Prevarication and Newspeak will not fix our finances
The government’s unwillingness to tackle a rising debt burden will raise the risk premium on UK public debt, writes Willem Buiter
Pre-Budget report 2009
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Darling dodges demands for detail on cuts
The UK chancellor refuses to disclose the extent of planned spending cuts across government departments, undermining the pre-Budget report’s claims of increased transparency
Myners dismisses City ‘supertax’ fears
Minister tells bankers to blame employers
Tax system flaws cost UK £40bn a year
HMRC estimate likely to inflame deficit debate
Backlash over banker supertax grows
Bonus levy labelled an ’embarrassment’
Inquest opens into Darling’s statement
Ministers puzzled by PBR anger
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Pre-Budget report 2009: COMMENT & ANALYSIS
Darling route to austerity still shrouded in fog
Chancellor took refuge in claiming it would be unwise to set out detailed plans, rather than explain spending priorities and what savings would be generated in the medium term. This is hard to swallow
Populism without purpose
Dividing lines are all Gordon Brown’s government has left. It has run out of ideas save arguing that David Cameron’s Conservatives would be worse, writes Philip Stephens
Read his lips: more new taxes
The jibe against Labour chancellors is that they always run out of money. The twist provided by Alistair Darling is that having run out of money, he plans to go on spending, writes Jonathan Guthrie
Bankers will follow the money
Reasons exist to think London’s role in global finance is being undermined but that reflects more than the bonus news, writes Gillian Tett
Darling’s bonus bingo gambles with the City’s future
Alistair Darling’s Robin Hood measures to curb bankers’ bonuses will sharpen the brutal meritocracy of the 2009-10 bonus season, for bankers, banks and for the UK as a banking centre
The most important argument in UK politics has not begun
The drama of the PBR announcements reflects the current political pressure, but did not open discussions about what the two parties want for the future of Britain, writes Chris Cook
Needed: a clear plan for cutting the deficit
The chancellor’s speech was less an act of populist electioneering than might have been feared, but failed to set out where exactly the cuts will come – especially if growth proves slower than predicted, writes Martin Sandbu
More pre-Budget report articles
PBR makes little difference on public spending
Politics more evident than economics
Investors take fright at ‘fiscal fiction’
Investors take fright at ‘fiscal fiction’
Chancellor accused of sleight of hand
Opposition attacks report’s ‘smoke and mirrors’
Banks look to absorb supertax cost
Banks nervous about cutting City staff bonuses
Lawyers search for loopholes in supertax
Banks try to escape 50% levy
Investors raise queries about credibility
Government bonds see big sell-off
Revenue to clarify bonus rules
Treasury backs off fund managers
Tobin tax remains Treasury ambition
Financial transactions levy still on agenda
Axe set to fall on public sector budgets
Austerity amid cuts of up to 20% forecast
NHS hospitals face four-year spending squeeze
Burnham says aim is to improve efficiency
Tax system grows more complicated
Drive for simplification of system backfires
Darling defends economic forecasts
Chancellor criticised for failing to tackle budget deficit
Osborne pledges to reverse NIC rise
Top Conservative priority on taxes
‘What banker wants to be in the UK?’
Tax move on bonuses will affect 20,000 bankers
Careful formula falls between two stools
Darling manages to find something to annoy everyone
Are plans a fiscal elixir or bad medicine?
Will government ideas work?
Top bankers’ bonus rate to top 100%
New focus on taxing the rich
Tax dodgers face fresh Treasury clampdown
The chancellor cracks down on evasion and avoidance
Business angry at NIC increase
Extra jobs tax is ‘madness’
Darling misses goalposts of credibility
Lack of detail on public spending
