Many thanks to the excellent NIESR which has pointed out that if the Chancellor has more money available than he previously thought (and he does), then the obvious thing to do with it is to invest it.
We have had 13 years of austerity and all it has led to is low growth, low productivity and low wages. Without changing tack the country will have another 10 years of the same, in the doldrums.
The NIESR says the Chancellor has the money for tax cuts or to raise the level of state investment from 2% of GDP to 3%.
The obvious point to make is that the Tories still don’t get it, just listen to the calls for tax cuts at any and every turn, whether the government has the money or not. Look at the Chancellor’s spending plans, which mean real cuts for many departments. Decades of putting tax cuts ahead of spending have resulted in a disaster for the UK economy but the party is not going to change its spots. Especially not now, with an election coming. It will go for tax cuts.
But as the NIESR makes clear investment is the only sensible policy because “In its absence, the UK is set for a decade in the doldrums and poor prospects for regional regeneration”.
There you have it in a nutshell, invest and get growth, or tax cuts and get more of the same anaemic growth, you would think the Tories would have worked this one out by now.
But no they still believe their own fantasy economics, especially when it calls for tax cuts ahead of an election; strange that.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media
"We have had 13 years of austerity and all it has led to is low growth, low productivity and low wages."
And unrelenting, grinding poverty for many, while Tory Party Ministers pillage public funds to lavish on their mates and Party donors.