Tag Archives: jim pickard

Vince slams Osborne’s “schoolboy economics” (and the IFS aren’t keen on the Tories’ tax plans either)

By Stephen Tall | Mon 29th March 2010 - 2:15 pm

It’s only a few hours since shadow chancellor George Osborne launched the Tories’ plans to cut Labour’s proposed increases in employers’ National Insurance, and already you can start to hear the sound of it unravelling.

First up, Vince Cable, the Lib Dems’ shadow chancellor:

This is school boy economics. When you have a £70bn permanent hole in the Government’s finances you simply can’t propose cutting tax revenue unless you spell out exactly how you are going to pay for it. The Tories say they are going to pay for a cut in National Insurance through ‘efficiency savings’, but haven’t a first

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