Friday, November 23, 2007
Chris Huhne - Now he's the Economist - isn't he?!
Earlier this month Nick Clegg was criticised for not having done the sums on the Pupil Premium, but, it should be remembered this was a sum of around £2.5 billion with a potential £1 billion shortfall. At the Cambridge hustings Chris Huhne talked about raising spending on all children to the same level as private schools. A noble ambition, but we learn today that the IFS have costed this at £17 BILLION.............er......I may not be an economist, but that looks to me like ermmmmmmmm a £15.5 BILLION shortfall? If we were to implement this policy it would swallow up all our other spending commitments........and some! But, I admit, I am not an economist, I may be missing something, maybe Chris would like to tell us where all this dosh is to come from?
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6 comments:
It's the economy, stupid!
£15.5 billion is a lot of money, that's for sure. But it's not such a large sum that it couldn't be found through increases in taxation.
To make the sums add up, Chris would have to propose increases in tax. I would find that impossible to support given the current levels of tax and our existing commitments to cut income taxes. Pouring in more money without structural reform is really just a 'more of the same' approach, so I have to hope that that's not what he's advocating. I'll be going to a hustings tomorrow, so perhaps I'll find out then!
That's why Chris has been very careful to say that it will take two parliaments and a lot of political will to achieve it.
Aah anonymous, that explains it then, but he didn't say that on Wednesday and he didn't explain why that was the highest priority.
I have a feeling he covered this point in the online hustings on the party website (they're still up there, I'll check at some point). I think it was £15bn from not having Trident and the other £2.5bn from various wastage savings being identified by t'Cable.
Thanks Alix, I will have a look too, though of course some of the savings from Trident will go on his "Son of Trident" and the use of the savings will limit scope for other spending
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