OSBORNE: I WAS RIGHT ABOUT BREXIT IMPACT.

 

OSBORNE,CAMERON AND THE REFERENDUM DECISION.

I first met George Osborne on Knutsford Heath 20 years ago when he had just been selected as the Tory candidate for Tatton. Who was this unknown who was tasked with restoring Tory fortunes in this constituency after the defeat of Neil Hamilton?

We found out after he won the seat back for the Conservatives in 2001 that we had a high flyer on our hands. He was David Cameron’s right-hand man in modernising the party and preparing it for Coalition government in 2010. For six years Osborne pursued the twin track of economic austerity and social liberalism until the project came crashing down in the folly of the EU Referendum in 2016.

We met up again this week and he seemed to harden up his revelation of “not being keen” on the referendum to one of opposition. I asked him about his forecasts that the country would need an emergency budget and would face economic gloom if we voted to leave. Despite the lack of a post Brexit crisis, he told me he still felt he was right. He claimed the devaluation of the pound was dramatic, but the public were not generally aware of it. He also pointed to the low growth of the British economy. The first three months of this year were the weakest for five years.

He feels the current government stance is opposed by the Lords, Commons and EU and it would be a mistake to tear up our trading relations with Europe.

This all begs some big questions. How vigorously did he put his opposition to the Prime Minister? He says he wasn’t in the business of undermining his friend. But if he had remotely threatened to resign, surely Cameron would not have made his reckless referendum promise in 2013. So is Osborne overstating his opposition with the benefit of hindsight? After all it remains one of the most stunning features of the current political scene that the two men who led us into the Brexit mess are now voyeurs on the side-lines.

Osborne is still chairman of the Northern Powerhouse (NP) Partnership and is encouraged by the development of Transport for the North. Apart from that there is a feeling that momentum has gone out of the project, although Lord Jim O’Neill is due to produce some fresh thoughts on it shortly. The Prime Minister is also expected to speak at a major NP event this summer. The former Chancellor admits all government energy is being taken up by Brexit. We know who to thank for that don’t we?

THE HIGHER TAX DILEMMA.

Putting those criticisms to one side George Osborne was Chancellor for six years and his views on one of the greatest challenges facing voters and politicians are interesting.

What is the answer to the growing crisis in funding our public services? Osborne agrees we all want better services but don’t want higher taxes. He says he is as annoyed as anyone else about tax evasion but any suggestion that solving that problem will provide the massive funds we need is delusional. VAT, Income Tax and National Insurance (NI) basically fund the state and it would take wacking increases in tax to make a difference, for instance,to the £130bn NHS budget. He feels soaking the rich won’t work either as countries that pursue that policy grind to a halt.

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BUDGET EXPOSES BREXIT MADNESS

 

 

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BREXIT WOES.

In his Budget the Chancellor set aside three billion pounds more for the mounting cost of Brexit. Three billion pounds that could have been spent on the NHS (as promised by the Leavers) being put aside for more lawyers and civil servants to deal with the complexity of leaving. Being put aside to build huge car parks at Dover to cope with the hundreds of lorries held up by customs controls. And let us not forget the £40bn exit bill.

But Brexit is hitting us in a far more serious and widespread way. Look at the woeful forecasts for growth and productivity. It is true that these problems pre-date the EU Referendum, but I suggest the dramatic worsening of the forecasts are related to the uncertainties of Brexit and the perception that the UK is cutting itself adrift from the EU, many of whose members are in the Eurozone where the currency has strengthened considerably in the last year.

It is almost too late for the British people to wake up and turn against Brexit. The warnings are there for anyone who wants to see. This week the European Banking Authority and European Medicines Agency were relocated out of the UK. The latter is the most serious and will be a blow to our pharmaceutical industry quite apart from the fact that we will need to create our own expensive drug regulation body. The government should have faced far more criticism for this. They thought the future of these agencies would be part of Brexit bargaining. The arrogance! The ignorance! It was never going to be possible to keep EU bodies like these in a UK outside the EU.

Oh! but we will be playing on the global stage in the future say the Leavers. Is that the stage where the UK has just lost its place on the International Court of Justice?

PHIL SAVES THE DAY.

As I said last week, I respect the Chancellor. In a Cabinet of misfits his calm integrity stands out. After the Budget perhaps all the hysteria of him getting sacked and Theresa not surviving till Christmas will calm down.

This lot are in it for the long run. Locked into the messy Brexit process and tinkering with a weak economy, but still there. After all, where is the threat. Tory Remainer rebels probably lack the courage to torpedo Brexit and the government can always on Labour MPs like Frank Field and Kate Hoey to come to their aid. Meanwhile Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell struggles to convince us that Labour’s programme could be paid for without hugely adding to the National Debt. It pains me to say it, but the Lib Dems under Vince Cable seem to be fading away just when we need a strong party for Europe.

The Chancellor took some action on the immediate issues facing the country. Housing, Universal Benefit and the NHS but he is locked into Tory ideology by not sanctioning local councils to undertake a massive programme of house building. He is also averse to general tax increases, but why? A cross party panel of voters in Bury voted unanimously for such a move on Newsnight after the Chancellor had sat down.

Thank heavens the Chancellor has stuck with the £85,000 limit on VAT, but for how long will micro businesses be spared the bureaucracy of quarterly accounting. The moves on business rates have been generally welcomed but three-year reviews may be a mixed blessing, as will stamp duty relief for first time buyers. Will youngsters benefit or will house prices just rise. Council house building is the answer.

It now seems highly unlikely the Chancellor will be sacked now that he is “Eeyore No More” according to the Mail. So, the government is set to stagger on as the darkening days bring the reality of the consequences of Brexit ever closer.

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BUDGET BETTER GO WELL.

 

TAX AND SPEND

I think the fevered talk of plots to dislodge the Prime Minister is exaggerated. Whoever is PM on Brexit Day better stand by for massive criticism either for paying the Europeans too much or keeping us too close to the EU. Better to leave Mrs May to take the flack is surely the wise course for aspiring leaders. Reports that some Tory MPs want to go into opposition to refresh the party are ridiculous.

All that said the government is in a fragile state and is relying on Philip Hammond to deliver a good budget next week. I’ve got a lot of time for Phil The Till. When you look around the Cabinet table and see charlatans like Johnson and Gove, there is something reassuring about the grey man with his spreadsheets. He knows Brexit is a dangerous threat to the economy. He knows we are spending billions servicing our debts. Yet he is bated for exuding gloom when he should be apeing Johnson’s unfounded cheerfulness.

On Wednesday the Chancellor ought to loosen the purse strings to help with housing, the NHS, and elderly care. He needs to address our woeful productivity and skills record. But he should be bold enough to put up some taxes to pay for it and go back on a manifesto promise to raise the 40p income tax threshold to £50,000. The elderly should have to pay some National Insurance to begin the task of tackling intergenerational unfairness.

Unlike many commentators I don’t think a General Election is at all likely so now is the time in the political cycle to take a risk with incurring the wrath of those opposed to any tax rises.

But Phil Hammond faces strong opposition in his own party. Former Minister Nick Boles wants the Chancellor to scrap his deficit reduction target. He believes it is fine for the annual deficit to remain at 2.6% indefinitely. This in the face of an Institute for Fiscal Studies warning the deficit could be on course to be £20bn higher than expected by 2021/22.

GORDON BROWN.

The former Prime Minister has been in the North this week to boost sales of his memoirs. I had a lot of time for the granite integrity of this Scottish son of the manse. His one great achievement in No 10 was in October 2008 when he showed global leadership in the middle of the economic crisis.

His great flaw was his undermining of Tony Blair in his desire to be Prime Minister. Why did he want the job so badly? When he got it, he didn’t know what to do with it. Was he a continuity man for New Labour or something else?

He claims his differences with Blair were over policy and he had nothing to do with the personal attacks. The fact is Brown could have reigned in his spin doctors Damian McBride and Charlie Whelan who were constantly briefing against the Prime Minister.

Blair should have sacked Brown after the 2001 General Election, but it’s not just weak Prime Ministers who find it hard to dismiss troublesome Cabinet colleagues.

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LAUGHING STOCK OF EUROPE.

 

THE WRECKERS: CAMERON AND MAY

 

David Cameron and Theresa May have reduced this country to a laughing stock in Europe. From being a leading member of an organisation of 500 million people, we are now reduced to being a disorganised beggar pleading for reasonable terms to leave.

Cameron called the referendum for narrow party advantage to fend off UKIP. May invented fictional opposition to her Brexit strategy to call an election when we all knew it was about hammering a Corbyn led Labour Party. They should never be forgiven for these actions.

I would like to claim that this result shows that the British people are thinking again about their decision to leave the EU, but voters have turned in greater numbers to Labour, who support Brexit, than the Lib Dems who offered a second referendum.

It is a fluid picture as I write but what sort of UK delegation will turn up in Brussels in a week’s time? The 27 are ready with their terms. What are ours apart from the fatuous mantra mouthed by the discredited May that “Brexit means Brexit”?

I suspect we will hear less insults hurled at our European friends as they present the departure bill and as the extraordinary complexity and difficulty of leaving the EU in these political circumstances become obvious even to Nigel Farage.

AUSTERITY BACKLASH: BUSINESS IMPLICATIONS.

Business was either ignored or threatened with higher taxes by all parties in this election. The fact that we have a huge deficit was also not discussed as we listened to a welter of promises of increased spending by all parties.

Jeremy Corbyn confounded my predictions as he benefited from a backlash against austerity, a poor Tory campaign and a surge of young voters. They were frustrated last year when the old took away their future in Europe and were determined to have a say this time.

But amid the Corbyn euphoria let us remember this is Labour’s third election defeat. They are still well behind the Conservatives in number of seats. Corbyn is claiming that he has reframed British politics. He means that there is an appetite for a high tax, big spending unilateralist government. I don’t believe it. This may be the maximum vote a fully socialist manifesto can achieve but Labour moderates are now trapped with Jeremy Corbyn as leader.

The net result is uncertainty at Westminster and uncertainty in the Brexit talks. The Confederation of British Industry chief, Carolyn Fairburn, said she was stunned.

LIB DEMS AND SNP.

The Lib Dems are in slow recovery. Tim Farron failed to sell the second referendum effectively and lacked the gravitas required. Vince The Cable is back in the Commons and should become leader.

One certainty in an uncertain world is that Scotland will remain in the UK. I’m a big admirer of Nicola Sturgeon but she misread the Scots appetite for a second referendum

“NOT ANOTHER ONE”!

I recall the famous Bristol lady’s reaction to May’s calling of this snap election as I wonder what her reaction would be to another General Election in the autumn.

There is already talk of another poll to achieve a government with an overall majority. I think that would be very unpopular with people who in various parts of the UK have been voting continuously since 2014.

Also let us remember 1974. The voters delivered a hung parliament in February and changed their mind very little in October when they gave Labour a majority of three. We have to try and make this awkward result work.

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