The return of the signature parade

Oh dear, we’re back to letter-writing again. 52 academic sorts — including the Labour advisor Richard Grayson and Blue Labour proponent Stuart White — have a letter in today’s Observer urging George Osborne towards a ‘Plan B’ for the economy. They even sketch out, in less than 150 words, what that Plan B might look like. And, strangely enough, it has more than a tinge of Ed Miliband about it, including — and I quote — a green new deal; a focus on targeted industrial policy; the empowerment of workers; “unsqueezing” the incomes of the majority, and so on.

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Matthew Lynn

Spain will regret its 100 per cent expat property tax

I say we’re back to letter-writing again, because it’s all so reminiscent of one of the most unedifying episodes in the fiscal debate so far, from before last year’s election. The Tories, you may recall, corralled 20 economists to write a letter in support of their deficit reduction plans at the time, to which Labour responded with 60 economists of their own.