Articles and Speeches

Another Pre-Budget Statement
09-Dec-05, Windsor Express Article.

"Yesterday, the Chancellor gave his pre-budget statement. Surprisingly, Mr Brown tried to blame the UK’s slow growth rate on the price of oil. It’s just not good enough!

The facts are: our growth rate is now one of the lowest in the EU; we have dropped from 4th in 1997 to 13th in global competitiveness; total tax taken by the Government will have risen by 80% since 1997 - 4 times the rate of inflation. But this extra cash has done little to improve hospitals, schools, pensions or the ever-present problems of anti-social behaviour.

There will be a £32 billion shortfall this year and experts predict that the Chancellor will need to raise a further £10 billion to fill the black hole he has created. Figures like this are so large as to be almost incomprehensible, but when I worked out that this will cost average households a further £1200 per year, it became clear that this Government is costing Britain dearly.

The “prudent” Chancellor has in fact been anything but prudent. The economy looks strong but it is a house built on sand. My only hope is that some remnant of the strong economy Mr Brown inherited in 1997 will remain after he has finished with it.

If we care about the less well-off, the elderly and vulnerable we must manage our economy more wisely."