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BBC economics correspondent Jonty Bloom has been known to step beyond reporting into outright advocacy, usually for higher taxes or more government spending (clear evidence for which can be found by clicking here: http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.com/search/label/Jonty%20Bloom). My wallet always goes into hiding at the mere mention of his name.
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So it's hardly a surprise that this was Jonty's take on what the would-be prime ministers had to say about national insurance, in response to Robin Lustig's repetition of Gordon Brown's charge that the Conservatives would take £6 billion out of the economy and damage the recovery:
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"I think the Liberals and Labour came across quite strongly with the line that it is not possible really to save that sort of money in the first year without damaging the economy and that we will have to talk about tax increases."
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Was that Jonty talking sides on the issue?
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He went on (and steel yourselves, wallets everywhere):
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"More generally the big elephant in the room I think was actually that there will need to be far more tax increases than that..."
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Ah, Jonty Bloom and the necessity for more taxes...!
Jonty Bloom, crazy name, crazy guy.
ReplyDeleteBut, really, 6 billion is peanuts and surely any spending cuts are putting money into the economy, not taking it out ?