Tag Archives: paul johnson

How should we share the gain and the pain in the next Parliament?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 16th October 2014 - 10:25 am

That was the question the Resolution Foundation posed at a Lib Dem conference fringe meeting in Glasgow last week. Some of what follows was inspired by (ie, copied from) IFS Director Paul Johnson’s excellent LibDemVoice article, Balancing the books: some unpalatable choices, published last week. Some of it I’ve previously rehearsed in my ConservativeHome column, Make no mistake, these are deep and meaningful cuts – and there’s more to come. Anyway, here’s what I said…

“The gain and the pain.” I want to congratulate the Resolution Foundation on taking a glass half-full approach to the next five years. But I also want to challenge the premise of the question. Because – and I don’t want to be too depressing in what follows – I can see quite a lot of pain and I’m at a bit of a loss to see where the gain is likely to come from. Here’s why.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged IFS and resolution foundation | 7 Comments

A twin-track differentiation policy

By Mark Pack | Tue 18th December 2012 - 7:50 am

Here’s my take on yesterday’s speech by Nick Clegg, along with some further analysis from the IFS’s Paul Johnson and Conservative MP Robert Halpern, all via the World at One:

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged nick clegg and Robert Halpern | 1 Comment

Making work pay – how taxes should work better for the ‘squeezed middle’

By Stephen Tall | Tue 31st July 2012 - 5:45 pm

The Resolution Foundation helped give birth to the phrase ‘squeezed middle’: that group of low-income individuals and families just above the threshold to qualify for most welfare help, but only just able to make ends meet, and always in danger of slipping back into poverty.

Today they’ve published a report written by Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, identifying key reforms that could allow the tax and welfare system to redistribute more efficiently. Here’s the summary-of-the-summary: