Speeches by Dean.

“I will just press you: will you commit to looking at them all? There are only 300 out of 1,200—”

“Sir Dave, you are also on the FPC. Would you like to come in?”

“I noticed this in the committee’s discussions: “For most members, global developments had not played a large role in their policy deliberations at this meeting”. The Financial Policy Committee has also discussed concerns about the risks of a financial bubble in the United States. There is also talk of potential trouble…”

““It’s never going to happen.””

“Is your fear that if you were to make a cut that a meeting or two later you felt you had to reverse, it could add policy uncertainty into the system and have all sorts of other impacts on the economy?”

“There was one more thing that struck me as unusual. You said that “a policy reversal would be costly for the MPC’s credibility.” Why does that matter and why did you choose to include that in your statement?”

“Ms Lombardelli, you voted in line with the majority. Could you reflect on your own decision, but also on the general discussion among the MPC on this occasion, and how you came to such a balanced decision?”

“Dr Dhingra, you joined Dr Mann on the 0.5 proposal in February, but it is safe to say that you have taken a different view since then; you have argued for cuts at almost every meeting. This time, in your explanation, you say that “Disinflation remains clearly on track” and that the “Bank Rate should have been lower alr…”

“Just to press you, because you did have that 0.5% cut proposal back in February, do you feel close to making that decision again soon? Are you holding until you go for another big rate cut, or do you feel that you are probably going to stay in that balanced hold position for a long time yet?”

“Dr Mann, your record has pretty consistently been to vote to hold, except for that time in February when you said to go for a bigger cut; I think we spoke about that in the last session. But this time you were staying on hold. One thing was interesting: in your statement you talk about how administered prices could jum…”

“Can I press you on one point? Your vote changed from September to November. A lot of the data points that you explained were probably in view in September as well. Was there anything that specifically tipped you over this time?”

“We will start with the interest rates decision. Usually we invite views from all of the panel, but of course this time you have given us an insight with your written statements, so we have a bit to go on. Sir Dave Ramsden, could I start with you? With your voting record against the majority decision, it is less difficu…”

“I join the Leader of the House in his tributes to Sir John Stanley and Paul Barwell. He referred to the Christmas spirit getting going in and around the House, and I ask him to spare a thought for the Lib Dem staffers clutching coffees this morning after their Christmas party last night. I cannot confirm or deny whethe…”

“We have spoken quite a bit about the productivity forecast and how it has been downgraded. I wanted to touch quickly on what it was offset by in this fiscal event, namely inflation, wages, income and so on. There are a couple of things that struck me about the reporting around it that I wondered whether you could shine…”

“That sparks another question. We have become obsessed with this figure in this country. It has been the talk of budgetary matters for the last 18 months. You are saying that the bond markets are not that bothered. We obsess about the figure because we think that the bond markets are bothered about it. Can you give exam…”

“Just before I ask the question, Ms Curtice, you said something interesting there about needing to go one way or the other. We need to become either much more secret or much more open. I wonder whether you could expand that. Say the pre-measures figure that was supplied to the Treasury was public and known by all of Par…”

“Ms Curtice, I know that you have models out there as well. Do you want to add any commentary to that?”

“That leads me to my next point. I feel like there has been a lean towards more secrecy with the announcement about there being one formal assessment a year. That is an attempt to say, “We do not actually want people to focus on the headroom too much. We do not want to make fiscal decisions on the basis of that headroom…”

“Given our political media environment, is that plausible? If she were to lose £15 billion of headroom between now and the spring, would she not feel like she had to correct it?”

“You have talked about all the piecemeal change that happened from Budget to Budget. If you want to achieve the kind of equity in the tax system that I am describing, do you think that the Government need to go for much more comprehensive reform, rather than just adjusting rates or changing the base each time?”