View from Westminster
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I agree with Professor Philip Cowley, and have signed up to his Campaign to Scrap the Budget. He would also do away with the King's speech, for the same reasons, that such occasions of parliamentary theatre give governments an incentive to put short-term gimmicks above serious policy development. Much of our pre-Budget coverage is about Rishi Sunak's desperate search for a tax cut that voters will notice, in the hope of obscuring the Tory record of tax rises, which were needed to pay for lockdown and energy support. A lot of other media coverage implies that it is the "left-wing" and "inaccurate" Office for Budget Responsibility that prevents Jeremy Hunt handing out fistfuls of cash to hard-done-by citizens. As Torsten Bell of the Resolution Foundation explains, it is the government's own fiscal rules that constrain it, and those rules are the "loosest ever" – which only goes to show what a state the nation's finances are in. But the pressure on the chancellor to come up with a surprise on the day will only make them worse. |
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| What is this sequence of first names? Andrew, James, Arthur, Robert, Maurice, James, Leonard, James, Alexander and Mary |
Answer at the bottom of today's email |
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| The chancellor's new seat of Godalming and Ash is vulnerable to a Lib Dem surge |
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| The Workers Party of Britain leader took the oath of allegiance |
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| The chancellor is considering options to fund tax cuts on earnings after his headroom was cut by the OBR |
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What else you need to know today |
- Three opinion polls were published today. One (Ipsos) showed the Labour lead up five points to 27 points; another (Deltapoll) showed the Labour lead down seven points to 14; a third (Redfield & Wilton) had the Labour lead unchanged on 20 points. No prizes for guessing which attracted the most attention. The average Labour lead is unchanged at 20 points
- I shall be hosting an "Ask Me Anything" event on The Independent website after the Budget, at 3pm on Wednesday; get your questions in now – the early ones get answered first
- I wrote about Angela Rayner at the weekend: I expect Keir Starmer to retreat from her plan for full employment rights on day one in a new job
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| What are the fiscal rules and how will they affect the Budget? |
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The self-imposed rules constrain the government's tax and spending plans – but is that good or bad...? Read more |
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Tomorrow inside the Westminster bubble |
Our political commentator Andrew Grice on what to look out for |
The Commons will sit at 11.30am for questions on health. MPs will give a second reading to the Automated Vehicles Bill – that is, they will be asked to approve the principle of the bill to regulate self-driving cars. David Cameron, the foreign secretary, will take part in a debate on foreign policy in the Lords. Antonia Romeo, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice, will be questioned about its budget by the justice select committee at 2.30pm. George Robertson, the former defence secretary, and Mark Sedwill, the former cabinet secretary, will be among those giving evidence from 4.45pm to the liaison sub-committee's inquiry into strategic thinking in government (or the lack of it). |
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"The standard deviation model is true in politics. Most people are in the middle. We can work with the bell curve or become the bell-ends."
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Paul Scully, former minister for London, who announced he is standing down at the election |
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And finally... Lord Nelson was 5ft 6in.
His statue is 17ft 4in.
That's Horatio of 3:1. Daveguitarjones |
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Quiz answer: Prime ministers who didn't use their first names – Law, MacDonald, Chamberlain, Eden, Macmillan, Wilson, Callaghan, Brown, Johnson and Truss |
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