Guido has been reporting on the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) pattern of appointments for quite some time.  They’ve just added yet another left-leaning, high-taxing adviser to their advisory panel.

Rita de la Feria is a left-wing professor of law, and self-proclaimed tax law virtuoso. She claims she inspired Uzbekistan to adopt her “progressive“ VAT system, which involves charging VAT on everything, burdening the majority of people with yet more taxes – and then getting the poor to reclaim VAT. She believes – according to her tweets, Corbyn asks the right questions, she was jubilant when Farage lost an election – accusing him of advocating the politics of fear. She of course describes Farage and Trump as “the extreme right”. Unsurprisingly, de la Feria is fervently anti-Brexit, complaining particularly about the perceived loss of tax revenue due to Brexit. One would think that fewer taxes on goods during a cost-of-living crisis would be a welcome development, apparently not in her book, which by the way is titled “Taxation and Inequality”.

The appointment of de la Feria stands as yet more evidence of the OBR’s ideological group-think. They’re proving yet again they have an agenda which is reflected in the mindset of the people they hire.