‘It looks to me like the triumph of big business – or rather the triumph of the Treasury's view of what big businesses need and want.
‘ ... it is trebly true of the cut in the top rate of income tax, the accelerated reductions in corporation tax and the reform of taxation for multinationals based here (the controlled foreign company rules).
‘Now many of these policies have been desired by the official Treasury for years: they were developed under the last Labour government as required to improve the competitiveness of the British economy but are only now being implemented by this coalition.
‘Some of the measures, such as on corporation tax, can be identified with the personal preferences of George Osborne, but most pre-date him.
‘So, to use the jargon of the City, there has been a reverse takeover of the government by the gents (yes they are mostly of that gender) of the Treasury, the officials not the elected politicians.’
Robert Peston, Business Editor, BBC News
27 March 2012
‘It looks to me like the triumph of big business – or rather the triumph of the Treasury's view of what big businesses need and want.
‘ ... it is trebly true of the cut in the top rate of income tax, the accelerated reductions in corporation tax and the reform of taxation for multinationals based here (the controlled foreign company rules).
‘Now many of these policies have been desired by the official Treasury for years: they were developed under the last Labour government as required to improve the competitiveness of the British economy but are only now being implemented by this coalition.
‘Some of the measures, such as on corporation tax, can be identified with the personal preferences of George Osborne, but most pre-date him.
‘So, to use the jargon of the City, there has been a reverse takeover of the government by the gents (yes they are mostly of that gender) of the Treasury, the officials not the elected politicians.’
Robert Peston, Business Editor, BBC News
27 March 2012