Latest news with #CameronGovernment
Telegraph
a day ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Britain's dysfunctional finances are stifling aspiration and opportunity
SIR – As the Chancellor prepares for her Spending Review tomorrow, it is striking that no political party appears willing to confront the scale of Britain's fiscal problems. Now retired, I reflect on a life in which my generation enjoyed real opportunity. I left school at 16, completed an apprenticeship, studied further, bought a modest home, and raised a family. We lived carefully, but the path to security was there. Today's younger generation faces soaring taxes, student debt (we had grants), unaffordable housing, and strained public services – all while the state borrows heavily and spends over £100 billion a year on debt interest. Despite record tax receipts, driven by stealthy fiscal drag, the public gets little in return. When David Cameron's government attempted to rein in the deficit, this was attacked as 'austerity'. Yet no one now dares say what must be said: we must gradually pay down the national debt if we are to free up resources for housing, education and the NHS. The Government should focus not on how much it spends, but on what it delivers. A country that keeps dodging difficult choices will end up with no choices at all. Paul Allen Fleet, Hampshire SIR – As we await Rachel Reeves's Spending Review, we can only hope that the Government will cut up the national credit card, rather than grant itself a higher limit. But such an outcome would be controversial, not least because state-run institutions are bureaucratic and financially insatiable. We have reached the point where a major spending review should go far beyond manipulation of spreadsheets. It is time for serious questions as to what government does and why, and how it goes about it. However, these questions are too challenging for mere bean-counters. Are there any thinkers and innovators out there, or have they already left the country? David Porter Plymouth, Devon SIR – Britain is the sixth largest economy in the world, but it really doesn't feel like it. The country is seriously in debt and high interest rates mean that the cost of servicing that debt has also risen. This is being compounded by an ever-increasing welfare bill, an immediate demand to boost our spending on defence and a frankly unachievable net zero policy. The only plausible way out of this situation is to encourage economic growth, improve productivity and reduce uncompetitive energy costs. Yet this Government appears to have no solution except to tax and spend. The country is going broke fast, and at some point – perhaps even within this parliament – the IMF or the markets will call time on the situation.
The Guardian
29-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The Lobbying Act is more loophole than law
The Guardian's project examining the commercial interests of the House of Lords is vital (Watchdog investigates Tory peer over nuclear firm's meeting with minister, 28 May). But the fact that identifying potential lobbying has fallen to a national newspaper demonstrates the frailty of Westminster's Lobbying Act. The 2014 Act, introduced in near-cosmic irony by the Cameron government – whose head ended up embroiled in the Greensill affair – sought to prevent lobbying becoming the next big scandal by creating an open register to allow the public to see who was seeking to influence whom. More loophole than law, the act contains six key exemptions that serve to keep the overwhelming majority of activity off the register and out of public view. Indeed, when the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists watchdog investigated two of the incidents reported by the Guardian for suspected unregistered lobbying, one individual was found to be exempt from signing because they weren't VAT registered and another hadn't received payment. Few would deny that lobbying is a vital part of democratic process, or that those in office shouldn't hear the insights of businesses affected by their decisions. But still fewer would deny that lobbying ought to take place in the open – for it is in the dark where public mistrust foments even when activity is above board. It's time we introduced a proper lobbying GerlisHead of public relations and policy, Chartered Institute of Public Relations Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
