budget 2010

A 100-day honeymoon? By Tim Morgan

13 August 2010 | Tim Morgan

On 18 August the British coalition government will have been in office for 100 days, a period generally regarded as the duration of the political honeymoon that a newly-elected government can anticipate. Though the concept of a 100-day political honeymoon is better understood in the US than here, it has particular resonance now because of the way in which the media initially portrayed the alliance between David Cameron and Nick Clegg as a ‘marriage’. Read more...

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The state we’re in, by Judy Hirst

12 August 2010 | Judy Hirst

We’re all in this together, the PM and his chancellor repeatedly proclaim. How right they are. Read more...

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The error of their ways, by Ian Mulheirn

11 August 2010 | Ian Mulheirn

The Chancellor had barely sat down from giving his emergency Budget, when its implications for departmental spending cuts this October became clear. The Social Market Foundation estimated that 34% cuts were on the cards, unless more benefit savings could be found. And soon after, the Chancellor said that cutting the benefit bill remained at the top of the agenda this October, to take the heat off departments. Read more...

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Cutting edge, by Mike Thatcher

29 July 2010 | Mike Thatcher

Is the time ripe for a surge in outsourcing across our public services? A number of commentators think so, with the Guardian recently declaring that the ‘austerity drive will hand billions’ to the private sector. Read more...

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Free at last? By Mike Thatcher

15 July 2010 | Mike Thatcher

When New Labour came to power all those years ago, it was regularly lampooned for the way it ‘hit the ground reviewing’. All manner of controversial issues were kicked into the long grass via reviews overseen by the great and good. Read more...

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OBR on the brink after Budd bids farewell, by Colin Talbot

7 July 2010 | Colin Talbot

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40% cuts are political, not economic, by John Tizard

5 July 2010 | John Tizard

Politicians and public sector managers have been bracing themselves for the severest public expenditure cuts and constraint for 80 years. Now they are told to ‘prepare planning assumptions on the basis of up to 40% reductions’. Read more...

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Not as mad as it seems, by Peter Wilby

1 July 2010 | Peter Wilby

The chancellor’s announcement of spending cuts is largely hype to reassure the markets – nothing on that scale can be achieved in practice Read more...

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Public Enemy No 1, by Judy Hirst

1 July 2010 | Judy Hirst

The private sector, we were told last week, has so far borne the brunt of this recession. Many millions of its employees have had their pay frozen and pensions restricted, said the chancellor in his Budget speech. It’s time, he argued,  for the ‘insulated’ public sector to ‘share the burden’. Read more...

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Beyond the Budget, by Malcolm Prowle

1 July 2010 | Malcolm Prowle

Last week’s ‘emergency’ Budget shed light on the direction of some aspects of government policy towards the deficit. Details of tax changes were released as well as changes to welfare benefits. Also the government indicated the size of the savings that will take place in government departments (an average of 25%) over the next four years, but the details of exactly where these reductions will take place will have to await publication of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) in the autumn. Read more...

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