastructure spending exemplified by Crossrail, a Government proactively …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | 9 Comments

Putting the party’s message in a distinctively liberal context – Part 2: the economy

By Nick Thornsby | Thu 31st January 2013 - 12:37 pm

This is the second of three posts looking at the party’s messaging. The first was published here yesterday; the last and final post will appear tomorrow.

The first half of our message emphasises economic competence: bringing back (as David Laws once put it) Gladstonian Liberalism to the Treasury and setting us up to be competitive in a fast-changing, globalised economy.

So far, much of the focus has been on our willingness to take “tough decisions”. Here, for example, is David Laws speaking to the Independent recently: “in the past people have known we stood for a fairer society but have …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged doha trade talks, featured, free trade and party strategy | 64 Comments

Nick Clegg’s letter from the leader: People count

By Joe Otten | Sun 27th January 2013 - 10:20 am

This week Nick covers the economy, the fall in unemployment, the big problem with David Cameron’s speech on the EU, and rounds off with reform of the royal succession.

The point that while the economy is weak, employment is surprisingly strong is something that is perplexing the economists (video) and I’m surprised it doesn’t get more attention.

It hasn’t hit the headlines, perhaps because the fall in unemployment was thought to be a blip. But after over a year, this is clearly something to be welcomed. I’d like to …

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Posted in News | Also tagged act of succession, brexit, european union, letter from the leader, nick clegg and unemployment | 8 Comments

Opinion: Euroscepticism is bad for UK manufacturing

By William Hobhouse | Wed 16th January 2013 - 10:59 am

In February 2012, Vince Cable flew to the US to meet with the Chief Executive of General Motors to make the case for why they should continue to invest in the UK for the long term. The BBC reported that the meeting may have played an important role in the company’s decision 3 months later to commit to invest in Ellesmere Port rather than at another of their EU plants.

It is lucky, perhaps, that this investment decision did not come up one year later. Vince would have had a few less cards in his hand. Michael Heseltine put it …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged business, eu and liberal democrat campaign for manufacturing | 5 Comments

LibLink… Nick Clegg: Labour need to tell us what they would cut

By The Voice | Wed 2nd January 2013 - 2:41 pm

Nick Clegg has issued a challenge to Labour in today’s Times. Rather than, he says, oppose every single cut the Coalition has made, Labour should be saying what they would cut to pay for their policy priorities. If Labour want benefits to rise at the rate of inflation, then they need to spell out exactly how they would pay for it.

Firstly, he talks about what the Coalition has achieved for economic growth, and how it has been pragmatic on cutting the deficit, changing its plans as the global economic circumstances changed:

Here in the UK we have now paid off around

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged benefits, labour, nick clegg and the times | 90 Comments

Opinion: So what’s really wrong with the economy?

By Geoff Crocker | Mon 10th December 2012 - 9:54 am

The autumn statement was reminiscent of the 1961 Sid James film ‘Carry on Regardless’. Austerity policy is not working, and the claim that it will work is constantly pushed to the far future. What’s wrong? There is nothing wrong with the real supply side economy. But there are two crucial things wrong with the financial economy, meaning that we have a crisis of demand, not of supply. These are:

1. Disposable income has grown significantly less than GDP

2. Financial orthodoxy insists on balancing government accounts

Between 2001 and 2007 when the crisis hit, GDP grew by 19.5% but disposable income by only …

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Posted in Op-eds | 59 Comments

Autumn Statement: the good, the bad and the ugly

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 5th December 2012 - 2:17 pm

So, the Chancellor has given his Autumn Statement. Liberal Democrat reaction is likely to be at best mixed. Will people feel that the balance of tax and benefit measures is sufficient to support our claims that we are making the system fairer?

Osborne painted a fairly gloomy economic picture. The growth forecast is under 3% for the next 5 years. Austerity will continue way beyond the next election. It’s in that context that his measures must be judged.

Let’s take a brief look at the key points from a Liberal Democrat activist’s point of view:

The good – Lib Dem gains

Steve Webb’s Pension …

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Posted in News | Also tagged Autumn Statement 2012, george osborne and nick clegg | 38 Comments

LibLink: Christine Jardine..A coffee with a sweeter taste

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 5th December 2012 - 11:27 am

Christine Jardine was until this Summer a Liberal Democrat Special Adviser at the heart of Government. She is now back working full time in politics in Scotland and writing occasionally for the Scotsman.

This week she’s turned her attention to the fact that large corporations like Starbucks don’t pay tax in the UK and reflects on the good that local, independent coffee shops bring to the community:

As I sat there enjoying my Americano, eyeing up the chocolate cake and cinnamon swirls, I began to think about the value that the entrepreneur behind the counter had brought to my community.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged christine jardine, scotsman, small business and tax | Leave a comment

David Howarth: liberals should increase indirect taxes

By Mark Pack | Wed 21st November 2012 - 10:25 am

Martin Tod recently drew my attention to a short publication from David Howarth published over the summer about levels of public spending: Spending and Growth – a response to David Laws.

As the title suggests, it is primarily a response to someone else’s views on appropriate levels of public spending:

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Posted in News | Also tagged david howarth, david laws, liberal insight and martin tod | 7 Comments

Eliminating the structural deficit is aiming for the wrong target

By Mark Pack | Mon 19th November 2012 - 10:53 am

There is an appealing simplicity behind the idea of having a zero structural deficit. It is the policy the government is committed to, with its plans to eliminate the structural deficit. And it’s also wrong.

For all the problems in measuring the structural deficit accurately, the concept is a useful one – to measure what the deficit is, once you have allowed for where we are in the economic cycle. Or, as the FT puts it, “A budget deficit that results from a fundamental imbalance in government receipts and expenditures, as opposed to one based on one-off or short-term factors”.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged deficit, deficit reduction and featured | 19 Comments

Opinion: Get real about corporate tax

By Geoff Crocker | Wed 14th November 2012 - 2:25 pm

Companies currently pay corporation tax in the country where they are incorporated. A campaign is under way, in the Guardian, and the Commons Public Accounts Committee, that companies should instead pay tax where they make their sales. The proposal has populist appeal, but is impracticable.

Many companies, including UK companies, make export sales without costly incorporation in each sales country. If a US coal producer sells 1m tonnes of coal to UK powerplants for £100m, and makes £5m profit, it submits accounts in the US for tax authority scrutiny, and pays US tax on the £5m. Should this profit be …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged business, corporatoin tax, guardian, public accounts committee and tax | 29 Comments

What’s happened to real wages over the last 25 years?

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th November 2012 - 2:50 pm

This little presentation from the Office of National Statistics has the answer. It’s packed full of interesting information, presented in a very clear manner:

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Posted in News | Also tagged minimum wage and office of national statistics | 17 Comments

Opinion: Growth has returned, but what does it reveal?

By David Thorpe | Wed 7th November 2012 - 1:59 pm

One of the few tactically savvy moves made by the coalition recently has been its muted response to UK economy’s return to growth. This article examines what the return to growth means for the wider economy.

The first point to make is that, just as the double-dip phase of the recession was caused by international events, the return to growth has similarly been caused by external factors. The coalition deserves neither blame for the double-dip, nor credit for its ending.

Many of those who oppose the coalition’s economic policies on political rather than economic grounds question the validity of the …

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Posted in Op-eds | 5 Comments

Opinion: Tough Choices – Yes, but local politicians must grasp opportunities as well as challenges

By Shaffaq Mohammed | Tue 6th November 2012 - 11:49 am

I doubt that there are many councillors who are unaware of the scale of the country’s financial difficulties. Yet whatever your prescription for resuscitating the British economy, politicians of all parties agree that reducing the deficit is a crucial piece in the puzzle.

Regardless of your views on the Government’s strategy, it is clear that reductions in council budgets are a reality. The challenge for councillors is to best adjust to the new climate and mitigate the impact on the services that people care about most.

I do not believe that the way forward is to abandon all council services, leaving local government as a sole provider of social care. Rather, local government should be taking the lead in innovative ways of thinking – taking bold steps to cut waste, not just services.

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Also tagged local councils, sheffield and sheffield council | 4 Comments

Opinion: Will Special Branch be knocking on the Old Lady’s door?

By Bill le Breton | Tue 6th November 2012 - 9:09 am

Today three reports have been published into the operations of the Bank of England. None of these pose the killer question: why, when for month after month in 2008 the UK’s Gross Domestic Product in money terms (the NGDP) fell from its stable long term annual growth rate of +5% to -5% a year, did the Monetary Policy Committee stubbornly maintained the Bank’s interest rate at 5%?

This excellent blog by Britmouse details, details the quarterly falls in NGDP and the inertia of the Bank which has the power to set the level of aggregate demand in the economy.

It is …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged bank of england | 10 Comments