It has been quite a week for UK economic policy. Lenders pulled 1,000 mortgage packages in a day, the Bank of England was forced to intervene to avoid pension funds going bust, and the pound hit a record low against the dollar despite the chancellor’s insistence that his plan for growth “will work”.
The blame for all this falls squarely on last Friday’s “mini-budget”. Kwasi Kwarteng used it to propose radical tax cuts, with no suggestion of how they would be paid for. Nothing signalled the government’s new priorities more clearly than the surprise abolition of the 45p top rate of income tax.
