Tag Archives: autumn statement 2013

Stephen Tall

“Osborne’s waving an enormous red flag” – Social Liberal Forum’s warning to Lib Dems over Autumn Statement

By Stephen Tall | Wed 11th December 2013 - 10:15 am

Prateek Buch, director of the Social Liberal Forum, has an article in today’s Independent – The Lib Dems should not sign up to Osborne’s austerity straitjacket – issuing a stark warning to his fellow Lib Dems to take note of the “enormous red flag” he says was waved by George Osborne in last week’s Autumn Statement.

That flag was the Chancellor’s pledge for the economy to move into surplus by 2018/19, within the course of the next parliament. To achieve that – what, in effect, was the original Alistair Darling plan to eliminate the deficit over two parliaments …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 27 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Autumn statement – 5 quick thoughts from me

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 5th December 2013 - 2:54 pm

I don’t pretend to be an economist so don’t expect any commentary on debts or deficits from me. I want to take a very quick look at some of the practical aspects of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. You can read Stephen Tall’s take on it here.

I’m not taking any marriage tax break

If Liberal Democrats hadn’t allowed the Tories their awful marriage tax break, we’d have been breaking the Coalition Agreement in the same way as the Tories did over Lords Reform. I would have preferred we hadn’t agreed to it in the first place. We won’t be voting for …

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Posted in Op-eds | 28 Comments
Stephen Tall

Autumn statement: George is jubilant, Ed blusters and Danny breathes a sigh of relief

By Stephen Tall | Thu 5th December 2013 - 1:50 pm

“A lot done, a lot left to do.” It’s the slogan that adorns many re-election campaigns and it’s the one George Osborne adopted in his autumn statement today. He was cautiously jubilant. Growth has returned with the OBR seemingly struggling to get its forecasts to keep up. Borrowing will fall – slower than the Chancellor forecast, true, but a cash surplus is expected within five years.

This gave the Coalition the wriggle room it needed for an assortment of giveaways… Free school meals for 5-7 year-olds, the personal income tax allowance to rise to £10k then be pegged to inflation, …

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged | 9 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Danny Alexander on Autumn Statement: Our stronger economy will help us deliver a fairer society

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 5th December 2013 - 12:58 pm

Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has emailed Liberal Democrat members to highlight what we have brought to the Autumn statement which, he says, is “packed full of Liberal Democrat ideas.” Here it is in full.

Our greatest achievement in Government has been bringing our economy back from the brink of Labour’s disaster.

On Wednesday, I set out how we are literally re-building the fabric and infrastructure of Britain.

Today, we have delivered an Autumn Statement that clearly shows we are making real progress in rebuilding our economy after the ‘car crash’ Labour years. Growth is improving. There are record levels …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 6 Comments
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