Blog posts tagged "Gordon Brown"

April 23, 2010 2:29 pm 14 Comments

Faisal Islam blogs on how today's GDP figure will have a big role to play in next week's leaders' debate on the economy - and possibly the party campaigns.

April 16, 2010 12:28 pm No Comments

Faisal Islam blogs on how he believes the Conservatives may be feeling a little edgy after last night's leaders' debate.

April 13, 2010 12:19 am No Comments

On the income tax pledge, which is arguably stronger than previous Labour manifesto pledges, as it includes the new top rate tax, it strikes me as a lost opportunity for candour in politics. Clearly guaranteeing rates has little or no impact on the actual tax burden. It makes little sense to guarantee no increase in [...]

April 6, 2010 3:14 pm 10 Comments

Faisal Islam blogs on the stance of Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to cutting the UK's £167bn national debt.

January 6, 2010 7:21 pm No Comments

On the day Gordon Brown appears to have headed off a leadership challenge, Faisal Islam predicts that a batch of good economic statistics could mean a 25 March general electioni

September 14, 2009 4:18 pm No Comments

GMB boss Paul Kenny tells a private meeting at the TUC conference that he warned Gordon Brown he would be finished as a political force if he followed the Conservative spending cuts agenda.

June 18, 2009 6:05 pm No Comments

Post-meltdown Mansion House was always going to be a little different from the traditional orgy of self-congratulation, backslapping, and an ever lighter regulatory touch. But in the end the bruising speech came from the governor of the Bank of England rather than the chancellor of the exchequer.

June 5, 2009 6:54 pm No Comments

Amid the chaos, it appears Team Brown are clinging on to one hope: the economy. As the prime minister himself has just said: “People are beginning to see the difference… there are already some instances of the economy showing results.” There’s some irony here. In a previous abortive attempt at blogging I posted about electionomics [...]

June 3, 2009 5:53 pm No Comments

It’s a supreme irony that on this day of Whitehall whirlwind, there’s actually been the first hard evidence that the economy might be on the turn. After the worst recession for at least four decades, one closely followed indicator is suggesting the economy actually grew, in May, for the first time in 14 months

April 23, 2009 12:07 pm No Comments

A measure of the new world we are entering. Between this financial year and next there is a cash increase of £30.2bn in public spending. Of that increase, fully £15.7bn is going on interest payments servicing our newly ballooning debt. The total interest payments of £43bn will be more than non-investment spending in the defence [...]