Spring Statement

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...starmer-kemi-badenoch-uk-politics-latest-news

Another 1.6 billion of cuts to be found. The statement is around half past 12. Inflation down 0.2 percent is a very small win.

 

UK welfare reforms threaten health of the most vulnerable https://www.bmj.com/content/388/bmj.r593

 

Rachel Reeves pretending she knows what she's doing . Wonder if she will be updating her Linkedin profile again any time soon...

 

The media portray a 0.2 drop in inflation as a small win, while a 0.2 increase is positioned as calamitous armageddon.

 

It's about time we rejoined the EU customs union and kick start growth with a closer relationship with Europe.

We can't trust Trump so we need to make sure we are closer to our closest trading partners.

 

It wasn't great, which we all expected. Times are going to get tougher for many, especially our poorest.

 

It's a no brainer.

 

There's been a drop in inflation.

Is that good news?

Yup

Cool, so stuff will be cheaper?

Nope

Will it stay the same price?

Nope

It'll go up?

Yes, but you remember when inflation was really high and stuff quickly cost twice as much as it used to be? Well it's now even more expensive than that, and it will continue to get more and more expensive, but it won't do it quite so fast.

 

There are an awful lot of people who don't understand what an inflation figure actually means. Your excellent explanation should be used in a TV public information film.

 

Along with an explanation as to why small amounts of inflation are much better than deflation.

 

Exactly, because nowt ever goes down

 

Yes falling prices is usually the result of a full-blown recession.

 

Inflation drop was largely due to a fall in the price of women and children's clothing.

 

I imagine a few on here will have benefited from that.

 

I'm subscribed to Dan Neidle's mailing list (tax expert who was responsible for shining the spotlight on Nadeem Zahawi's dodgy tax affairs), who sent out this summary on some of the background stuff in the statement that wasn't part of the speech today.

This is good to see, albeit it will go largely unnoticed in terms of the headlines.

 

we should do a poll to find out exactly how many

 

Suspect article says 'avoidance' when it's actually 'evasion' that's being cracked down on.

This will seemingly raise an estimated extra £1bn on top of a previously estimated £6.5bn.

Edit: not enough to stop 50k kids being pushed into relative poverty due to benefit cuts.

 

He's actually referring to tax avoidance in his statement. I read in more detail after posting and it's aimed at the 'industry' of people selling tax avoidance schemes, usually which fail to deliver any benefit to those buying them.

Tax evasion is illegal in any circumstances, so doesn't need further legislation but does need more stringent enforcement than the last government were providing.

 

Such as the dodgy customer who "advised" Frankie Dettori.

 

She has referenced evasion not avoidance. It's not legislation she's planning but more funds for technology to help HMRC. Of course these are estimated figures, we'll have to see how they match up with the actual outcomes.

https://www.ftadviser.com/spring-st...ancellor-to-crackdown-further-on-tax-evasion/