I may, on some occasion in my life, have been more bored, but, if I have, I really can’t remember it.Alistair Darling’s first Budget was a masterclass in dullness. If tedium was an Olympic event, he would be assured of a ticket to Beijing, with the prospect of a place on the podium.
It was simply awful.
It may, of course, have been calculated. Perhaps Alistair was deliberately lulling us into a stupor. If so, his incantation of “stability, stability” certainly did the trick. By the end of his fifty minutes (which seemed much longer), I had lost the will to live.
But I was not so stupefied that I didn’t twig what Alistair was up to. He was droning on about stability because, in truth, he had nothing to say, at least nothing that would come as good news to anyone still listening. He couldn’t offer any relief to those who are buckling under the strain of the ever-increasing tax burden, because he is skint, spent up and on his uppers himself. His public spending commitments (ignoring the unforeseen little local difficulty called Northern Rock) give him no room for largesse. All he can do is take.
So he is going to jack up the tax on beer, wine and spirits (bang go more local pubs). He is going to hammer owners of large family cars (serve you right for having a family). He is going to start charging for the use of roads (don't live in the countryside). And he is going to give the non-doms a good turning over (what makes them think we need them, anyway?).
There will be a few bob extra for poorer families, by way of additional tax credit, but they will still lose the benefit of the 10 per cent band. Oh, and there will be a small increase in winter fuel payments for pensioners - but it will be a one-off.
Otherwise, there was no cheer, just gloom, gloom, gloom.
In short (which is something Alistair Darling has never been known to say), it was a bloody awful Budget.
2 comments:
Piss poor budget as we are concerned,The thought of of all smug faces makes me want to puke,Campbell gave a good quick dig at Ed Balls and I am glad that he brought up the question of the abolishment of the 10% rate.Pensioners lost the 10% rate but he gave men and women OVER 65 years of age an extra personal allowance but omitted to give women of 60 to 65 such an allowance which means that such women will have to pay more tax,I for one didn't realise that income tax begins at approx £5500.00.Funny thing is that government states that a figure of about£6000.00 income and below means poverty but it is quite permissible to tax people who earn about £6000.00 Smells to me especially when the good working class socialists are first in the trough.Edd Balls and his wife /partner certainly know how to milk the system with their houses.Wonder what the Plaid ex headmaster will do with his allowances next year,The arsemlemby work so very bloody hard and yet Gareth still find time to carry on his council work....He is just as bad as Glyn Davies.
"via David Jones' blog, on which I'm getting a bit of stick myself in the comments at the moment. I will survive."
Glyn is must be the spending a lot of time on his key board!
Perhaps he is snowed in?
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