Tough but Fair Child Benefit Cut?

(Of which Minstrel Dale thinks "idiotic" and "trusts" it will be sorted out)* Can't imagine his response if Brown/Darling in government, or Mili/AN Other in opposition had trotted out a policy of which it was so clear it was unfair (and of which Ministers backtracked and backtracked all evening). Oh, wait, yes I can.

Gideon Osborne made a speech today, from in front of a extremely hard on the eye green white collage that said something about being together in the national interest. Odd that he chose a setting such as that to say what he did today:

Child benefit is to be axed for higher-rate taxpayers from 2013, Chancellor George Osborne has announced.He told the Conservative conference the "tough but fair" move - affecting couples where one parent earns about £44,000 - would save £1bn a year.

Family One: Mr & Mrs Smith.

Mr Smith is an Auditor and earns £40,000
Mrs Smith is a teacher and earns £40,000

Household income of £80,000 pa.

The Smiths get child benefit.

Family Two: Ms Jones

Ms Jones is a Manager in an Office and earns £44,000

Household income of £44,000 pa.

Ms Jones does not get child benefit.

So, Gidders, "Tough but Fair?"

Keir understands that Osborne is trying to save money, Keir understands that Conservative policy is to deride government as useless and the bureaucratic, leviathan mastabatory fantasy of Daily Mail readers, and Keir understands that we live in a difficult economic climate.

What Keir doesn't understand is why Gideon is making a direct attack on the middle, aspiring classes he claims to represent as well as single parent families and single worker households. Means testing? Fine; an arbitrary limit like this that is patently unfair? All because, as he says, this is the most "straightforward" option. Oh Puhlease.

*Keir is glad that Iain Dale is describing his parties flagship welfare policy in such terms, because, it is. Lets see if he sticks to his word, or just like Cameron and Cleggeron, conveniently forgets his desire to protect child benefits. Its funny, too, because the super mega connected Iain Dale, scourge of Norfolk North, said a year ago after a Fabians meeting that

Ed Balls tried to create some more of his artificial dividing lines by asserting that the Tories would abolish universal child benefit. I responded that this was utter tripe.

HT to Sunder Katwala in the comments section of Daley's post on the policy.

**Oh and it was also a surprise to see Dizzy Think's reaction to this.

I wonder if Guido will crow about this...

The budget Britain needs was delivered in Ireland

Ireland teetering on the brink of a double dip recession?

Thought not.

Can't see the futility of Ireland's slash and burn Budget making much of an impact on Gideon, either.

Cuts and Cuts

Keir was listening to Radio 5, as is his want, on the way home from work this evening, and A N Other from the Indy was doing the News Review, and while discussing Cameron's speech today about the "...inevitably hard times that lay ahead" he said that it is likely that this is a see-through bit of spin, softening the ground and setting the stage for the Tories to reap the benefits of being able to say they are going to be cutting less.

Something interesting over the weekend, too, on the deficit.

Mr Cameron started his speech by saying problems were "even worse than we thought"

Keir thought he remembered something like this though...

This is all political positioning and posturing (though at least he has been brave enough to not proclaim the death of 'spin'), none of the 'national interest' here.

On public spending cuts and credit rating...

Keir isn't sure about his credit rating, though admittedly he doesn't have Standard and Poor, Moody's or Fitch regularly reminding the global press about it...

If you recall, during the election campaign we were told by Gideon, by Cameron, by any Tory in sight of a television camera, was that unless we slashed public spending to slash the deficit, then the cost of borrowing would increase as our credit rating was downgraded. That, they told us, was the only reason they supported "swingeing" cuts to public spending, not the fact that they had the horn for ideological conservatism and small government.

Conservatives' confidence to talk honestly about cuts should stem from three other “c” words: context, character and credibility...Britain will have the biggest budget deficit of any G20 country...Britain faces losing its “triple A” international credit rating because of the prospect that our national debt could exceed our national income

This has been accepted by the right wing press, much of the right wing commentariat, and even, it seems, has become 'general knowledge' after Mervyn King's so called "ringing endorsement" of the Coalitions cuts policy. It has been accepted, put simply, that the credit rating organisations are not only in the right, but also have the right and the power to dictate fiscal policy to nation states. If, the theory goes, we slash public spending (I wonder why the private sector might want this to happen?) then the credit ratings and the international markets will be much more confident in our recovery and future economic growth and we can all sit around the fire singing 'Kum-ba-ya'. This is not only happening in the UK, in France, Budget Minister Francois Baroin says that maintaining France's credit rating is central in driving economic policy.

Last week, the government of Jose Zapatero in Spain passed an austerity package through the lower house of parliament by a single vote. The aim of this package was to slash the public deficit almost in half, from 11% to 6%, including public sector pay freezes, reductions to regional government spending (Keir's sure that will placate the Basques!) and cutting deeply into public sector pension schemes.

This package came as Spain became the last of the major European economies to move out of recession, with 0.1% growth in 2010 Q1.

So what do you think should happen then? Spain has slashed public spending, just as, Gideon tells us, we should do too! So, in this brave right wing supremacy of the market world what should happen? Yes, that's right, Spain should keep her credit rating because she is being 'credible' about the scale of cuts?

But look here:

Fitch Ratings cut Spain's credit rating Friday, saying its government's efforts to reduce debt would weigh down economic growth.

And here:

The ratings agency cut the country's rating one notch from AAA to AA plus, saying Zapatero's efforts to close the budget deficit "will materially reduce the rate of growth of the Spanish economy over the medium term".

So, you mean, the credit rating agencies aren't being completely open, honest, or reliable, and don't have our best interests at heart? Damn!

What was it that Gordon Brown used to repeat?

Mr Brown said the Conservatives' economic policies would do "enormous damage to the economy and make sure the recovery was put at risk by taking money out of the economy now.