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Sunday, July 18, 2010
Sir Alan budds resignation
Sir Alan Budd the head of the OBR [Office of Budget Responsibility] is to step down in the summer. It is reported that he had said in private that he intended to resign after the first set of reports were completed. No successor has yet been found although the coalition has now started to advertising for one. With the government having 3 months notice of his intention to resign, it would have been logical they would have attempted and succeeded in finding a replacement, prior to Sir Alan Budd’s intention to step down was made public.
" His announcement comes after the treasury leaked information to the press regarding the unemployment figures, and after it was discovered that David Cameron had been passed the “up to date” unemployment figures 2 minutes before he announced them in parliament, hoping to wrong-foot the opposition who didn’t have these figures. Sir Alan brought forward the publication of the data following an earlier leak to a newspaper, but told the Treasury select committee this week that Mr Cameron's use of the figures was "not appropriate”.
This was the catalyst which prompted the feeling that the OBR had lost its creditability. Bearing in mind that the OBR works out of the treasury, and uses treasury staff, it did lend weight to this theory, especially when you consider the treasury sat in on the coalition talks and advised the coalition, when it was only supposed to advise the government, which at that time was the Labour Party. Add to that, the disclosure this week that when the press and public tried to contact the OBR by telephone, the treasury intercepted and answered those calls .
Sir Alan said "However, the fact that we were operating in the Treasury and relying on official resources has raised doubts about our independence in some quarters,"
If you thought the recession was bad – think again there is a lot more hardship to come.
Vic Farron RFT Express. Follow us on Twitter :: Facebook :: and Blogspot Bookmark this page using the ‘Share’ button