StephenTall.org

Labour is against reducing the 50p top-rate tax to 45p for those earning more than £150,000. What could be clearer? As it happens, quite a lot could be clearer. First, the omnishambles… Given how widely predicted George Osborne’s decision to reduce the top-rate was you would have thought Labour would have anticipated it and worked [...]

A few encouraging signs today that the Government is prepared to have the strength of mind to think again about the ‘Charity Tax’. Encouraging sign #1 is that the right-wing press is up in arms about the proposal to hit charities’ bottom lines. Neither David Cameron nor George Osborne will take delight, for example, in seeing this Sun headline: Charity  [ Read More ]

This year’s budget was, in general, a good one for Lib Dems. Most notably, the party’s number one priority of taking more low-paid workers out of tax was fast-tracked, while the controversies, and specifically the cut in the 50p top-rate at a time when pensioners’ tax allowances are being frozen, have hit their Tory backers’ [...]

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 550 party members responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results. Lib Dem members give thumbs-up (mostly) to Osborne’s autumn statement Two weeks ago, the Chancellor George Osborne [...]

“An avoidable disaster”: that is the verdict of the Financial Times’s Philip Stephens in a must-read article examining what went on behind the scenes of the Coalition’s strategy for approaching last week’s failed European summit. And his verdict on the Prime Minister and his advisers could scarcely be more scathing: There was no great plan [...]

The political aftershock of George Osborne’s autumn statement is just beginning to sink in: the Coalition’s 5-year austerity programme, designed to end in 2015 by the time of the next general election, is now a 7-year programme straddling two parliaments. This poses problems for the future of the Coalition, and for the Lib Dems in [...]

Paul Walter’s LibDemVoice review of yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions mentioned the Ed Miliband soundbite which has been picked up by much of the media… but so far without the disbelief it’s due. Here’s what the Labour leader said: The difference is that, unlike the Prime Minister, I am not going to demonise the dinner lady, [...]

The Financial Times this weekend reported what it labelled ‘one of the fiercest and most fascinating political battles of the year’ — a battle which looks set to pitch David Laws and Nick Clegg against George Osborne and the Labour leadership. The issue concerns the amount by which the Coalition should increase benefits: based on [...]

The Chancellor George Osborne has been left red-faced by his controversially potty-mouthed acceptance speech at the GQ awards when picking up a gong. His references to the magazine’s adult content, and use of the word ‘wankers’, has attracted widespread criticism for crudeness, and conduct unbecoming the dignity of his office — even his usual supporters [...]

You may ask what could have inspired me to write such a headline. Well, it’s none other than George himself. As Iain Martin has blogged – twice, he found the Tory shadow chancellor’s state of denial so bizarre – George Osborne has issued a message to Tory supporters assuring them: It’s been another great week for our [...]