When Nigel Lawson was Chancellor of the Exchequer, he liked to say that the problem with tax simplification was that you always end up complicating tax, too. The same is true of much constitutional reform: any attempt to remove an anomaly will often create another. New Labour’s devolution experiment responded to the desire of the
Tonight, Spectator.co.uk broadcasts the latest debate in the Spectator / Intelligence Squared series. From 6:45pm, listen to John Redwood, Nigel Lawson, Tim Harford, David Rieff, Eric Bettellheim and Frances Cairncross discuss whether carbon trading can combat climate change without hurting economic growth. You can listen to the debate here and have your say by voting in our
We’ve just posted a great piece by Martin Vander Weyer on the dangers to capitalism of the kind of huge pay-offs that the departing boss of Merrill Lynch is set to receive. You can read it here.
This Tuesday, Spectator.co.uk broadcasts the latest debate in the Spectator / Intelligence Squared series. From 6:45pm, listen to John Redwood, Nigel Lawson, Tim Harford, David Rieff, Eric Bettellheim and Frances Cairncross discuss whether carbon trading can combat climate change without hurting economic growth. You can listen to previous debates on whether Britain has failed Zimbabwe
Stolen seats Sir: On what evidence does Stephen Pollard (Politics, 20 October) base his contention that the ‘only possible reading of the past three decades’ is that the voters ‘turn to the Conservatives only when the Labour party presents itself as unelectable’? Since 1977, the Tories have been in power for 18 years (60 per
It is almost 40 years since Enoch Powell delivered his notorious speech on immigration to the Annual General Meeting of the West Midlands Area Conservative Political Centre on 20 April 1968. ‘As I look ahead,’ said Powell, ‘I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see “the River Tiber foaming with much
Matthew d’Ancona, editor of The Spectator, writes: I am proud to welcome Melanie Phillips to Spectator.co.uk as one of our regular bloggers. The essence of The Spectator, in print and online, is distinctive voices and great writing. Melanie is one of the best and most fearless columnists in Britain today, constantly forcing us to reconsider
Promises, promises Sir: Fraser Nelson (Politics, 6 October) suggests that the approach that won David Cameron the leadership in 2005 was conveyed in messages like ‘social responsibility’ and ‘general wellbeing’. I, and I believe many others, decided to vote for Mr Cameron after he promised to withdraw the Conservatives from the EPP/ED Group in the
Let us step aside for a moment from the political posturing and horse-trading at the Lisbon EU summit and go back to the beginning. On 20 April 2004, Tony Blair announced to the House of Commons that there would, after all, be a referendum on the EU Constitutional Treaty. It is important to restate the
Trafalgar Square, today.
Rattled, hoarse and angry, Gordon Brown did not look a happy man at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. Small wonder: it is only weeks since his clunking fist was pounding the Tories into submission. Now, he has allowed himself to be caricatured as a clucking chicken, as fearful of an election as he is of
A-bomb or B-movie? Sir: I have no idea whether or not we really came close to WW3 last month, as your correspondents Douglas Davis and James Forsyth insist (‘We came so close’, 6 October), but one line in their exciting piece brings doubts to mind. After ‘secretly’ crossing into Syria (as opposed to coming in
By Fraser Nelson Pennies are dropping in the city about the inheritance tax con. Here is Nigel May at MacIntyre Hudson: “The Chancellor has done some wonderful arithmetic here by adding together two allowances that already exist, and passing it off as doubling the allowance. Any married couple receiving advice about reducing their inheritance tax
By Fraser Nelson Here’s the weasel. The Inheritance Tax “reduction” is a canard. Anyone with financial acumen (or a lawyer) will not benefit at all. KPMG have just been on the phone explaining it all to me and explain it here. “This change, although likely to grab headlines, is in practice only giving to most
By Fraser Nelson • Buy-to-let bonanza: Previously, if you sold a buy-to-let house you’d pay between 24% and 40% on the capital gains. Now it’s 18%. Great news, which may help housing market liquidity. • Welfare: Might Brown be aping Cameron on welfare reform as well? The CSR balances by assuming a fairly heroic 5% annual reduction
By James Forsyth The Tories, who have been pumping out information at a ferocious rate all afternoon, are saying that taxes will rise by £2.2bn over the next 3 years. They are basing their calculation on page 164 of the Pre-Budget report and Comprehensive Spending Review, which is—in tune with the political buzz word of
By Fraser Nelson I now have the costings. This is indeed a tax raising budget. By 2010-11 they plan to net £1.4 billion extra in tax. Highlights are: £440m a year by “state second pension white paper reforms”…. Sounds dodgy…. Raise £500m from non doms, lose £1.4 billion on inheritance tax (nb Tory proposal would
3:30pm: The House is in confrontational mood and Darling is off on a party political point scoring exercise straight away. First mention of aspiration, the new political buzz word. 3:35 Darling has just, as expected, downgraded his growth forecast for 2008 to 2 to 2.5%. Darling has adopted the Brown strategy of death by figures
From 3PM, Matthew d’Ancona, Fraser Nelson and Allister Heath will be leading Coffee House’s coverage of the Pre-BudgetReport and the Comprehensive Spending Review. Can Alistair Darling wrestle back the political agenda from the Tories and help Gordon Brown put his nightmare week behind him? Join us from 3pm to find out.
Tomorrow night from 6:45 pm, we’ll be broadcasting via this site a debate on the motion, “We should not be reluctant to assert the superiority of Western values.” There is an all star cast of speakers involved. David Aaronovitch, Douglas Murray and Ibn Warraq are speaking for the motion while Tariq Ramadan, William Dalrymple and