LDVideo: Mark Pack gets Paxo’d over the autumn statement

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LDVideo: Mark Pack gets Paxo’d over the autumn statement

By Nick T | Thu 6th December 2012 - 1:53 pm

Voice co-editor Mark Pack made his debut on Newsnight’s political panel last night, discussing the politics of the autumn statement. You can watch his thoughts below, or on YouTube here.

* Nick Thornsby is a day editor at Lib Dem Voice.

Read more by Nick T or more about Autumn Statement 2012.
This entry was posted in News.

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7 Comments

Chris 6th Dec '12 - 2:25pm

Did Mark Pack really think the Lords were going to vote on the Autumn Statement?
Mark Pack 6th Dec '12 - 5:20pm

Chris: No, I was referring to one of the pieces of legislation announced in it.
Chris 6th Dec '12 - 5:43pm

But surely the Lords won’t vote on it, as it’s a money bill?
Richard Dean 6th Dec '12 - 10:40pm

I think Mark definitely passed the Paxo test. Survived with dignity, and got some good points across. Well done!
Malcolm Todd 6th Dec '12 - 11:36pm

I don’t think welfare bills are classed as “money bills” — I think that just refers to measures for raising money rather than spending it.
Malcolm Todd 6th Dec '12 - 11:38pm

In fact, having posted that, I thought “Don’t be so lazy” and went and looked it up:
“A Money Bill is a Bill that deals with national taxation, public money or loans and their management. It is only considered to be a Money Bill if the Speaker of the House of Commons agrees that it is. The Speaker signs a certificate to indicate this. The most important Money Bills are those that deal with taxation bills or the Consolidated Fund Bills that formally vote money to the government.”

So, yes I think the Lords will get a vote (especially as it’s up to Speaker Berkow to decide whether to give it a free ride!).
Chris 7th Dec '12 - 9:20am

“A Money Bill is a Bill that deals with national taxation, public money or loans …”

It would deal with “public money”, wouldn’t it? More specifically “the appropriation, receipt, custody, issue or audit of accounts of public money” (my emphasis):
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-information-office/p05.pdf

We’ll see, but I wonder if Osborne is really so wise to emphasise the fact that the measures in this statement primarily penalise those on the lowest incomes. It’s certainly not much help to the Lib Dem narrative about the raising of the tax threshold.