The big lie of economic success may still not save the Tories | Seumas Milne
Conservative and Liberal Democrat pretensions of financial wizardry are absurd. They have failed even in their own termsThe warning couldn’t have been more timely. When all else is failing, David...
View ArticleElection 2015 – live: Ashcroft poll shows Clegg to lose seat and Tories to...
Guardian front page: Tory plan to slash £8bn benefitsMiliband most searched for UK party leader on GoogleAshcroft poll on marginal seatsIpsos Mori poll gives SNP 34-pt lead in ScotlandCameron does not...
View ArticleLet’s ditch the nostalgia that’s invaded our TV and seeped into our politics...
From Bake Off to Victoria sponges to Keep Calm posters, the whole vintage package isn’t just all-pervasive, it’s been used to sell us austerity“Life isn’t just about bunting,” observed Kim Shillinglaw,...
View ArticleCongress to propose bill raising US minimum wage to $12 by 2020
While workers continue to demand $15 an hour, Democrats struggle to raise minimum wage that has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009Democrats prepared another push for an increase in the minimum wage...
View ArticleHere’s what an economy would look like if it actually worked for women
Economic policies are failing women in both rich and poor countries. A new UN Women report sets out a vision and a plan for change“There is an illusion of progress,” Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka of UN Women...
View ArticleUK factory data debunks Tory claims of economic recovery
Slowing GDP growth and now shockingly weak PMI data show UK economy is fading fast from the housing market sugar-rush and all despite cheap oil and ultra-low interest rates. Not a good week to choose...
View ArticleUK manufacturing slowdown deals blow to Conservatives
Downbeat Markit/Cips report adds evidence to claims that economy is losing momentum with factory orders far weaker than forecast The Conservatives have suffered another blow to their track record on...
View ArticleEconomists expect Reserve Bank to cut interest rate to record low of 2%
12 out of 15 experts believe rate will be cut, but National Australia Bank says due to better economic data cut will not happen until AugustThe Reserve Bank is expected to make only one more interest...
View ArticleFears grow over ‘land grab’ of NHS by private suppliers
Campaigners say list of service bidders is another step to privatisation, as reforms are viewed as handing power to corporations instead of GPsA new list of approved suppliers to the NHS has heightened...
View ArticleThe economy: the government can’t run out of money. That’s simply false
Outside the eurozone, governments have no problem funding their deficitsHeather Stewart is correct that in Simon Wren-Lewis’s article for the New Statesman he argues that the purpose of government...
View ArticleThe grim reaper looms …
Chris Riddell on the consequences of a Conservative victoryContinue reading...
View ArticleThe Observer view on why you should vote Labour | Observer editorial
Only Ed Miliband offers a vision for a fairer Britain. His party deserves to form the next governmentThe gap between the richest and the rest was never wider, spectacular mergers produced giant...
View ArticleA law to ban tax rises. Do you think that’s wise, prime minister?
A Whitehall official once observed that it was his job to help government do foolish things properly. How apposite those words seem once againIn a review of my book Mr Osborne’s Economic Experiment in...
View ArticleIgnore the Tories: the figures show the recovery is veering off course
The Tory election narrative of an economy safe in their hands may be undermined by some disturbing trends already evident in the GDP dataUntil the moment when David Cameron whipped up a froth of...
View ArticleLabour overspending did not trigger financial crash, says senior civil servant
Permanent secretary to Treasury, Sir Nicholas Macpherson, contradicts Tory pre-election claims, saying financial crisis was ‘a banking crisis pure and simple’The permanent secretary to the Treasury,...
View ArticleThe Guardian view on trust in politics: by dodging the voters politicians...
The main parties will all continue austerity, but none of them dares say how painful it will beIn the past week, David Cameron has pledged an Act of Parliament to outlaw tax increases, Nick Clegg has...
View ArticleSome resources to help you decide | Letters
Voters can read more about the coalition government’s policies since 2010 in my article UK Government From 2010 to 2015: A Case Study in Management, in the current issue of the International Journal of...
View ArticleLet’s end the fixation with privatisation | Letters
Royal Bank of Scotland’s recent losses (Report, 1 May) should tell us that if privatisation is the answer, we have been asking the wrong question. Taxpayers have taken all the pain of cleaning up the...
View ArticleThere are issues that really matter at this election. But Britain’s media are...
Political parties may claim to be at each other’s throats – yet they seem to agree on a public discourse that keeps the nation in a state of arrested developmentPolitical coverage is never more trivial...
View ArticleBig picture politics podcast: episode two - fantasy budget cabinet
Guardian Australia's political editor, Lenore Taylor, is joined in the studio and on the line by three experts in Australia's budgetary options. Together they pretend to be the budget cabinet,...
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