Sunak’s spending review shows some common sense. But has he put enough cash into it?
Rishi Sunak looking nervous: is he being honest with us? Does he even know?
There were no surprises in the announcements that formed Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s spending review – but it did mark a major change.
Sunak has abandoned the failed “starve the beast” economic model that was favoured by George Osborne and that caused such economic havoc between 2010 and 2015.
Instead of forcing austerity on the UK by cutting investment, thereby restricting the amount of money passing through the UK economy and shrinking it, creating a spiral of steadily decreasing funds, Sunak has reverted to a tried, tested and effective model.
He has elected to borrow money and use it to pump fresh blood into the economic veins of the country. The question is: can a Tory ever put enough cash into the system?
This Writer was on Twitter during the Chancellor’s speech, and provided my own commentary throughout. I reproduce it here, along with other comments I’ve picked up:
#SpendingReview – Sunak starts by saying he'll protect lives and livelihoods. By freezing public sector pay while taking at least a 4% pay rise to MPs? Whose livelihoods is he protecting, exactly? #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
and nothing for poorer people: 2 children cap still in force, people on old style benefits had no 20 pounds increase, Statutory sick pack 90 pounds per week. I am wondering what role plays that he was born in USA and the UK is not his country.
— Diana #FBPE #RejoinEU #IStandWithUkraine (@Diana38261174) November 25, 2020
Economic forecast is that the economy will contract by 11.3% – largest fall in output for more than 300 years. Recovery to follow but the government will provide stimulus. That's Keynesianism, isn't it? #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Yes, there has been an increase in borrowing. UK borrowing is £394BN this year – the highest amount in peacetime history. That's Sunak's doing. Why does he want US to pay for it? #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
For context, when the Conservatives (and Lib Dems) came to power in 2010, the deficit was £144bn – a figure considered so astronomical that it dominated British politics for much of the past decade. Today, the figure is expected to be more than double that. https://t.co/zvIe2DOpc4
— Peter Saull (@petesaull) November 25, 2020
Underlying debt to rise to 97.5% of GDP. Remember when George Osborne said the debt must never be allowed to rise about 90%? Tories say whatever they feel like saying. #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Yes, Tory investment has kept businesses and jobs going. Keynesianism, as I said before. Money for a jobs restart programme is also Keynesian pump-priming. So much for Tory neoliberalism that doesn't work at all in a situation like this. #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Oh, Sunak is using a fall in private sector wages as an excuse to freeze public sector wages! But won't private wages rise again starting next year, according to his own predictions? #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Key workers deserve a pay rise. pic.twitter.com/DSxLvSDlAc
— Trades Union Congress (@The_TUC) November 25, 2020
Shock!
Just 52 Tory MPs – out of 364 – urge Ipsa to freeze their pay
https://t.co/YvVksnTs3N— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) November 25, 2020
Sunak says he's targeting pay increases on those who need it most. So – MPs, then. Think about that. #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Nurses and doctors to receive pay rise – would that be part of the ongoing deal that was devised several years ago and isn't enough? #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
And a #livingwage should be enough for you to live on without claiming benefit.
Otherwise it's just poverty wages paid by unscrupulous employers and subsidised by the tax payer— Lynnejb (@Lynnejb1) November 25, 2020
Government spending to rise next year by the largest amount in many years – but this is necessary to counteract the harmful effects of #Covid19 and is just more Keynesianism. #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Oh hey – has Sunak incorporated any funding to counter the adverse effects of the #Brexit that he and his boss @BorisJohnson are inflicting on us all? #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Oh, the Tories are funding 50 million more GP appointments? Is that by telephone, on a screen, or in person then? #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Listening to these announcements, it seems the Tory government is trying to be more socialist than @UKLabour under @Keir_Starmer – that's an indictment of Starmer and Labour, not an endorsement of Sunak, Johnson and the Tories. #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
https://twitter.com/JorgeLu41328650/status/1331585820915097600
A cut in the proportion of UK national income – from 0.7% to 0.5% – going to foreign aid. That's shaming because the proportion was a point of pride for the Tories. #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Big plans for capital investment. It will be interesting to see how much @UKLabour says it would have invested… #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
"We're making this country a scientific superpower" – that's a big claim, considering the huge failures in the #Covid19 crisis. #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Sunak announces a new "infrastructure bank". Isn't that a policy stolen from the @UKLabour manifesto of @jeremycorbyn last year? #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Just off the top of my head I can tell that £4BN for a "levelling-up" fund won't be enough. #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
New immigration system. What a shame Sunak has to end his statement by trying to big up something that is worse than what it replaces – and on the day the EHRC condemned the Windrush scandal. #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Ah, here's Dodds. She's leading on lack of protection for key workers and failure to protect ALL jobs. #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Good point: spending power is going down so the economy will suffer because the Tories are restricting the amount of money passing through the economy. #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Why not just call it criminal money-laundering from the public tax purse on a massive scale – and my bank gets all suspicious if I ask try to transfer £500 of my own money to a friend🤮
— London DADA (@artaxis) November 25, 2020
Dodds is right to highlight Tory waste and mismanagement. The Tories claim to be the party of financial responsibility yet they spaffed billions on their friends and the nation had nothing in return. Nothing! #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
The "levelling-up" fund is about begging ministers for cash rather than change coming from communities themselves. Good point? #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
It'll be interesting to see which constituencies (ahem, Tory ones? The Red Wall ones?) benefit from this "levelling-up fund". https://t.co/lGQkJsOVqu
— James Foster (@JamesEFoster) November 25, 2020
True that. If our economic emergency has only just begun, as Sunak said, then he has condemned people who've been unemployed since March to a desolate future. #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Sunak didn't focus on the climate crisis and it's a good point that he needed to incorporate measures to tackle it into all the other parts of his #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
Dodds highlights the lack of interest in #Brexit – as I mentioned in a previous tweet. Is Sunak trying to hide the economic crisis that we're facing from January 1, 2021? #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
"We needed ambitious action today" says Dodds, and she's right. Personally, I'm amazed that a Tory has announced the amount of funding that he has. #SpendingReview #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) November 25, 2020
We should all remember that announcements mean nothing; Labour has announced that it will implement all the recommendations of an EHRC review of the way the party handles anti-Semitism complaints but it seems this is because it won’t make any difference to what the party does.
So we need to watch what the Tories do, and check not only the amounts of money they hand out – but who gets it.
The so-called “chumocracy” has had far too much of our money lately and This Writer, for one, fears that they haven’t finished slurping up the blood that keeps our economy alive, vampires that they are.
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MPs getting a nice fat pay rise,but everyone else get`s nothing,always the tory way plus new labour 2. I`m alright jack.