The University of Southampton

Budgets, Brexit and Bias: 2017 so far

This summer has been a good opportunity to reflect on a busy and interesting time for the country, the economy and for events at the University so far this year.  March saw the first of two UK Government budgets this year (the second is scheduled to take place in November and will occur annually in the Autumn from now on).  I was asked to appear on Sasha Twining’s mid-morning show on BBC Radio Solent shortly before the Chancellor addressed Parliament, to discuss what issues could come up in Philip Hammond’s speech.  One matter that featured in our discussion was the proposal to increase the rate of National Insurance contributions for self-employed.  This proved to be very controversial, with many commenting that it went against the spirit of the Government’s pledge to not raise personal taxes during the parliamentary term.  The government subsequently performed a U-turn on this proposal.

20170426182114_img_0982In April, discussions regarding the triggering of Article 50, the upcoming Brexit negotiations and Theresa May’s announcement of a General Election in June all featured in the news.  I organised an evening seminar at the University about Brexit and how it will affect people in the local business community.  It was very pleasing to have a great turnout with some excellent expert contributions – for that my thanks go to Roxana Andrusca of the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Business Alliance.  A write-up of the evening can be found here.

 

gm-croppedTalking of the General Election, in May I was asked by The Conversation website to author a fact check on Labour’s assertion that a proposed increase in the Corporation Tax rate would raise £19.4bn in revenue for the Treasury.  The article can be found here.  It was a pleasant surprise to be asked if the article could be printed in the i national newspaper on 19th May.  What was very interesting from the comments left on the webpage and from my colleagues at the University is how writing an article such as this creates people’s perceptions of what my own political views are.  Whilst I comment that Labour’s quoted figure is somewhat misleading, it is natural for a political party when discussing a potential monetary benefit of a policy change, to cite the largest figure that they possibly can without obviously lying or fabricating a number.  So, it wouldn’t have surprised me to see any party, left, right or centrist, to try and get away with similar.

The remainder of the year has the potential to be as equally interesting, with the government’s second budget of the year planned for November (assuming no further elections take place before then, and whether Mr. Hammond will still be undertaking this remains to be seen).  We will be following this with a half-day Brexit update at the Ordnance Survey building on Wednesday 13th December as part of Southampton Business School’s Executive Learning Partnership.  I am very much looking forward to gaining further insight into how the business world is feeling about our economic developments.