As ever, very insightful comment on macroeconomic policy looking ahead, beyond the election by ⁦Nick Macpherson⁩ “Sighs of relief will be coming from the Treasury and BoE” via Financial Times on.ft.com/4bMQzfE

Until this announcement, I was unpersuaded 16-17 year olds should get the vote. Now, I regard it as essential. #strangetimes BBC News - Conservatives plan to bring back mandatory national service bbc.com/news/articles/…

A bit puzzled. It's the independent Bank which sets interest rates. I feel for Dr Bailey and his MPC colleagues. I don't recall Messrs Brown, Darling and Osborne making similar assertions in the 2001, 2005, 2010 and 2015 elections and for good reasons. #soundmoney

Philip Snowden's description of replacing Churchill as Chancellor. Confirms Liam Byrne MP was in good company though, unlike David Laws who published a private letter, Snowden had the decency to wait 5 years before reporting the conversation.

A sign of desperation that these costings are attributed to Treasury officials, when the assumptions are determined by Tory special advisers. Glad that the official Treasury set the record straight on Monday. #garbageingarbageout

Some fascinating articles here, not least from my old friends @ciaranmartinoxf and Gus O'Donnell . A fitting memorial to Lord Heywood of Whitehall.

Tim Lankaster’s “Inside Thatcher’s Monetarism Experiment: the Promise, the Failure, the Legacy” is well worth a read. Here’s my review for The Spectator The costly legacy of Margaret Thatcher’s monetarism spectator.co.uk/article/the-co…

No government however left wing has ever contemplated applying CGT to principal residence. As for the CGT rate, the OBR determines how much revenue any change generates. In my time, the rate which maximised revenue was in the 23-28% range. #redherringtastic

Join us on 27 June for an edited viewing of 1997 STV doc 'We Are The Treasury' with Ed Balls Nick Macpherson Sue Nye & Tom Scholar plus director Ross Wilson & producer Rhoda Macdonald discussing the events at HMT after the election & lessons for today 🎟️ thestrandgroup.kcl.ac.uk/event/we-are-t…

Our Visiting Prof Nick Macpherson: ‘When it comes to economic policy making, history is probably the best guide there is’ spectator.co.uk/article/the-co… Join us this Autumn for 10th year of our postgrad ‘Chancellors & the Treasury: Managing the British Economy’ thestrandgroup.kcl.ac.uk/module/chancel…

Do come along to King’s tomorrow evening if you’re interested in learning more about the May 1997 transition at the Treasury - our panel includes Nick Macpherson, Sue Nye, Tom Scholar and we’ll be showing clips from the STV documentaries and discussing them with director Ross

The most effective politicians I worked for always made time for their families. Alistair Darling comes to mind. Those who sought to work every hour of the day became increasingly ineffective. This line of attack is utterly incomprehensible.

I saw this and remembered Nick Macpherson's comment that "The Treasury exists to protect people from the consequences of human nature"

The fault line in the current UK fiscal regime is less Truss-style mini-budgets and more the requirement that the OBR has to take on trust wholly implausible spending plans, eg on prisons, defence & social care. Solving that is the route to fiscal credibility. #soundmoney

The time to abolish the 1200 year old penny is when we abolish the coinage altogether. Meanwhile, as a wise PM observed when seeing off a similar proposal "if you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves". #soundmoney

The interesting question about the universal winter fuel payment is not its abolition but why it lasted so long. Mr Brown introduced it when the state pension was indexed to prices. Once the "triple lock" was introduced, the case for a WFP for all fell away.

I feel for HMT officIals. The rules precluded them sharing spending pressures with Ms Reeves ahead of the Election; the current framework precluded them discussing the realism of spending plans with the OBR. The changes to the OBR charter announced today are a big step forward.

Nick is right.. Jeremy Hunt would have been apoplectic if HMT officials had shared their view of spending pressures with the Shadow Chancellor before the election as he suggested (unless he authorised it...)

Every Chief Secretary to the Treasury (and for that matter every spending official) should read it. #soundmoney

I'm calling time on twitter. I can no longer take its tone though the fault is probably mine. Have gone over to Bluesky which appears rather more civilised. #nickmacpherson.bsky.social #soundmoney