Author Archives: Giles Wilkes

Opinion: How to make QE into good Liberal Democrat policy

In the last week, there has been a silly fuss about the risk posed by a hung parliament following the next general election. Nick Clegg has scotched the idea that the Liberal Democrats would undermine stability. In fact, his party has taken far more steps than the others to demonstrate credibility to the markets. Cherished policies have been sidelined in the interest of stablity.

The UK’s leading economics writer, Martin Wolf, agrees that there is nothing to fear from minority government, adding: “I cannot be the only person who believes that Vince Cable is far better qualified …

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Opinion: Property and consumption taxes need to rise to fix the fiscal mess

Politicians everywhere are being urged to get real about the fiscal mess. For the last month, this has meant a bitter dispute about the government’s spending figures. Who will cut the most? For any numerate observer, the debate is trivial: a rising bill for interest payments and the social security budget make it inevitable, no matter what contortions Brown attempts in disguising the figures, and no matter who is in power.

CentreForum has just published a new report about Britain’s fiscal mess, called A balancing act: fair solutions to a modern debt crisis. …

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Recent Comments

  • William Wallace
    For the record, I think that it's people like me who should accept that they have to be taxed more: that's better-off, but not enormously-wealthy, retirees with...
  • John Bicknell
    In the GE of 2024 the central issue was 'get the Tories out', and the Lib Dems benefited from this, chiefly in the south of England. The next GE will not revol...
  • David Evans
    Indeed Jason, you are absolutely right. Just add to it all rural areas that have received nothing but a few slops for years and now Labour have stolen huge amo...
  • David Evans
    I agree with Hwyel, but a bit more brutally. Labour won in 2024 because 1) Johnson being seen for what he was - an incompetent bluffer in way beyond his ...
  • Peter Martin
    The UK is already a very socially liberal society by world standards. We only need to watch a TV program from the 70s to know how far we've come since then. Mos...