Good Old Labour23 Mar 2025 08:06
It will be bad for the economy, as companies face the increases in their National Insurance Contributions that are about to kick in. And it will be bad for the rest of us who have to cope with inflation climbing again and taxes rising towards the highest level of national income since the late 1940s.
In fact, it all feels more and more like the 1970s, which was a miserable decade.
We know what has gone wrong, though we will get more detail of that from the Office for Budget Responsibility on Wednesday.
Growth has tanked, and government borrowing has soared. In the first 11 months of the financial year, the Government borrowed £132 billion, £20 billion more than the Chancellor planned last October. The problem is partly higher spending, including the interest on the National Debt, but the real killer for Rachel Reeves is lower-than-forecast tax revenues, now coming in well below expectations. There won't be any more tax increases on Wednesday, but stand by for yet higher taxation in the autumn Budget.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-14526147/HAMISH-MCRAE-Chancellors-getting-message-Seventies.html