Lots of ideas are bandied around on here, but the main thing is that they have to convince the voters that it's necessary. The pattern in recent budget speeches is to reel off a set of numbers o… (View Post)

And that would be net. Arguably the country could do with a bit more spending on a few priority areas (such as criminal justice, defence and preventing the collapse of social care) so you need to fin… (View Post)

Yes, you'd expect the rate to go down by a lot if a Chancellor was able to pass the many unpopular measures required to balance the budget. There'd be a serious increase in fiscal credibili… (View Post)

The implication is that the decision is done and the resignation would be tomorrow, were it not for the fact that the May elections are imminent. (View Post)

Part of the problem is that Britain has a large stock of debt that continues to need to be refinanced. Even were a government able to cut the deficit to zero, if the interest rate on new bonds stays … (View Post)