I was listening to Radio 4 News this morning, and heard an interview with Lucy Rigby MP who is Chief Secretary to the Treasury and, apparently, Rachel from Accounts’ deputy. She had been put on the ministerial merry-go-round to provide information on Rachel’s upcoming half baked announcement on measures to reduce the Public’s burden through the Cost of Living crisis.
These measures include temporary removal of import tariffs on foodstuffs, such as Baked Beans, Biscuits and Chocolate – all things that, according to government advisors, are bad for us, but that any unsolicited do-gooder will tell you are over-consumed by the hoi-polloi most affected by said crisis.
These measures, she advised, will cost the treasury £100m, but despite constant questioning from the interviewer could not be pinned down as to where this money is actually coming from. So, the interviewer switched tack and asked where the effects would be seen in the public pocket – specifically how much would come off the price of a tin of baked beans. Lucy ducked and dived a bit, saying she didn’t want to pre-empt what Rachel might say later (as if a ‘deputy’ would not already know, particularly one deployed to lay the groundwork). The interviewer tried to draw a number from her, but essentially gave up when she advised that she did not even know how much the import tariff was on said tin of beans.
Now, being Rachel from Accounts’ deputy, one would have to assume that, should the boss be unavailable for whatever reason, Lucy from Accounts would be able to step-in to maintain continuity. Which led me to a quite obvious question: if the deputy, and by logical progression the boss, doesn’t know how much the import tariff is on a single unit of a commodity, how on earth did they calculate how much it will cost them to remove the tariff on it?
Or are we just embarking on yet another government wet-finger-in-the-air economic strategy that will not amount to a hill of beans?