Tomorrow's Business Today
Do the Tories need better policies, or just better PR?
How was Jeremy Hunt’s budget on Wednesday received?
Well, in the press, predictably.
The Guardian doesn’t much think to it. The Telegraph rather likes it.
The FT was middling – Hunt has left the door open for more tax cuts, but “fails to deliver knockout punch”, says the pink ‘uns front page.
TB yesterday doubted that a cut in National Insurance is that meaningful to most people.
We quoted Jim Pickard of the FT who said that during the thousands of vox pops he has done during his journalistic career, no one has ever mentioned NI. “Not once.”
Which suggests cutting the headline rate of NI by 2p is just not the winning slogan the Tories would like it to be.
Most polls show that people want investment in the NHS ahead of cuts in NI. In general, people think “tax cuts” are aimed at the rich.
Maybe the Conservatives are just presenting it wrong – maybe they just need better PR.
Because if you phrase the question differently, you get different answers.
This week Find Out Now asked more than 3000 adults about the budget.
If you ask whether people think it is more important to increase spending on public services or “cut taxes that ordinary people pay”, you get a majority vote for cutting taxes – knickers to public services.
The poll wasn’t all good for the Tories. Asked what advice they would give to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, the top answer was “resign”.
One correspondent warned: “You are going to learn all kinds of bad words that you never knew existed.”
You can see the full results here.
Press release of the day
Both BP and Shell are set to announce bumper CEO bonuses on the back of huge shareholder payouts, says this from Global Witness.
They made combined profits of £75 billion since the Ukraine war began.
It says: “We will be drawing attention to the absurdity of such eye-watering bonuses at a time when people are struggling to pay bills.”
Stories that will keep rolling
1) Post Office “not fit” to handle victim compensation. BBC
2) Nationwide buying Virgin Money is an awful deal. Evening Standard
3) ITV profits plunge amid advertising recession. Guardian
4) China intensifies push to “delete America” from its technology. WSJ
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