Heron's Eye: 24/11/08

Darling plans £20bn giveaway to tackle year of recession 24/11/08
“Alistair Darling outlined an audacious plan today to tackle the economic crisis by using a £20bn package of tax cuts and handouts to tempt shoppers to spend their way through a rocky twelve months, and support struggling firms.” [Guardian]

Pre-budget report: live 24/11/08
[Guardian]

Retailers welcome cut in VAT to 15% 24/11/08
“Retailers gave a broad welcome to the chancellor's well-trailed 2.5 percentage point cut in VAT to 15%, but store executives and their suppliers believe it will make little immediate difference to consumer spending.” [Guardian]

Pre-budget report - rolling roundup of political reaction 24/11/08
[Guardian]

Bold, imaginative – and it might just work 24/11/08
A mendacious analysis of Darling’s pre budget speech by Will Hutton. [Guardian]

Unflashy Alistair Darling is a hard man to hit 24/11/08
Michael White analyses Alistair Darling’s role and effect on the proceedings of the Pre-Budget Report. [Guardian]

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Grimsdale's Ire: 30/10/08

Gordon Brown urges banks to keep lending 30/10/08
“Gordon Brown today called on the banks to keep lending to small businesses despite the global credit crunch.

The prime minister welcomed a commitment by the European Investment Bank to make £4bn available to provide finance to firms in the UK.” [Guardian]

Alistair Darling urges banks to use £4bn from European Investment Bank 30/10/08
“Alistair Darling today urged the banks to use a £4bn package of support from the European Investment Bank to help small and medium-sized businesses through the credit crunch.” [Guardian]

Card demand 30/10/08
“Gordon Brown yesterday demanded that lenders who provide store and credit cards must change their rules to make it more difficult to repossess homes. The prime minister's intervention came after Shelter warned that up to 5,000 homes repossessed last year - out of a total of 27,100 - were from people who took out "second-charge" loans. These can be people who take out a loan against their home to pay off cards. The Treasury wants the Finance and Leasing Association, which covers the £11bn "second-charge" market, to draw up a code of practice in line with that adopted by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, which stipulates that a lender should take a debtor to court to repossess a property only if they have exhausted other options.” [Guardian]

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Heron's Eye 30/10/08

Throwing out the rulebook 30/10/08
“Alistair Darling and George Osborne gave opposing explanations yesterday for why government borrowing is on the rise. In last night's Mais lecture, the chancellor told a simple story: extraordinary times require extraordinary measures - and what could be more extraordinary than a historic banking crisis? By breaking targets on public debt, the government was being not profligate, but pragmatic. Labour was "spinning a virtuous strategy out of extra borrowing", retorted his Conservative shadow, when really the public finances had been in a mess for years.” [Guardian]

Labour launches attack on George Osborne's economic competence 30/10/08
“Labour today launched an all-out assault on George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, by releasing a dossier that accused him of a lack of judgment (pdf) on the global financial crisis and "schoolboy errors" in his spending plans.

The document highlighted Osborne's early opposition to the nationalisation of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, his support for a Tory report advocating the deregulation of the mortgage market, and his pledges on fuel duty and hospital beds.” [Guardian]

Swinney's still got a real fight on his hands 30/10/08
Ian Swanson assesses the difficulties that the SNP are facing in attempting to introduce the local income tax in Scotland. [Scotsman]

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Heron's Eye: 30/10/08

Chancellor demands cheaper petrol as Shell posts record profits 30/10/08
“Alistair Darling today called on oil companies to pass on lower costs to consumers by cutting petrol prices as Royal Dutch Shell posted a 71% rise in profits.

The chancellor said that he wanted the recent drop in the oil price, which has halved in recent months, to be passed on to the pumps as soon as possible.” [Guardian]

Government accused of breaking rules over Sellafield decommissioning plans 30/10/08
“The government was last night under pressure from parliament's most powerful watchdog committee to re-open consultations on the deal which has landed taxpayers with the bill for nuclear accidents and leaks when a private consortium takes over the decommissioning of Sellafield next month.

Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, has written to Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary, telling him that his ministry had broken Treasury rules and failed to given MPs the opportunity to object to the indemnity to private firms.” [Guardian]

Ministers accused of arrogance over 128-day parliamentary session 30/10/08
“Opposition politicians have accused the government of "arrogantly" misusing its oversight of parliamentary business, as it emerged yesterday that the number of days MPs would attend parliament in the next session would be the smallest since 1979-80.” [Guardian]

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Heron's Eye: 28/10/08

The toilet roll of reason and the burger box of justice 28/10/08
Through examining the day’s Parliamentary debates, Simon Hoggart humorously highlights some of the hyperbole connected with crime and punishment. [Guardian]

Alex Salmond hints at concessions on local income tax plan 28/10/08
“Alex Salmond has signalled a significant switch in economic policy as his plans for a new local income tax for all wage earners came under sustained attack from Alistair Darling.

The first minister said during campaigning in the Glenrothes byelection yesterday that his government was considering major concessions to win over critics of proposals to replace the council tax with a new 3p in the pound income tax for local services.” [Guardian]

I think I made a mistake, admits Osborne 28/10/08
“George Osborne attempted yesterday to draw a line under the row over his contacts with a Russian billionaire when he admitted he had made a mistake in discussing a donation from Oleg Deripaska during his summer holiday in Corfu.” [Guardian]

Brown and Sarkozy unite in call for increased IMF funds 28/10/08
“Gordon Brown tonight received the backing of French president Nicolas Sarkozy for a substantial increase in the resources available to the International Monetary Fund to stop the "financial contagion" from spreading around the world.” [Guardian]

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