Belated congratulations to Centre Forum, and in particular Giles Wilkes, for winning Prospect Magazines’ Think Tank Publication of the Year Award for A Balancing Act: Fair Solutions to the Modern Debt Crisis.
One of the many things I meant to do this summer was to write a review of this pamphlet. It is a highly readable account of the financial mess we are in and challenges a lot of assumptions – in particular George Osborne’s apocalyptic insistance that cutting public borrowing is the main priority and that the situation is analogous to where the UK was at in the late-70s/early-80s. It also proposes the introduction of a property tax – albeit at a higher rate than the one Vince Cable is now proposing.
It is a well deserved award and congratulations to all concerned.
The new paper from Centre Forum “Slash and Grow?”, also by Giles Wilkes, is also very good. It makes the economic – not the social – case against slashing cuts now.