Comment

On Monday, the Conservatives announced their medium-term expenditure strategy.

The Chancellor, in his pre-budget report in December, re-emphsized the Government's commitment to close the productivity gap that exists between Britian and its competitor economies.

When politicians claim they can finance tax cuts or provide extra resources for public services by cracking down on waste and bureaucracy, voters should start counting the spoons.

Michael Howard's appointment last week of company dactor David James to seek out Whitehall waste was the opening shot in what promises to be a ferocious political battle over tax and spending this year.

From the Matrix to the Lord of the Rings, vast trilogies are in fashion at the cinema these days.

On Wednesday, Gordon Brown will outline the Pre-Budget report.

The UK pension system has undergone continual reform during the past 25 years.

This article was published in The Public Finance Magazine on 24th October 2003.

Discussions about how many people should pay higher rate tax are treacherous waters into which politicians wade at their peril, as Peter Hain, leader of the House of Commons, discovered in June.

Like the discovery that British railways are as vulnerable to the sun as to wet leaves or the wrong sort of snow, reports that Gordon Brown has warned Cabinet ministers to expect tough public spending negotiations should haradly come as a surprise.

Societies have long experimented with ways to get sensible decisions out of diverse groups of policymakers.

The Government's Private Finance Initiative attracts enthusiasm and scepticism in equal measure.

In the coming year, Chancellor Gordon Brown faces two big questions, the answers to which will shape the government's tax and spending strategy for the next general election.

This article was published in Government Opportunities on 1st June 2003.

Last week's Budget did not contain much in the way of large new announcements.

The reforms to taxes and benefits announced in Gordon Brown's seventh Budget will have only a modest effect on the distribution of disposable income in Britain.

Public sector investment was weaker during Labour's first term than in any other five-year period since the Second World War.

This article was published in the Financial Times on 5th March 2003.

In his Pre-Budget Report (PBR) last November, Gordon Brown conceded that the impact of the weak economy on tax revenues would force him to borrow more than he had expected this year and next.