When a growing economy still feels bad
James Plunkett
This post orginally appeared on Coffeehouse
David Cameron was right; the good news has kept on coming. This morning’s first estimate from the ONS puts GDP growth in the third quarter at 1.0 percent. Cue much justified squabbling over what the 'real' number is. A significant portion of this growth will be a one-off, post-Jubilympics bounce-back, suggesting slower underlying growth. As Jonathan pointed out yesterday, ONS first estimates have a margin of error of 0.7 percentage points, meaning that even with these factors...
Tough news for living standards from the OBR
James Plunkett
Yesterday’s budget had been pre-billed as a boost to living standards, and in particular as targeting the ‘squeezed middle’. Of course, for most in the group this was always going to be small beer in comparison to the impacts from last year’s Spending Review and emergency budget. But overall, did yesterday bring good or bad news for low-to-middle earners?
Osborne has not solved the cost of living crisis
Gavin Kelly
This blog first appeared on the New Statesman.
Stand back from the detail of today's Budget and what we observe is Britain's political class trying – and failing – to respond to the crisis in living standards facing Britain.
They are doing this at the same time as they, of course, seek to outmanoeuvre their political opponents and build support among their friends. One manifestation of this will be the growing tussle over tax cuts, which will increasingly dominate party politics in the years ahead.
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