Osborne’s missionary zeal for cuts
Faisal Islam talks to chancellor George Osborne about cuts, Trident, and the end of “soap opera” government.
Faisal Islam has left Channel 4 News. This is an archive of his blogs.
Faisal Islam talks to chancellor George Osborne about cuts, Trident, and the end of “soap opera” government.
China has become the second biggest economy in the world. When will it overtake America, the current number one, Faisal Islam asks.
So the Bank of England has downgraded its central prognosis for UK growth by almost one percentage point in 2011 – from 3.4 per cent in May to about 2.5 per cent. And its central inflation forecast has nearly doubled for 2011 from 1.4 per cent to around 2.8 per cent. So both main gauges…
George Osborne may have underestimated his ability to impact personally on the consciousness of the British people. After his ‘Emergency’ Budget in June, it appears the UK ran for the hills, cowering in fear at the looming axe man, writes Channel 4 News Economics Editor Faisal Islam.
Faisal Islam blogs on how the banks still face long-term funding problems, despite unveiling big profits this week.
At the top of Lloyds Towers the superlatives were being spread about liberally. Chairman Win Bischoff said that he was “immensely proud for having achieved profit”. Chief executive Eric Daniels was “delighted” that the government now has “optionality” on when to sell its 42 per cent stake, now that the share price was up above its 63p purchase price.
After interviewing the Prime Minister in Delhi this morning it seems to me that David Cameron is not just attempting a love-in with India, but the full on Kama Sutra.
They say a stressful holiday can test the sturdiest of marriages. And so it is with the coalition’s odd betrothal. In their mission to wrap India’s booming economy and Britain’s need to export more into two mutually stabilising coils of DNA, yet more internal debate has been fomented, this time over skilled migration. Vince Cable…
I’m in India as Britain mounts the mother of all economic charm offensives. Today I was in the biggest control room for British manufacturing in the world. And that room is on the fourth floor in age old building in Mumbai. Bombay House has been the home since 1927 for Tata & Sons, parent company…
An incredible, unexpected economic surprise. And for once, a positive one, as GDP growth in the second quarter obliterates all expectations, writes Economics Editor Faisal Islam.
Set against the ephemeral world of dodgy mortgages and adjustable credit, the raw certainty of materials that can be mined, grown or harvested is rather attractive.
“Somewhat regressive” were the words that the coalition, particularly the yellow half, really would not have wanted to hear from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), writes economics editor Faisal Islam.
The coalition Treasury has a big macroeconomic strategy. Borrowing slashed so that economy-wide interest rates can stay lower for longer. It is how they have made the argument to middle England for the spending and tax pain announced yesterday. Unfortunate, then, that within hours of the ‘austerity budget’, the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee…
The Chancellor has lanced the boil of the fiscal crisis. Britain’s AAA rating is safe But he has done more than necessary to meet his fiscal target, so the VAT rise was ‘avoidable’ George Osborne’s new fiscal mandate has curious echoes of Gordon Brown’s old one And the Budget overstates the progressivity / fairness of…
Faisal Islam blogs on how tomorrow’s budget will signal the beginning of the public sector recession.