The UK Prime Minister may have the regal touch in northern England, but he’s been wrong-footed on the constitutional challenges posed by the Celtic Alliance of first ministers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, argues KENNY MacASKILL
IT IS a modern miracle how incredibly damaging Tory Budgets are given a warm welcome by the overwhelming majority of the media, the miraculous status undimmed by the fact that it happens year after year.
The consensus was that this week’s Budget was a “spend now, tax later” plan.
The opposite is true. Aside from measures to try to cope with the pandemic which a clearly reluctant Chancellor is obliged to extend, the substance of the latest Budget, like the 2020 Budget, is to cut spending and raise the taxes on working people now.
A sharp rise in public-sector investment is required to kick-start the economy, argues MICHAEL BURKE
Trade unions call for windfall tax hike to fund social energy tariff to public’s energy bills
Only an ambitious programme of state-led investment can restore growth and improve living standards, argues MICHAEL BURKE
The 2025 Budget shores up the PM’s political position with headline-grabbing welfare U-turns, but with no improvements on offer to declining public services or living standards, writes MICHAEL BURKE


