[Politics] Chancellor Philip Hammond's Spring Statement

Herr Tubthumper said:

OBR: little has changed really

The Office for Budget Responsibility has released its verdict on the UK economy.

And it points out that Britain’s economy isn’t in a much better place than four months ago, when the last budget was released.

The OBR says:

The economy has slightly more momentum in the near term, thanks to the unexpected strength of the world economy, but there seems little reason to change our view of its medium-term growth potential. And while the budget deficit looks likely to come in almost £5bn lower this year than we expected in November, the explanations for this imply smaller downward revisions for future years. As a result, the government’s headroom against its fiscal targets is virtually unchanged.

On Brexit, the fiscal watchdog says there’s been less damage than feared:

The vote to leave the European Union appears to have slowed the economy, but by less than we expected immediately after the referendum – thanks in part to the willingness of consumers to maintain spending by reducing their saving. But it is important not to put too much weight on early estimates of economic activity either side of the referendum, not least because the bottom-up measures of GDP growth in the national accounts differ as to whether growth slowed down, speeded up or remained stable between 2016 and 2017. Consumer debt is also at Sky high levels and cannot be sustained.

And on productivity, the OBR warns that recent improvements may not last.

The biggest surprise in the economic data released since November is that productivity growth – measured as output per hour – has been much stronger than expected. But that reflects a much weaker path for average hours worked, rather than stronger output or weaker employment growth.

The fall in average hours over the second half of 2017 is the largest since mid-2011 and second largest since the financial crisis. But in 2011 the fall in hours and associated pick-up in productivity growth proved to be erratic and were soon reversed. We assume for now that the same will be true on this occasion.

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Titanic said:

"A new tech business is being created in the UK every hour"

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hans kraay fan club said:

#BrexitHasn'tHappenedYetYouSpanner

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Titanic said:

"A new tech business is being created in the UK every hour"

"More jobs, rising real wages, higher employment, and shrinking debt"

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DavidinSouthampton said:

Hands off Spanners. Spanners are useful.

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vegster said:

#Jam Tommorow ! #Well, soon ! #Next Year ! #If we are Lucky !

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Titanic said:

The OBR projections will mean that the UK will run a current budget surplus in 2018-19.

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portslade seagull said:

Not for long Labour would soon trash that and plunge us into mega debt again

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Titanic said:

"Income inequality lower than at any time under the last Labour government"

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Pavilionaire said:

What a depressing Spring Statement.

Hammond treating us like idiots, listing and twisting the good stuff whilst completely ignoring the bad stuff.

As an accountant I am obliged to produce financial statements that are true and fair, and I believe the Chancellor should do the same on the economy. Listening to his speech you would never know that the public sector finances are in crisis, retail jobs are in crisis, we have long-standing rubbish productivity or that we're bottom of the G7 for growth with what little growth there is in the UK due to us riding on the coat-tails of other economies.

I don't begrudge him mentioning some good stuff like the rise in the Personal Allowance, low unemployment etc but be grown up about it and get some balance.

I hate the House of Commons as a chamber. It is confrontational, archaic, like some public school debating society with lame humour, sycophancy and boorish behaviour to the fore.

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larus said:

Yeah, it’s taken since 2010 to try to correct the wonderful situation that Gordon “Prudence ” Brown left us in.

Socialism is great until it runs out of other peoples money.

Regarding “Austerity”, why is Living Within Your Means such a misnomer to so many? If we (i.e. the government) keeps spending more than it’s getting in via taxes, where the feck does this money come from?

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Pavilionaire said:

What a depressing Spring Statement.

Hammond treating us like idiots, listing and twisting the good stuff whilst completely ignoring the bad stuff.

As an accountant I am obliged to produce financial statements that are true and fair, and I believe the Chancellor should do the same on the economy. Listening to his speech you would never know that the public sector finances are in crisis, retail jobs are in crisis, we have long-standing rubbish productivity or that we're bottom of the G7 for growth with what little growth there is in the UK due to us riding on the coat-tails of other economies.

I don't begrudge him mentioning some good stuff like the rise in the Personal Allowance, low unemployment etc but be grown up about it and get some balance.

I hate the House of Commons as a chamber. It is confrontational, archaic, like some public school debating society with lame humour, sycophancy and boorish behaviour to the fore.

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LlcoolJ said:

Very few countries run a budget surplus and those that do are generally oil rich. The vast majority run a deficit, it's normal economics.

Prior to the financial crisis the majority of people didn't even think about "the deficit". The worldwide disaster caused by derivatives and the sub prime US housing market focused people's minds on economic affairs and gave the party who wasn't in power the opportunity to blame the one that was. Since then "cutting the deficit" and "living within our means" and all the other bullshit analogies about splurging on a credit card and having to pay it back etc have been used to advance a false argument.

It's an ideological argument not a financial one and the ideology is to screw public services, the poor, small businesses and middle income people as much as possible before they eventually snap and vote you out.

Everything else is bluster, smoke and mirrors. You've clearly fallen for the charade as have many millions of people. Doesn't make it true though.

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larus said:

I assume you took the same position with Gordon Brown ans he constant re-announcement of previous spending as though it was new spending. THe some goes for his ‘off-book’ accounting for PFI which has left huge payments in future years but this is not counted towards the national debt. This should be a criminal offence against him.

The reality is the public finances were totally screwed 10 years ago and it’s taken a long time to rebuild. What I find depressing is the lack os honest debate. All Labour want to do is oppose every idea about cuts, etc. We are still spending more as a country than we are raising in taxation, yet Labour just want to spent Christ knows how much more on the never-never.

Austerity - living within your means. It’s no rocket science.

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Herr Tubthumper said:

They’re useful, but the most efficient tool to completely dismantle an economy is Brexit.

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Pavilionaire said:

What a depressing Spring Statement.

Hammond treating us like idiots, listing and twisting the good stuff whilst completely ignoring the bad stuff.

As an accountant I am obliged to produce financial statements that are true and fair, and I believe the Chancellor should do the same on the economy. Listening to his speech you would never know that the public sector finances are in crisis, retail jobs are in crisis, we have long-standing rubbish productivity or that we're bottom of the G7 for growth with what little growth there is in the UK due to us riding on the coat-tails of other economies.

I don't begrudge him mentioning some good stuff like the rise in the Personal Allowance, low unemployment etc but be grown up about it and get some balance.

I hate the House of Commons as a chamber. It is confrontational, archaic, like some public school debating society with lame humour, sycophancy and boorish behaviour to the fore.

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Pavilionaire said:

Leave the party politics aside for a moment, and just LISTEN to the tone of the debate, the catcalls, the jeers, the interruptions, the shouting, the frequent and increasingly desperate cries of "Order, ORDER!" from the Speaker.

The House of Commons is no longer fit for purpose as a building or as chamber for debate, and the MPs that sit there need to have a long, hard look at themselves.

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Pavilionaire said:

What a depressing Spring Statement.

Hammond treating us like idiots, listing and twisting the good stuff whilst completely ignoring the bad stuff.

As an accountant I am obliged to produce financial statements that are true and fair, and I believe the Chancellor should do the same on the economy. Listening to his speech you would never know that the public sector finances are in crisis, retail jobs are in crisis, we have long-standing rubbish productivity or that we're bottom of the G7 for growth with what little growth there is in the UK due to us riding on the coat-tails of other economies.

I don't begrudge him mentioning some good stuff like the rise in the Personal Allowance, low unemployment etc but be grown up about it and get some balance.

I hate the House of Commons as a chamber. It is confrontational, archaic, like some public school debating society with lame humour, sycophancy and boorish behaviour to the fore.

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Two Professors said:

'True and fair statement'?What about Carillion?Not much true or fair from accountants there!

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