OK so todays the day.

Post any views you have good or bad and how this Budget may affect you or others here please.

As willow says maybe another good debate

The Budget is going to be an exercise in moving deck chairs around whilst the ship continues to plough on towards the iceberg with the Plan A flag nailed to the mast and the wheel lashed down on a suicidal course - yet again. The announcement of capital project funding would only affect the fourth decimal place of our GDP in three years' time gesture politics in other words. Another pointless, delusional dose of neo-liberal supply side claptrap will be wheeled out today - instead of addressing the need to stimulate demand directly, we will have the usual indirect, useless supply side drivel. In particular Osborne will bang on about "
business friendly"
measures, such as cutting corporation tax or CGT. A complete and utter waste of money - British business is already sitting on £750 Bn - why would throwing more money at them make any difference? No investment is happening because of the recession - why on earth add new capacity to your business when you already have slack capacity? It is nonsense. This is Osborne's nadir any support for his brand of wet neo-liberal tinkering has all but evaporated the serious commentators see right through his blatant gerrymandering of the debt/deficit figures - we all know the deficit is not really falling at all, once you take out the dodgy items in the Autumn Statement and the debt has doubled under Osborne already. Get this through your thick head George an economy with falling demand whose export markets are in recession can only shrink if you take large sums of money out if it through tax rises and spending reductions.Without growth the tax receipts will fall and the welfare bill will rise, so far from reducing the deficit, it will get bigger.

All Osborne has delivered is budget chaos previously, a lack of any growth at all, flogging the same failed policies and nothing to raise the morale of the country. Osborne has been the worst Chancellor in history, a man so lacking in understanding and knowledge for the subject that each and every one of us has to pay the price for this man's hubris. The only thing the country now needs isn't another budget selling the same perished and damaged goods, but a general election.

We are all in this together (Hmm, yes apart from big business who are party donors and millionaires) Cutting taxes will attract foreign investment (or Russian oligarchs who aren't so welcome at home) Money will be saved/raised by 'making departments etc more efficient' Our AA+ rating shows an underlying confidence in UK economy, a safe haven. (for tax exiles) rewarding those who have worked hard all their lives (we've buggered them for the last 40 years, why stop now) tackling problems head on (no, not the real problems just those that irritate us- common folk consuming fags,booze, pasties;
and driving cars would you believe!) After the next election, if he gets elected, he'll suddenly discover that there isn't the money to fulfill his promises, and the economic situation in Europe will be too serious to consider a referendum on European membership. In a nutshell, it doesn't matter what he says the only people who will benefit will be the rich and powerful, and those who suffer will be everyone else.

Well written Andy. A good understanding.

Who ever we elect to run our country, they are in a no win situation, they are never going to please everybody. I wouldn't want their job for all the tea in China
Very good posts above and full of thoughts and information, but there is not much reference to what George Osborne should be doing today to please us all, so come on guy's be Chancellor for the day, open your little black box and give us all a clue

Ok Willow, going up, Tax on cigarettes, alcohol, petrol (although deferred to make us think he cares) Road Fund licence probably on the way up.
Going down .. erm .......
By the way does Mr Osbourne hold any qualifications in economics?
Ray

Just been listening to a lot of hype and fores and against, and the television professionals arguing the toss
My conclusion is That you can't get blood out of a stone

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willowsend wrote:

Just been listening to a lot of hype and fores and against, and the television professionals arguing the toss
My conclusion is That you can't get blood out of a stone

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

There was also talk about helping the grey economy well I can't see any carrots for us oldies. Can anyone else, oh and the new pension starts when most of us are already stuck with the old system

A BUDGET FOR AN ASPIRATION NATION

A budget for people who work hard and want to get on

My budget today supports everyone who wants to work hard and get on.

In a tough economic situation, the British people know there are no easy answers or short cuts. But we are succeeding, slowly but surely, in fixing those problems.
We've now cut Labour's record deficit by not just by a quarter – but by a third.
We've helped create 1.25 million new private sector jobs.
Interest rates remain at record lows.

This government inherited the largest deficit of any major economy. Labour's plans to borrow even more would take us backwards. Instead, by making savings from bureaucracy, from the benefits bill, and by ensuring that the better off play their part, we are able to do more to boost jobs and help families.

To compete in the global race
We're creating a new Employment Allowance to help small firms take on more staff. By taking £2,000 off the employer national insurance bill of every company, we will take around 450,000 small businesses out of paying any jobs tax at all – that's one third of all employers. While Labour proposed putting a tax on jobs, we're taking tax off jobs.
Cutting corporation tax to 20 per cent from April 2015, giving us the most competitive rate in the G20. And we are abolishing stamp duty on shares traded on growth markets such as AIM, which will support growth and jobs across the UK.
Improving infrastructure by boosting capital investment by £15 billion over the rest of this decade. Public investment will now be higher on average as a percentage of our national income under our plans than it was in the whole period of the last Government.

To support aspiration and help people who want to work and get on
The personal tax allowance will be increased to £10,000 next year. Families will pay over £700 less in income tax than when this government came to office. 24 million people will pay less tax.
We're introducing Tax Free Childcare. We're giving people 20% off, equivalent to the basic rate of tax, on the first £6,000 of their childcare costs for each child.
Introducing Help to Buy. We're supporting people who want their own home, but can't afford the increased deposits that lenders now require. We're using the Government's fiscal credibility to support a Mortgage Guarantee to help lenders offer mortgages to people with a deposit of between 5 per cent and 20 per cent. This should dramatically increase their availability.
Cancelling the September fuel duty increase altogether. Pump prices will be 13 pence per litre lower than if we had not acted over these last three years to freeze fuel duty.
We're taking a penny off the price of a pint of beer. This will save drinkers 4 pence a pint compared to the last government's plans.

I believe the way to restore our economic prosperity is to energise the aspirations of the British people.

For years people have felt that the whole system was tilted against those who did the right thing: who worked, who saved, who aspired.

But these are very people we need to support if Britain is to have a future.

So this is a Budget for people who work hard and want to get on.

It is a Budget for a Britain that wants to be prosperous, solvent and free.

Yours sincerely,



George Osborne
Chancellor of the Exchequer