The Full English with Alexander Brown - Episode 96 - video Dailymotion

The Full English with Alexander Brown - Episode 96

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:27 Hello and welcome to The Full English, a show that combines politics with doing very

00:31 little to stimulate the economy. The same can be said for the autumn statement

00:35 however, which does as much for growth as those extenders that they sell online.

00:38 Let's get into it. This week the Chancellor unveiled a tax cut filled

00:43 autumn statement, explaining fiscal wriggle room had been created and things

00:47 were looking up. Unfortunately the OBR also published forecasts so I can tell

00:53 you they're not looking up. Not looking up at all. Growth forecasts are worse, there's

00:57 going to be the biggest drop in living standards on record and the tax burden

01:01 is still at a record high. Look, tax cuts are great in isolation but in the bigger

01:06 picture we're all going to have less. What's so frustrating about this is how

01:11 nakedly political it is. A national insurance cut is being brought forward

01:15 so it can happen before the election, while savage cuts to department budgets

01:19 were delayed until after the election, meaning the Tories can campaign on

01:23 cutting taxes then leave Labour having to put back what's left of public

01:27 services. This was an autumn statement for the long term but when I say long

01:31 term that really means leaving the next government with less and needing tax

01:35 rises to rectify the mess they've made. It's an ugly, ugly game this. So what have we

01:41 learned? Firstly that Jeremy Hunt is somehow quite charming while putting

01:45 millions of people in a higher tax bracket and secondly that looking at

01:49 financial forecasts is even more depressing than it sounds. Until next

01:53 time, I've been Alexander Brown and you haven't.

01:58 [MUSIC PLAYING]