There was widespread coverage of the new paper by Vince Cable on fiscal policy, published yesterday by Reform.
Economist
The Economist’s Bagehot blog praised the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor as being “the real winner of today's fiscal tussle”, with a paper offering “specific and credible ideas” for restraining public spending.
BBC online
In her BBC blog, Stephanie Flanders commented on the political debate on cutting the budget deficit: “The only politician who committed content in this area today was Vince Cable, who produced a decent list of places to start cutting.”
Independent – Vince Cable interview
In an interview with The Independent, Vince Cable discusses the UK economy a year after the credit crunch: “His party won't like it, but he says there are ‘no sacred areas’ for cuts – ‘we cannot say that the NHS must be completely ignored but we cut everything else,’ he argues. He says that everything has to be justified ‘from first principles’. He wants to be specific.”
Independent – Hamish McRae
In a comment piece on the UK’s economic recovery, Hamish McRae refers to the size of fiscal contraction proposed in the paper: “Vince Cable, who seems to have become the nation's favourite financial GP, suggests an eight per cent correction over five years. Writing in a new pamphlet published by the think tank Reform, he suggests that the situation is more serious than the Government acknowledges and that some £110bn a year has to be saved.”
CentreRight
In a blog on CentreRight, Lucy Parsons, Senior Economics Researcher at Reform, challenged the Conservative Party to set out their own credible plan for reducing the UK’s public spending.
Other coverage
The report was also covered in Telegraph, Times, Spectator Coffeehouse, BBC online, Guardian,
Comment is free, LibDemVoice, Reuters, Public Service, Money Marketing, City A.M. and Sky.
Gordon Brown said yesterday for the first time that public spending cuts would be needed. Meanwhile, the Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, said he would introduce a “cuts” Budget within weeks of a Conservative general election victory, rejecting the Prime Minister’s claim that such a move would “derail the recovery” (; ; Guardian; Independent; Mail; Express; Sun; Mirror).
Radical proposals to get thousands of unemployed people back into work by slimming down the number of benefits available are launched today by the Centre for Social Justice. Appearing on The World at One, Patrick Nolan, Reform’s Chief Economist, called for a different approach that aimed to reduce the welfare bill in order to help the fiscal crisis. He criticised the “merry-go-round” in which middle class families pay taxes and receive benefits (WATO; FT; Telegraph; Guardian; Independent; Mail).
The pound fell and yields on government bonds sank to record lows yesterday after Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, warned households and businesses of a “slow and protracted” recovery (; ; Mirror).
The number of Britons on unemployment benefit climbed by 210,000 to 2.47 million in the three months to the end of July, the highest level since 1995, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed today (Telegraph; Times; Independent; Guardian; Express; BBC Online).
Banks will face limits on the total amount they pay their staff in bonuses until they meet more demanding capital requirements, the Financial Stability Board, an international body of regulators and central bankers, agreed yesterday (FT).
Unions are being urged to back a motion that would keep the East Coast Mainline publicly owned. ASLEF, the rail union, has called on the Government to “ban” National Express from ever running a rail service again (BBC Online).
A new poll by the Association of British Insurers has revealed that over 60 per cent of executives in Britain’s insurance firms are considering leaving the UK because of tax reasons (Telegraph; City A.M.).
BT is expected to start a broadband, phone and TV “price war” this autumn, after Ofcom, the communications regulator, lifted rules preventing the company subsidising its fixed-line phone services (Telegraph).
ITV suffered a setback yesterday when the Competition Commission decided not to heed the broadcaster’s pleas to allow the company to increase the rates it charges advertisers (FT; Telegraph).
The number of submarines in a new fleet designed to carry the UK’s independent nuclear deterrent could be cut from four to three, Defence Secretary, Bob Ainsworth, said yesterday. George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, indicated that a Conservative government would make cuts to major defence projects, including the Navy’s new aircraft carriers (FT; ; Times; Mirror).
School league tables should be scrapped because they promote a culture of “teaching to the test”, according to a report published today by the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, Britain’s biggest exam board (Telegraph).
The privacy watchdog would have its powers substantially increased by an incoming Conservative government as part of a drive to push back the boundaries of the “surveillance state”, Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Justice Secretary, will say today (FT; Telegraph; Guardian; BBC Online; Express).
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, has rejected claims that the Conservative Party control Scotland Yard, stating that he is the “sole captain” (Times; Independent; Guardian).