What is a Budget for? Why do we indulge in this annual ritual of preliminary speculation, parliamentary theatre and subsequent disputatious analysis? The evident answer is that a Budget provides an opportunity for the government to use its fiscal powers to trim and adjust the economy, to steer it in the direction it believes will best contribute to national prosperity, in accordance with the incumbent administration’s political philosophy.
A government takeover of Thames Water would be an outrage
The new government’s hand is strong enough to resist nationalisation, which would stick over £18bn of debt onto the taxpayer.
