Tag Archives: budgets

The Independent View: IFS Director Paul Johnson – Balancing the books: some unpalatable choices

By Paul Johnson | Mon 6th October 2014 - 9:30 am

Paul Johnson is Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. He will be speaking on ‘Balancing the books – tax and spending choices in the next Parliament’ alongside Ian Swales MP and Anne Fairpo of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, with BBC Scotland’s Business and Economy Editor Douglas Fraser in the chair, at 6.15pm on Tuesday at the SECC (Dochart 1). All conference attendees welcome.

We weren’t supposed to be here. When George Osborne delivered the Coalition’s first Budget in June 2010 the plans he set out suggested that the job of rebalancing the nation’s finances would be more or less …

Posted in The Independent View | Also tagged deficit and IFS | 13 Comments

Maybe tinned tomatoes are cheaper in Legoland…

By Newsmoggie | Tue 24th June 2014 - 8:50 pm

Oh Danny!

From the Telegraph, a full month before the silly season, an amusingly cringeworthy non-story:

As Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander is supposed to ensure that Britain does not spend beyond its means as he helps implement the Coalition’s austerity plan.

But the senior Liberal Democrat was left embarrassed when he found himself unable to balance the books when he joined in a children’s shopping challenge.

Pupils from Cauldeen Primary School in Inverness all passed the test for buying food for one person for a week within a £10 budget.
However,

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