On Wednesday (25th) the Chancellor will announce the results of a one-year Spending Review, setting departmental limits for 2021-22. This will not be a full Budget – let alone a multi-year programme of tax increases or spending cuts. But there is still a huge amount of (mostly unhelpful) speculation about what might be in it, … Continue reading The Chancellor should continue to let the deficit take the strain
Author: julianhjessop
Book review: “The Elephant in the Room” by John Mills
John Mills’ new book, The Elephant in the Room (published by Civitas and the John Mills Institute for Prosperity), leads with a dire warning that UK living standards may be lower in 2030 than in 2019, but counters this with the bold claim that the economy could grow sustainably by 3% to 4% a year instead, if … Continue reading Book review: “The Elephant in the Room” by John Mills
Why a tax on homeworking is a really bad idea…
Researchers at Deutsche Bank (DB) have proposed an additional tax on people working from home ‘to help those who cannot’. This would break just about every principle of good tax design and is one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard. Let me explain... As I understand it, the proposal is for a 5% tax … Continue reading Why a tax on homeworking is a really bad idea…
Lockdowns fail the cost-benefit test
The Spectator has published a SAGE paper outlining a ‘reasonable worst case’ scenario leading to an additional 85,000 Covid deaths in the UK, even with some partial mitigation. It’s hard to know what to make of this figure without a better understanding of what would happen if the government did nothing. (The paper assumed that … Continue reading Lockdowns fail the cost-benefit test
