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Labour claim that even after today's announcement of a tax rise on the banks that the Treasury will be raising less from the banks than they were last year.
They even quote the Treasury's own figures to make their point. The levy, they say, will bring in �1.9bn in 2011/12 compared to �3.5bn in 2010/11 from the bonus tax.
The Treasury has two responses to that:
First, they say that the �3.5bn figure takes no account of the loss of corporation tax and income tax. The net figure, they say, is �2.3bn.
Secondly, they say that since, unlike most businesses, banks' balance sheets apply to a calendar year - not April to April - the chancellor's �2.5bn applies to the year 2011.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/02/tax_rise_or_tax.html
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Moments after the prime minister made a passionate defence of the Big Society I interviewed him in the Cabinet Room where Margaret Thatcher used to sit.
He told me:
"I am different to Margaret Thatcher, different to past Conservative governments, this whole idea of emphasising the importance of building the Big Society and all the things that we can do, Government is not just making cuts, sitting back and saying 'let's hope society steps forward."
He defied critics of his big idea saying that he didn't care whether people thought he was being na�ve. The government was bound to be blamed for cuts, he said, but that didn't mean that councils did not have a choice over whether to cut in ways that did less harm to charities and voluntary organisations.
Finally, he seemed to accept that the government had been making mistakes as it was going so fast.
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Below is a transcript of some of the most interesting moments.
On the Big Society:
David Cameron: "Now, people that say 'oh, that's naive' I don't care, that's what I think, that's what I think government ought to be doing, and it's what my government is going to do."
On whether cuts are undermining the Big Society:
Nick Robinson: "Isn't it grown up to say, look, the cuts I am imposing, that my government has chosen to put on councils, will mean cuts to services even when councils deal with top people's pay and merge the back room. The councils you've listed are all cutting front-line services. They have to do it."
DC: "Inevitably there will be some cuts that are difficult and painful, that is clearly the case. But councils do have a choice to try and do these things in the right way. I think of my own small council in my own constituency. They are struggling hard so they don't reduce the budget of the citizens advice bureau. I happen to think that's a good decision. They are sharing their chief executive with the neighbouring council, so all councils, I know we have given them a difficult job to do but I do believe they can do it in a way that is friendly to building a bigger society."
NR: "Are you saying don't blame me? Blame the council?"
DC: "No, clearly, everyone in the end will blame the government for having to make cuts. I hope they will fairly say that we are doing this not because we want to but because we have to, because of the inheritance we've had from the last Labour government that racked up these debts, racked up this deficit that means that frankly whoever was sitting here as prime minister would have to make difficult decisions about spending and tax."
NR: "The suspicion that people have I think is what you're effectively doing is getting the councils to make the cuts and saying don't blame me, I'm only the prime minister"...
DC: "No, I'm not saying that, as you've just seen, I'm absolutely not saying that. You know, the responsibility for the mess we're in, I blame the last government, the banks that got us into this mess and all the rest of it. But I absolutely accept that I am having to take very difficult decisions as prime minster and I know that will mean that, you know, this is not going to be an easy year, and it will not be an easy year for me. I absolutely accept that. I see it as my duty. I'm trying to do the right thing for the country."
On whether he is like Margaret Thatcher:
NR: "Can I put to you what I think underlies some people's concern about Big Society, the cuts and the banks... You presented yourself as a different sort of Conservative, and I think there are some people who believe that who now look at you and say Margaret Thatcher all over again?"
DC: "Well I just, I am, I mean, I am different to Margaret Thatcher, different to past Conservative governments. This whole idea of emphasising the importance of building the Big Society and all the things that we can do, government is not just making cuts, sitting back and saying 'let's hope society steps forward'. You know, we are establishing the Big Society bank that's lending, (interruption), look these are really important points... (interruption)...
NR: "But they think, I suspect, many people, they think, I think, he cares, he seems to say the right things, but we see some dreadful things happening as a result of cuts, and in the end he says you've no alternative?"
DC: "Well I don't, I do think that what we are doing economically is the right answer, because as I say we are borrowing this year, you know, more than countries that are in real difficulties. The plan we inherited of halving the deficit over four years, would have got us in four years' time to where Portugal was last year. That's no plan at all. I do believe that you have a duty in this job to do the right thing, even if that is painful and difficult, and getting the debts and the deficit under control has to be done But just because that is your duty doesn't mean you shouldn't have, as I do, a burning mission to try and build a stronger bigger society where people look out for each other more, where people make a bigger contribution and work together to make this country a better place."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/02/i_am_different.html
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Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/chicago-mayor-results-2011-5277635?src=rss
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In early November 2009, in a hotel ballroom in St. Paul, then-Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and a few hundred of his friends, supporters, and financiers met to celebrate the launch of his Freedom First PAC, which signified Pawlenty’s initial step toward running for president of the United States. The big room was filled with angry people, as a sense of great purpose and foreboding hung over the occasion. Since January the country had been in the hands of a Democratic Hegemon, and in that short time had taken a perilous turn toward tyranny, or Stalinism, or dictatorship, or Sharia law — take your pick of the poisonous rhetoric being served up in the room. The point being that this was no casual affair that evening in St. Paul.
Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/tim-pawlenty-cpac-5235532?src=rss
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Source: http://www.capitaltonight.com/2011/02/duffy-eagerly-awaits-mandate-relief-report/
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No policy has produced more anger recently than the government's decision to dramatically increase university tuition fees.
No-one has been the subject of more anger than the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.
Today the deputy prime minister agreed to come face to face with students who the BBC had chosen and who come from homes around the country. They accused him of breaking his word, of not understanding the fear of debt and of creating an unhealthy market for education.
He revealed his fear that many young people are being put off university by their fear of what they might owe when, in fact, he claims the government's plans would ensure that university is affordable for the poorest.
The confrontation came on the eve of the government publishing proposals for a National Scholarship Programme to subsidise students from the poorest backgrounds attending English universities. It is clear that ministers have all but abandoned their plans to promise two full years free for students on free school meals and chosen instead to allow universities to choose how they spend the money the government has pledged.
You can watch the debate in full on the BBC News Channel at 7.30pm.
PS. Here's what Nick Clegg had to say to the students on the subject of Oxbridge fees.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/02/clegg_faces_the.html
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Usually, unless you happen to be one of the fifty-odd people with whom David Brooks customarily eats dinner, throws back a few, or gobbles the free snacks in Jim Lehrer's greenroom, reading one of his columns from the position of a normal, everyday, wage-earning human being gives you the inescapable feeling of being a bug, looking, upwards and backwards through the magnifying glass, at a giant eyeball. No columnist is as obviously convinced that everybody on earth is a specimen in his jar. No columnist is as utterly contemptuous of his fellow Americans if they don't stay pinned right there on the card where they belong. His self-importance is that of a two-bit grifter, looking to sponge the loose change somebody might have left as a tip at Applebee's.
We had something of a masterpiece of the form this week when Brooks bestirred himself to write about the current goings-on in Wisconsin, where they elected an undereducated county commissioner named Scott Walker to be governor. Walker promptly attempted to roll back progressive policies to a point half-past Fightin' Bob LaFollette, and then called upon his fellow governors to do the same. A whole lot of Wisconsinites disagreed, and they have encamped themselves several times now on the state house lawn to say so. State senators ran home to gather their things, and then ran away from home. This has been on television a great deal, and it seems to have chafed Brooks mightily. So much so that he wrote a column about the necessity of shared sacrifice in this time of economic trouble and woe. Somebody put atop it the headline "Make Everybody Hurt," which completed the cosmic comedy nicely. Exactly how Mr. Brooks is going to "hurt" remains unclear — unless, of course, he ventures out into the crowd in Madison and tries to explain why Edmund Burke would have stood with the half-bright goober from Wauwatosa who's made such a hash of things. Then we might need splints and a tourniquet.
(It should be said in defense of Brooks that George Will, who has had a decade or so more practice than Brooks has had at being a public trollop, chimed in with a column praising the Wisconsin governor that made Brooks sound like Emma Goldman, and that apparently was written onto a moist towel.)
Brooks's column is a perfect illustration of a general phenomenon that has been brought into sharp relief in the past two weeks or so....
Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/wisconsin-protests-5288376?src=rss
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From 2001 to 2006, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wrote dozens of short memos to (and about) National Security Advisor and later Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. They're succinct, and, somehow, hysterically disdainful. In fact, they might be the most important, passive-aggressive notes in recent American history, and now, they've gone public.
To celebrate the masterwork that is Rumsfeld's just-released memoir Known and Unknown, we examine an overlooked corner of his treasure-trove of government: the man's profound gift for the passive-aggressive note aimed at Rice, his most common target of ire. We sorted through them, and pulled out the best. If you're going to be that guy — the one who writes pathologically passive-aggressive notes — this is how you do it. And remember: These are all real. Or in Rummy's words: "Thanks."
Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/donald-rumsfeld-email-5292983?src=rss
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Source: http://www.capitaltonight.com/2011/02/the-weekend-that-was-41/
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Source: http://www.stephentaylor.ca/2011/01/michael-ignatieffs-dean-scream/
The Texas House today honored former Dallas County Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet. It did so with nary a peep about Sherbet's forced resignation, which prompted last week's racially charged shouting match between Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and tea party adherents.
A bipartisan cast of Dallas County House members authored a resolution praising Sherbet (right/DMN photo). It was sponsored by freshman Rep. Cindy Burkett, R-Mesquite.
It extols Sherbet's "exemplary commitment to public service" and says he "has devoted three decades to serving the residents of Dallas County, and in so doing, ... has built a
reputation for impartiality, professionalism, and effectiveness."
In her remarks to the House, Burkett said that when she was an election judge, she saw firsthand what a good job Sherbet's department did in training election officials. When she served on the State Republican Executive Committee, she said, "I would often find myself bragging on our Dallas County elections department. I can't tell you how many times I heard election workers from those communities say, 'I wish we did it that way in our county.'"
Sherbet resigned after County Judge Clay Jenkins, a Democrat, called a meeting of the obscure County Election Commission. The panel's role is to hire or fire the elections administrator, and Sherbet saw it as a sign that he was in trouble. He says he got confirmation that Jenkins wanted him out from longtime Commissioner John Wiley Price, another Democrat. A push by the two Republicans on commissioners court to hire Sherbet to a two year consulting contract was rejected by a vote of 3-2, with all three Democrats voting against.
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/02/house-honors-bruce-sherbet.html
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Source: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/27/wisconsin-budget-battle-touches-all-50-states/
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Source: http://www.capitaltonight.com/2011/02/gottfried-backs-down/
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Whitehall sources are hoping that a deal with the banks on lending, transparency and bonuses will be announced by the chancellor later today. The so-called Project Merlin has been negotiated for many months and the government has been determined to complete it before the banks publish their end of year results and bonus pools.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/02/bank_lending_de.html
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Source: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2011/02/17/protesters-hit-boehners-dc-house/
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Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/presidents-day-movies-5257876?src=rss
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It's not surprising that last week a local tea party member was able to goad Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price into a confrontation.
According to a website touting an upcoming grass-roots boot camp, tea party activists try to create confrontations.
One of the goals of the boot camp is to "generate and foster a healthy level of confusion, disorientation and general discombobulation within the political establishment at all times."
That certainly worked last week when a tea party activist referred to Price as the county's "chief mullah" and he responded by telling the crowd, "You are all White. Go to hell. You to, Reverend."
A coalition of local tea parties is sponsoring the two-day boot camp in Hurst on Feb. 25-26.
Tea party activists are expected at Tuesday's Commissioners Court meeting.
Wonder if they will bring their playbook with them?
County Judge Clay Jenkins had better get his gavel ready.
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/02/local-tea-parties-to-host-boot.html
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Source: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/26/new-white-house-chief-of-staff-remains-optimistic/
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Source: http://www.stephentaylor.ca/2011/01/harper-government-accomplishments-official/
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The House State Affairs Committee will hear testimony Wednesday on its version of a bill that mandates sonograms be done before an abortion and the images and sounds made available to women. Unlike the bill that already has passed the Senate, it doesn't provide any exceptions for women who are getting an abortion due to rape, incest or because of severe and irreversible fetal abnormalities.
The House bill also opens the tort door against doctors who fail to adhere to the sonogram bill, saying the patient, her relatives and even a district attorney can sue doctors -- for real and punitive damages -- who fail to follow the law. There are also civil fines of up to $10,000 an occurance. Failure could also cost a medical license.
Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, said the House bill will be a tougher, better bill than the Senate version.
That might present a little problem for Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston. As author of the Senate bill, he promised colleagues that he would fight to maintain the exceptions placed into the bill and wouldn't accept a House version either, as he said, watered down or on steroids.
Under the bill, women could decline to see a sonogram image, but she must be given a verbal description the developing fetus and be made to hear a heartbeat, if it is detectable.
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/02/tougher-sonogram-bill-up-in-ho.html
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Source: http://www.capitaltonight.com/2011/02/hy-rosens-legacy/
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It's not surprising that last week a local tea party member was able to goad Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price into a confrontation.
According to a website touting an upcoming grass-roots boot camp, tea party activists try to create confrontations.
One of the goals of the boot camp is to "generate and foster a healthy level of confusion, disorientation and general discombobulation within the political establishment at all times."
That certainly worked last week when a tea party activist referred to Price as the county's "chief mullah" and he responded by telling the crowd, "You are all White. Go to hell. You to, Reverend."
A coalition of local tea parties is sponsoring the two-day boot camp in Hurst on Feb. 25-26.
Tea party activists are expected at Tuesday's Commissioners Court meeting.
Wonder if they will bring their playbook with them?
County Judge Clay Jenkins had better get his gavel ready.
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/02/local-tea-parties-to-host-boot.html
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"Two roads diverged in a... wood and sorry I could not travel both." Today the Prime Minister follows the words of the poet Robert Frost* and takes the road less travelled - making an instant, screeching u-turn on the sell off of the nation's woods.
The signs were all there when I spoke to David Cameron on Monday:
Nick Robinson:
"You have in some ways had a bumpy few weeks after a comfortable few months, alleged u-turns on forests, and prisoner voting, and difficulties in the courts with school building. Is there something that you analyse and say 'actually there's something we are not getting right here'?"
David Cameron:
"I think, look. Government is a lot harder than opposition. You know you are making decisions, you are doing things, and I think when you have a government that has quite bold plans to deal with the deficit... but also to make our public services better, to try and open up our country in the way that we are, you know there's an awful lot of decisions, an awful lot of issues, and you have to try to get a hell of a lot of things right all in one go. Of course governments make mistakes. I hope that when we do, we are relatively fast in trying to admit a mistake, put it right, sort it out."
*hat tip to Today programme presenter Justin Webb for the literary reference
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/02/the_road_less_t.html
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The George and Ed Show was full of heat but shed very little light.
Ed Balls sneered at the chancellor's "mini Budget", asked whether Britain was growing slower than America because we had the wrong sort of snow and criticised his opponent for spending too long on the ski slopes.
George Osborne sneered at the shadow chancellor for being the second choice of the leader who once did his photo-copying and dubbed him as a "man with a past" rather than a man with a plan.
As for policy... I'm afraid I can't recall a single revealing word from either of them.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/02/the_george_and.html
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Source: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/25/gingrich-to-republicans-shutdown-can-be-good/
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From 2001 to 2006, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wrote dozens of short memos to (and about) National Security Advisor and later Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. They're succinct, and, somehow, hysterically disdainful. In fact, they might be the most important, passive-aggressive notes in recent American history, and now, they've gone public.
To celebrate the masterwork that is Rumsfeld's just-released memoir Known and Unknown, we examine an overlooked corner of his treasure-trove of government: the man's profound gift for the passive-aggressive note aimed at Rice, his most common target of ire. We sorted through them, and pulled out the best. If you're going to be that guy — the one who writes pathologically passive-aggressive notes — this is how you do it. And remember: These are all real. Or in Rummy's words: "Thanks."
Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/donald-rumsfeld-email-5292983?src=rss
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Source: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/25/tim-pawlentys-cup-of-tea/
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Who's to blame for town hall cuts - the government or the councils? That's the debate which will rage from now until local election day.
At Prime Minister's Questions David Cameron highlighted Labour-controlled Manchester, accusing it of making politically motivated cuts hours after I attended the council's executive which claimed that it had suffered politically motivated cuts in government grants.
Ministers have highlighted the pay of Manchester's chief executive - �230,000 a year - and its recent decision to spend �150,000 (half of it from EU funds) on street art.
Compare that, ministers say, with frugal Tory Trafford next door.
Manchester, however, points to cuts in government support for the most deprived areas - in particular, the 35% or �12.6m cut in their Supporting People Grant whilst Trafford enjoyed a 4%, or �500,000, increase.
Today - having met with both council's leaders and executives - I have tried to make sense of the comparison.
The figures show that Manchester has much greater needs than Trafford. It receives much more public money, spends much more and is now having to cut much more.
It is a matter of political judgement whether the story is one of Manchester spending too much or government cutting too much. Some may believe the answer is both.
Here are the figures both councils gave me:
Manchester, ranked the country's 4th most deprived area, has an annual budget of approximately �620m excluding schools, equivalent to �840 per person. It is making cuts of �109m and an estimated 2,000 of its approximately 10,000 staff could lose their jobs.
Trafford, ranked the country's 203rd most deprived area, has a budget of about �230m, equivalent to �420 per person. It is making cuts of �22m and is set to cut 150 jobs this year.
What struck me most today was that the row in Westminster about Manchester and Trafford is much louder and more intemperate than it is on the ground.
The council's leaders respect one another and co-operate. The council's officials work closely together and senior figures have moved from one to the other.
Indeed, all 10 Greater Manchester authorities are already quietly working on sharing back office functions and carrying out their procurement together saving many millions of pounds.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/02/whos_to_blame_f.html
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Comparing David Cameron with Gordon Brown was risky, cheeky and took personal nerve but Ed Miliband's done just that at PMQs.
"He shouldn't get so angry - it'll cloud his judgement. He's not the first Prime Minister I've said that to."
Thus, Labour's leader posed as Mr Calm and Reasonable facing Mr Tetchy. And you know what? It worked.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/02/ouch_1.html
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The George and Ed Show was full of heat but shed very little light.
Ed Balls sneered at the chancellor's "mini Budget", asked whether Britain was growing slower than America because we had the wrong sort of snow and criticised his opponent for spending too long on the ski slopes.
George Osborne sneered at the shadow chancellor for being the second choice of the leader who once did his photo-copying and dubbed him as a "man with a past" rather than a man with a plan.
As for policy... I'm afraid I can't recall a single revealing word from either of them.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/02/the_george_and.html
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Source: http://www.capitaltonight.com/2011/02/moveon-plans-massive-wisconsin-solidarity-rally/
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Source: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2011/02/17/protesters-hit-boehners-dc-house/
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Breaking this evening is the upsetting news that CBS News correspondent Lara Logan had been sexually assaulted in Egypt while covering President Mubarak's resignation last weekend. The assault reportedly took place on February 11 in Cairo, where she "suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating," according to CBS. Brian Stelter at the New York Times reports that in the midst of an estimated 200-person crowd, Logan was dragged into a "dangerous element" and was eventually "saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers." This was the day she arrived in Egypt, one week after being detained, accused of being an Israeli spy, and then told to leave the country.
Esquire.com was one of two interviews Logan conducted between her two trips (the other was a brief segment on Charlie Rose's show). The Politics Blog spoke with Logan as she was boarding her flight to Cairo on Thursday, February 10, one day before the assault took place. They were, in a sense, her last public words before the alleged assault — Logan didn't get a chance to file from Cairo before the incident in question took place. There are a few remainders from the interview — details about her second trip to Cairo — we've culled from the transcript of that interview in light of today's news....
Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/lara-logan-egypt-assault-5241788?src=rss
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It's not surprising that last week a local tea party member was able to goad Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price into a confrontation.
According to a website touting an upcoming grass-roots boot camp, tea party activists try to create confrontations.
One of the goals of the boot camp is to "generate and foster a healthy level of confusion, disorientation and general discombobulation within the political establishment at all times."
That certainly worked last week when a tea party activist referred to Price as the county's "chief mullah" and he responded by telling the crowd, "You are all White. Go to hell. You to, Reverend."
A coalition of local tea parties is sponsoring the two-day boot camp in Hurst on Feb. 25-26.
Tea party activists are expected at Tuesday's Commissioners Court meeting.
Wonder if they will bring their playbook with them?
County Judge Clay Jenkins had better get his gavel ready.
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/02/local-tea-parties-to-host-boot.html
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Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/chicago-mayor-results-2011-5277635?src=rss
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The rallying cry has been that immigration is a federal problem and the state shouldn't -- and legally can't -- try and wade into the solutions.
But the costs and tempers keep rising while we wait for answers. So Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, apparently wants to help the federal government do their duty.
She introduced a bill that would allow sheriff's who are holding (and holding and holding) illegal immigrants in their jails to go ahead and hand-deliver them to federal officials. Yes, they could be dropped off at the offices of any U.S. representative and senator.
Just think of the replies from those representatives and senators: "Thanks. I took at the office."
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/02/state-rep-on-immigrants-let.html
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Eric Pickles is one of those politicians who would not be content merely with crossing a road for a political fight, he would sprint across a six-lane motorway for a scrap with his opponents.
That is all most people would notice of the secretary of state for communities and local government. Well, not quite all. He is, after all, a big chap and with those soft Yorkshire vowels looks and sounds like no other contemporary politician. Put some mutton chops, a waistcoat and a watch chain on him and Pickles would look and sound like many a council leader of yesteryear.
All this, though, is to miss the point about Eric Pickles. What few ever notice about him, though he cheerfully talks about it, is that he was once a Marxist - or a Marxist-Leninist to be precise (these distinctions matter, I'm told). As such he is a student of political theory - a man who is fascinated by the practice as well as the theory of how political change is brought about.
Pickles is picking a fight with councils for a reason. He is a believer in what Marxists call "creative destruction" - the idea that before creation can begin destruction must come first. PIckles believes that many councils got, well, fat in the New Labour years. They hired more staff, they paid themselves big pay rises, they took on jobs that their voters didn't really want them to carry out.
The minister could have done what his predecessors did in the Thatcher and Blair eras - issue diktats capping their council tax levels and ordering them what to spend on and what not to spend on. He chose not to. Pickles is issuing orders from Whitehall which are irritating councils but they are orders to be more transparent and, he argues, more democratic.
First, councils were forced to publish details of everything they spend money on which costs more than £500. Next, he limited the ability of councils to produce their own newspapers in the hope of both protecting and unleashing the old fashioned local press on their local politicians.
He wants them to do to council budgets what the national media did to MPs' expenses - publish, scrutinise and criticise. Today he's telling councils to have full public debates on any new council pay packet over £100,000. Next year they will be able to set any council tax level they like but - and it is a big but - rises above a certain level will trigger a referendum on the council tax level.
Some see this as an old fashioned war between local and central government, some see it as an attempt to distract from the coalition's cuts, some - even in government - see it as more destructive than creative. However, Eric Pickles's closest colleagues see method in what others see as the minister's madness.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/02/pickles_fight_with.html
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When a tax rise is announced outside of Budget time (see my previous post), it's fair to assume that the announcement may have as much to do with politics as it is about economics. When you're raising less than a billion pounds that impression is bound to be reinforced.
The Tories bashed the banks in opposition to symbolise that "we're all in it together". Now, Labour in opposition are using ministers' failure to curb banks bonuses to back up their assertion that that claim is hollow.
At Prime Minister's Questions last month Ed Miliband accused the PM of living on "Planet Cameron" where taxes went up for ordinary people and down for the banks. "The country" he said "is getting fed up with the prime minister's pathetic excuses on banks". David Cameron accused him of bailing out the banks and asking for "nothing in return".
Labour's aim is to "re-contaminate" the Tory brand. George Osborne's objective today was to make that just a tiny bit harder.
It's not really a clash about the banks or the economy. It's about the symbolism, stupid.
Update 11:00: The Treasury insists that the George v Ed show had nothing to do with the timing of today's tax announcement. The reason for the curious timing they say was the need to ensure that any commitment the banks make to increase lending under Project Merlin is not threatened by their reaction to a tax increase announced after the deal was done.
The message now to the banks is "you know where you stand" - if you deliver on loans, bonuses and transparency you are guaranteed a stable and predictable tax environment with no nasty tax surprises around the corner. On the other hand, if you don't deliver "nothing is off the table".
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/02/its_the_symboli.html
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He enters the room virtually alone. A half dozen large men in desert camo at his side. His wrists are not cuffed, but held firmly by the guards. White robe, white skull cap, navy jacket to keep him warm. A salt and pepper wisp of a beard on a charcoal face. He sits down softly. He looks down while the guards take their seats at his side. Then he waits, patiently. Noor Uthman Muhammed has been waiting for over eight years here at Guantanamo Bay.
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