What are we to make of Gordon Brown’s conversion to the wonders of a tax on financial transactions? Test it against the Maxims of Taxation, as put forward by Adam Smith. Here they are – judge for yourself.

New businesses would get big tax breaks for job creation under Conservative proposals announced today. George Osborne told the Tory party conference  that 60,000 jobs would be created by the scheme, intended to encourage investment in new ventures. The Shadow Chancellor said that employers creating new jobs would not have to pay National Insurance contributions for the first two years of a Conservative...

Our first reaction to the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable’s proposal for a “Mansion Tax” worth over £1 million, was that he had severely damaged his credibility and upset his party colleagues. He had claimed that the money could be used to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000. The proposal had been savaged within hours of its announcement, though some journalists...

The Brixton pound was launched last week at an event at Lambeth Town Hall in South London. Local currency initiatives are popping up all over Britain. Totnes and Lewes, Sussex are the oft-quoted examples of local “pounds” already in circulation; and this week Brixton became the first urban community to launch its own currency. What are we to make of this phenomenon?

Our resident accountant has just been analysing the effect of the current tax rates. Their most significant impact is of course at the margin. An unemployed single person receives about £200 a week in Jobseekers’ Allowance, housing benefit, &c. Of that, about £20 a week is paid back to the government in tax, a nice example of churning, so the real purchasing power of the £200 is £180....