Author Archives: Giles Wilkes

Opinion: How to make QE into good Liberal Democrat policy

By Giles Wilkes | Tue 9th March 2010 - 10:20 am

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 …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged bank of england, centreforum and quantitative easing | Leave a comment

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

By Giles Wilkes | Sat 11th July 2009 - 2:00 pm

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. …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged centreforum, public spending, recession and tax | 8 Comments