Outgoing Institute for Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson is giving the think tank’s summary of the spending review. There are criticisms…
First Johnson attacks Labour for pretending the economy is better than it was in “Phase One” when it made small cuts and raised taxes. Those cuts which it is now reversing…
“Despite some of the rather odd recent claims, neither the economic forecasts nor the public finances have improved relative to the genuinely difficult situation we knew about a year ago, rather the reverse.”
Johnson added Reeves’ speech “did not appear to be a serious effort to provide any useful information to anybody.” Huge council tax hikes are baked into government expectations and the review “assumes that council tax bills will rise by 5% a year” which means “bills look set to rise at their fastest rate over any parliament since 2001-05.” Most of which is getting sucked up by the NHS, which gets 90% of increases in day-to-day spending…
The IFS chief said there is no longer space for massive handouts to the public sector in pay – teeing up for a battle with the unions. Economists say that today’s poor GDP statistics are not an aberration and are likely to continue. If the OBR scores down its forecast for economic growth Reeves is headed for another clanger of a budget…
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.”