The International Monetary Fund has produced a new report on the UK economy this afternoon in which it warns that taxes will have to go up. Quelle surprise…
The report from the tax-and-spend-happy organisation was written on 1 July but only published today. The IMF hilariously praises Reeves’ now-watered down welfare reforms:
“Unless the authorities revisit their commitment not to increase taxes on “working people,” further spending prioritization will be required, to align better the scope of public services with available resources. The authorities have already embarked on this process through recent reforms to incapacity and disability benefits, but other avenues for savings need to be considered. In particular, the triple lock could be replaced with a policy of indexing the state pension to the cost of living, as recommended in previous Art. IV reports. Access to public services could also depend more on an individual’s capacity to pay, with charges levied on higher-income users, such as copayments for health services, while shielding the vulnerable. There may also be scope to expand means testing of benefits.”
State pension indexing is political suicide as apparently are any other money-saving measures Reeves looks to go ahead with. Taxes it is, then…
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”