The first Labour Government in a generation, the biggest increase in taxes since 1993. A bold maneuver to bolster growth, or a misstep, which will cost Labour at the next election? The challenge facing policy makers is real. The size of the national debt is so large, that interest payments alone are now larger than the entire policing budget. And in order to prevent the national debt to stop increasing relative to GDP, the country needs annual growth of 2.5% or more.
The first Labour Government in a generation, the biggest increase in taxes since 1993. A bold maneuver to bolster growth, or a misstep, which will cost Labour at the next election? The challenge facing policy makers is real. The size of the national debt is so large, that interest payments alone are now larger than the entire policing budget. And in order to prevent the national debt to stop increasing relative to GDP, the country needs annual growth of 2.5% or more.
With one week to go, the election remains too close to call. With that, on November 5, the USA will vote and if Trump wins, there will be implications for the UK. Foreign policy is the one area where Trump has internationalists concerned, equally his primary gripe is that NATO members should be paying their way, and the USA is footing the bill for defense in Europe unnecessarily.
The quarterly funding data from Pitchbook has now been released, and for people in the IT community, it makes grim reading. The deal count in Q3 is down 43% compared to Q2 and deal values have shrunk by an even greater amount. Whilst the VC/PE backed start up community is a small fragment of the UK labour market, funding data is indicative of the wider prevailing economic trends.
The return of working from the office, is manifesting, especially in the larger companies, with a combination of carrot and stick now in effect. Refusniks who are successfully negotiating to retain their remote privileges are being told that only people based on site are likely to get bonuses and promotions, whilst others are starting to be counted in and out and disciplined if they are found to be working remotely too often.