Source: UK National Archives

In keeping with its promise to deliver an emergency budget within 50 days of coming to office, the UK’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government today unveiled a painful package of fiscal reforms to get public finances back on an even keel. Delivered by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne before parliament, the budget [Read more...]

Having expressed a somewhat cynical view ahead of the landmark UK general elections last week, I thought I’d offer some more sober comments this week.

The coalition government between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats brings together the largest and third largest blocs within the new House of Commons, and will have a majority of 74. This [Read more...]

This is it! This is it!

Only two and a half days till the UK election!

Don’t worry, this is not a party political broadcast. In the interests of preserving Business Monitor International (BMI)’s impartial status, I will not endorse any party ahead of the election. What I will do is offer a brief and perhaps somewhat [Read more...]

Fiscal deficit management and debt sustainability are two vital economic themes right now, given that governments across the world have been boosting public spending to reinvigorate their economies. In this respect, two charts immediately grab my attention. These charts appeared in Business Monitor Online earlier today, and in BMI’s weekly Emerging Markets Monitor magazine.

The [Read more...]

We are now seeing the first major effects of the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. National governments have finally decided on the appointments for the new roles of president of the European Council and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Both are going to be filled by politicians, who, to put it charitably, [Read more...]

With the centre-right taking control in Germany and polls suggesting the same for the UK in 2010, we ask David Snowdon, Global Economic Strategist at BMI, to examine the potential policy repercussions for Western Europe and beyond. While the centre-left has lost ground electorally, David suggests that this may not necessarily herald a major ideological [Read more...]

 

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YouGov has launched a major innovation in British political opinion polling, together with Sky News: a daily tracker poll during the UK party conference season. Normally, we can expect nine or ten polls to be issued every month by the various agencies, so this on first impression seems like a major development which more accurately [Read more...]