HM Treasury

Anti- austerity arguments are not limited to Sinn Fein, but a proper debate about the real impact of cuts is needed.

Brian Walker on August 11, 2015, 10:18 am

| Readers 605

Anxiety and anger over budget plans including welfare cuts continue on both sides of the water. Amid the attacks on George Osborne for “ Tory austerity” in his plans to cut public spending by a further £20 billion or 40% for unprotected areas, a rough comparison of public spending as a share of GDP suggests that UK and Irish spending by this measure will remain roughly comparable to the end of the decade. I float this out in the hope …

“more to do with their reluctance to take the hard economic decisions…”

Pete Baker on December 23, 2011, 1:36 pm

| Readers 16

As Andy said in his post yesterday Many people were surprised when Sinn Féin did not take the influential Enterprise, Trade and Investment portfolio after last May’s election, even though it was theirs for the taking. I have heard it said that this absence of interest in the economy is partly due to a lack of confidence in economic matters: although the IRA prisoners who became Sinn Féin leaders were famous for their attention to their studies when they were …

Treasury says “no way” Scotland is getting lower corpo tax…

Mick Fealty on March 25, 2011, 11:25 am

| Readers 9

John Swiney’s putting up a fight for Scotland to have whatever Northern Ireland bags in terms of its own corporation tax rates. Now it remains to be seen what that is. In fact the Treasury was keen to point out that its new consultation paper “does not make recommendations”. Rather it lays out some of the problems and political conflicts that are likely to arise from varying a business tax within on jurisdiction. If answers cannot be found to those …