Rachel Reeves is pushing for the UK’s tax and spending watchdog to upgrade its national growth forecasts to reflect the economic boost Labour says can be achieved from its blitz of planning reforms.
Tractor production statistics number go up!
At the very least OBR should wait until the reforms are enacted, have a proper look at them, then change their ninds, no? Rather than believe the current insistence that cocaine is only being used as a recreational drug.
I admit I’ve despised socialists for over 50 years, but while the Blair Wrecking Crew always seemed to come from the Pits of Hell, with fire and brimstone wafting from them, Rayner, Reeves and TTK seem to come from a toolmakers factory, where the quality control manager can be seen wandering around scratching his balls muttering “what went wrong?”…
Will the bureaucrats defy them or just do what they’re told? Mind you, the vast majority support Labour anyway…
Fair point, Jonathan, but Labour politicians can wish things into being (Reeves, Ed the Loon, Barmy) whereas their supporting bureaucrats may applaud the aims without necessarily wanting to suspend their critical faculties. I suspect there will be some discomfort in Whitehall.
At what point is that interfering with a statutory independent body? Just imagine the Guardian take if a Tory chancellor tried to ‘push’ the OBR. The whole point of the OBR whether you agree or disagree is that chancellors don’t get to do this.
This is just the start. The next stage is to sign a deal with the EU to great fanfare. Everyone will agree this is good for growth, so we can borrow and spunk more right now yes? Yet the small print will stipulate the UK can’t sign anything else without EUs blessing and all that lovely non EU, touching double digit growth will be yeah off the table.
Why not go further? Immigration is undoubtedly great for growth, bigot, so every dinghy that arrives with nuclear scientists should add an immediate boost to the projected figures.
So the OBR don’t believe that freeing the private sector to do more will create growth and the OBR don’t believe that state spending and regulation doesn’t create growth.
What does create growth?
If I were you, I’d welcome Labour’s every excess. It’s just moves forward the day the tanks rumble over Westminster Bridge. Because I really do not think this is going to end well for the governing classes.
Planning reforms? Then the Town and Country Planning Act should be top of that list, proper blow up, kablooie?