Skip to main content

The Guardian view on Treasury fiscal rules: no way to run a country | Editorial

Instead of sticking to arbitrary limits, politicians should be able to make the case for spending on urgent social repair

The UK has had seven sets of fiscal rules since 2010. In a study comparing it with 34 peer nations since 1985, Britain not only changed its rules more frequently but they also had shorter lives. Clearly fiscal rules are not immutable laws of nature but arbitrary, human-made restraints. Implicit in this model is a dim view of human nature: that politicians cannot be trusted to resist the temptation to abuse government spending programmes for political or ideological ends. The result is that, instead of a political leadership that spends too much, Britain has politicians who spend too little.

This is no way to run a country when there is urgent social repair needed. Instead, on Wednesday, Jeremy Hunt appears ready to deliver a budget full of tax giveaways and cuts to struggling public services to meet his fiscal rules. Labour should offer an alternative. Unfortunately, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, echoed Mr Hunt’s narrative and ditched the party’s flagship £28bn green investment pledge.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/F7bTnDt
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

England booed off after failing against Iceland once more in Euros warm-up

It was a long way from being the triumphant Euro 2024 send-off for Gareth Southgate and his England players at a sold-out and increasingly fretful Wembley. Never mind the result because it was not the main thing, however much it stirred memories of you-know-when against Iceland. It was the performance that raised the difficult questions, the worst one for quite some time and at exactly the wrong time. The home fans, thousands of whom made for the exits before the end, were forced to watch the second half – from about minute 55 onwards – through the gaps between their fingers. And it had not been great before that. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/4ndfQL0
Post a Comment
Read more

Manchester City in title driving seat after cruising to win at Leeds

The title stare-off becomes steelier with each week. Elland Road was at its raucous best and a highly motivated Leeds played well enough to ensure Manchester City rarely neared full stride. Nevertheless the leaders mastered the situation, showing they can win via set pieces when means of higher aesthetic merit elude them. Rodri and Nathan Aké proved the point with goals in each half, garnished later by Gabriel Jesus’ sixth in three matches and a Fernandinho daisycutter, and Pep Guardiola’s delight at the outcome was obvious. This had been a possible banana skin, with the potential leveller of such a highly charged atmosphere; instead City cruise on and Leeds, who are in genuine danger of going down, must seek more viable routes to safety. This encounter had an edge from the outset. It needed to, because the heat had been turned up on both teams. City would have expected Liverpool to achieve what was necessary at Newcastle; Leeds might not have banked on Burnley’s turnaround at Watford...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bins ‘overflowing’ in parts of England as Covid hits collections

Staff sickness in areas including London, Gloucestershire and Somerset leads to waste services being scaled back Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Bins across parts of England are reportedly “overflowing” with rubbish from the festive period due to Covid-related staff shortages. London, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Buckinghamshire are among the areas where councillors have warned that bin collections are being scaled back because of staff sickness. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3qIHK0C
Post a Comment
Read more