BTNG - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Blanchflower presumably won't come as news to you. The man was chosen for the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee. Had the dismal distinction of seeing recession coming. Also takes a healthily sceptical view of the prospects for the UK housing market. Rightly in my view. Usually to be read in the Statesman.

There is a perfectly valid and respectable argument that if you want to create demand in the UK economy which is perhaps on the verge of dipping into recession again, you do not give tax or NI breaks to the more affluent but to the poorer.

Why? The poor will have spend it here and now and so drive the UK economy, not spend it so much abroad on imports or holidays or pay off debt or squirrel it away for a rainy day as the better-off will.

Why NI not tax - to specifically aim it at wage-earners rather than, say, pensioners? You may well ask.

Whether any sort of NI cut is viewed as feasible is the big question. One suspects not: indeed no bloody way.

Keynesian stimulus is great as long as you can borrow enough without frightening the lenders. Something called a multiplier. Crudely, you put money in and it keeps on going round except for chunks coming back to the Treasury.

Right, where's the Sheppy's?