What part of Britain is not for sale?
What part of Britain is not for sale? Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, April 3rd 2016 This week the future of the steel industry moved centrestage, Scottish parties have finally started talking tax, and the Tories version of what they call a ‘national living wage’ came into force. British steel used to lead the world. In 1875 it accounted for 40% of world production. The industry employed 320,000 people in 1971, which has fallen to 24,000 now. It produced 24 million tonnes in 1967, down to 12 million tonnes today. Tata Steel - an Indian company based in Mumbai who bought
The Tory Fantasyland Version of Britain hits the buffers
The Tory Fantasyland Version of Britain hits the buffers Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, March 20th 2016 George Osborne presented his eighth and potentially last Budget. Bad politics. Dodgy decisions and finances. All leading to Iain Duncan Smith’s sensational resignation sparking bitter Tory divisions. Osborne is a very political chancellor, convinced of his own sure touch which his record doesn’t bear out. A mere 111 days before his budget he presented a glowing Autumn Statement which he has had to tear up and correct downward; by the sum total of £56 billion. Even worse, he is missing the targets which he
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The Great British Economic Miracle is an Illusion
The Great British Economic Miracle is an Illusion Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, January 31st 2016 Something is wrong with the British economy. George Osborne seems to be experiencing his own ‘Boom and Bust’. Just before Christmas he was singing the joys of the British economy on the mend. Yet a few weeks later he changed his tone talking of the uncertain economic times. He hasn’t had to look too far for his troubles - from the tax credits’ chaos where he had to do a U-turn, to this week’s judgement that the bedroom tax was illegal and discriminated against
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The Tories are shrinking the state while Labour go back to the 1980s
The Tories are shrinking the state while Labour go back to the 1980s Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, November 29th 2015 These are tumultuous times. Chaos in Syria. Complex and shifting alliances. The Turks shooting down a Russian plane. There is disarray in the Labour Party on Syria and Trident. And all in the week of George Osborne’s Autumn Statement on public spending. The Tories appear dominant in British politics only six months after they won their surprising majority: based on 24.3% of electors and a narrow parliamentary majority of 12 seats. Osborne cleverly positioned himself retreating from his own unpopular
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Is Osborne’s Budget the Future or Will His Bubble Burst?
Is Osborne’s Budget the Future of Britain or Will His Bubble Burst? Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, July 12th 2015 For the last fortnight I have been sailing round the northern coast of Norway on holiday – perhaps an appropriate place to view George Osborne’s budget. He clearly thinks that he is on top of the world - the first Tory majority government budget since 1996, his seventh budget, and the second this year, the last only in March. Osborne did many traditional Tory things – cutting inheritance tax and welfare, stole some of Labour’s clothes on a higher national minimum
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