The Voters Panel: Why is Jeremy Hunt preparing to cut taxes and rein in public spending?
Why is Jeremy Hunt preparing to cut taxes and rein in public spending growth when polls suggest the public – by a clear margin – think this is the wrong way round?
Sky News’ Voters Panel, an online community of 2019 Conservative voters, holds the answer.
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For two weeks, Sky News has convened dozens of voters who supported Boris Johnson in 2019 to probe more deeply than possible with an opinion poll into what motivates their views on politics in this election year.
This is seen by Conservatives and Labour as a key electoral battleground. These people matter.
So while it is true the overall British population swings one way – national YouGov polling finds 55% of voters overall say spare cash should go to public services against only 30% wanting tax cuts – our group, our key electoral demographic, sees things differently.
Of these voters, 23 people expressed a clear view that they did want tax cuts. Meanwhile, 15 said that they did not want tax cuts, mostly because of a desire to put more into public services.
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When our Voters Panel was forced to choose one or other – tax cuts or more money into public spending – they picked tax cuts by the ratio of three to two – nine wanted to put more money into public spending, while 17 wanted tax cuts.
When asked to justify why they picked one over the other, the panel was clear.
Holly said: “I think cuts to personal income tax would be the most needed and most beneficial for people.
“The cost of living crisis and rising inflation has squeezed everyone, this would be a good way to bring balance back.”
Mark said: “I feel taxes are high enough. Cut taxes and give people, especially the most vulnerable, a chance to have extra money in their pockets.”
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Some, like Rob, thought higher public spending was an actively bad idea.
“More public spending doesn’t deliver better services. It just creates more waste and more middle and upper managers,” he said.
Others adopted the language of the right of the Tory party, with Terry wanting less spent on public services, because it [the party] needs to be more realistic and end spending on “woke management posts or inflated management teams”.
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20% of Tories would vote Reform
While a clutch rejected more public spending, mostly for the NHS, some thought more money needed to go into police.
However, even among those who want higher spending, there is a fear it might be wasted.
Kelly, who backs budget increases, said: “I fear that we will only benefit from it if they are spending it correctly. Which I don’t think they are.”
This is not the only reason Tory strategists will plump for tax cuts over spending rises.
Any announcement by the chancellor of a personal taxation cut will be instantly noticed by millions of people for whom it will take effect before long.
Meanwhile should Mr Hunt decide to announce future public spending rises of even two percentage points, few would understand what that means in practice and there is next to no chance anyone would feel the difference by the time election day arrives.
This choice, it seems, is more simple than it might look.
Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, marks their 50th birthday amid a year of rising institutional and geopolitical adoption of the world’s first cryptocurrency.
The identity of Nakamoto remains one of the biggest mysteries in crypto, with speculation ranging from cryptographers like Adam Back and Nick Szabo to broader theories involving government intelligence agencies.
While Nakamoto’s identity remains anonymous, the Bitcoin (BTC) creator is believed to have turned 50 on April 5 based on details shared in the past.
According to archived data from his P2P Foundation profile, Nakamoto once claimed to be a 37-year-old man living in Japan and listed his birthdate as April 5, 1975.
Source: Web.archive.org
Nakamoto’s anonymity has played a vital role in maintaining the decentralized nature of the Bitcoin network, which has no central authority or leadership.
The Bitcoin wallet associated with Nakamoto, which holds over 1 million BTC, has laid dormant for more than 16 years despite BTC rising from $0 to an all-time high above $109,000 in January.
Satoshi Nakamoto statue in Lugano, Switzerland. Source: Cointelegraph
Nakamoto’s 50th birthday comes nearly a month after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile, marking the first major step toward integrating Bitcoin into the US financial system.
Related: Bitcoin at 16: From experiment to trillion-dollar asset
Nakamoto’s legacy: a “cornerstone of economic sovereignty”
“At 50, Nakamoto’s legacy is no longer just code; it’s a cornerstone of economic sovereignty,” according to Anndy Lian, author and intergovernmental blockchain expert.
“Bitcoin’s reserve status signals trust in its scarcity and resilience,” Lian told Cointelegraph, adding:
“What’s fascinating is the timing. Fifty feels symbolic — half a century of life, mirrored by Bitcoin’s journey from a white paper to a trillion-dollar asset. Nakamoto’s vision of trustless, peer-to-peer money has outgrown its cypherpunk roots, entering the halls of power.”
However, lingering questions about Nakamoto remain unanswered, including whether they still hold the keys to their wallet, which is “a fortune now tied to US policy,” Lian said.
Related: Bitcoin’s next catalyst: End of $36T US debt ceiling suspension
Is Satoshi Nakamoto wealthier than Bill Gates?
In February, Arkham Intelligence published findings that attribute 1.096 million BTC — then valued at more than $108 billion — to Nakamoto. That would place him above Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on the global wealth rankings, according to data shared by Coinbase director Conor Grogan.
Satoshi’s new addresses. Source: Conor Grogan
If accurate, this would make Nakamoto the world’s 16th richest person.
Despite the growing interest in Nakamoto’s identity and holdings, his early decision to remain anonymous and inactive has helped preserve Bitcoin’s decentralized ethos — a principle that continues to define the cryptocurrency to this day.
Magazine: 10 crypto theories that missed as badly as ‘Peter Todd is Satoshi’
The United States stock market lost more in value over the April 4 trading day than the entire cryptocurrency market is worth, as fears over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to ramp up.
On April 4, the US stock market lost $3.25 trillion — around $570 billion more than the entire crypto market’s $2.68 trillion valuation at the time of publication.
Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market”
Among the Magnificent-7 stocks, Tesla (TSLA) led the losses on the day with a 10.42% drop, followed by Nvidia (NVDA) down 7.36% and Apple (AAPL) falling 7.29%, according to TradingView data.
The significant decline across the board signals that the Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market” after falling 6% across the trading day, trading resource account The Kobeissi Letter said in an April 4 X post. This is the largest daily decline since March 16, 2020.
“US stocks have now erased a massive -$11 TRILLION since February 19 with recession odds ABOVE 60%,” it added. The Kobessi Letter said Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement was “historic” and if the tariffs continue, a recession will be “impossible to avoid.”
Source: Anthony Scaramucci
On April 2, Trump signed an executive order establishing reciprocal tariffs on trading partners and a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from all countries.
Trump said the reciprocal tariffs will be roughly half the rate US trading partners impose on American goods.
Related: Bitcoin bulls defend $80K support as ‘World War 3 of trade wars’ crushes US stocks
Meanwhile, the crypto industry has pointed out that while the stock market continues to decline, Bitcoin (BTC) remains stronger than most expected.
Crypto trader Plan Markus pointed out in an April 4 X post that while the entire stock market “is tanking,” Bitcoin is holding.
Source: Jeff Dorman
Even some crypto skeptics have pointed out the contrast between Bitcoin’s performance and the US stock market during the recent period of macro uncertainty.
Stock market commentator Dividend Hero told his 203,200 X followers that he has “hated on Bitcoin in the past, but seeing it not tank while the stock market does is very interesting to me.”
Meanwhile, technical trader Urkel said Bitcoin “doesn’t appear to care one bit about tariff wars and markets tanking.” Bitcoin is trading at $83,749 at the time of publication, down 0.16% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.
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