First topic message reminder :

Key points of Budget 2015: At-a-glance

George Osborne will deliver his sixth Budget as chancellor, and the last of the current Parliament, at 12:30 GMT.

State of the economy

Public borrowing/deficit

Pensions

Alcohol, tobacco and gambling

Energy and fuel

Taxation

Savings

Welfare

Business

Housing/infrastructure

What's your thoughts on what might happen? or what would you realistically like him to do?

The inconvenient truth for Osborne is that his economic plan was a complete and utter failure. He stuck to his plans for three disastrous years. Only after he switched to Alistair Darling's plan (to cut the budget deficit in half over 5 years) did we see things pick up in the last 18 months. Osborne deserves zero credit for this and the tories' economic credibility is a sham.

Millions without a voice - the young, the disabled, those in insecure, low-paid employment, have suffered enormous hardship under Osborne, while the 1% have seen their already-obscene fortunes soar to unimaginable new heights. The silly sheep who follow Osborne seem to agree with Thatcher that there is no such thing as society, will only see the error of their ways when we witness the death of the NHS and return to pre-war levels of disease and mortality amongst the poor. This WILL happen within the next parliament unless we see a Labour government elected in May.

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therowfamily wrote:

Be careful Phill I think you are better off hanging on to it.
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Yes thanks, I'm fairly sure I would be a lot worse of in the long run if I were to sell it especially as basically it doesn't owe me anything and fortunately I don't need to rely on it, then I'll be leaving it where it is and hope I live long enough to be able to get back that which they have already calculated into the current payment formulae.

Phil-H wrote:

snip

therowfamily wrote:

Be careful Phill I think you are better off hanging on to it.
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Yes thanks, I'm fairly sure I would be a lot worse of in the long run if I were to sell it especially as basically it doesn't owe me anything and fortunately I don't need to rely on it, then I'll be leaving it where it is and hope I live long enough to be able to get back that which they have already calculated into the current payment formulae.

That's the way I won't be cashing mine in either its worth more left there.

What a vile, uncaring, morally bankrupt, blinkered, and judgemental country we have become. It's easy to spit on people from the top, but be very careful as you can quite easily pass those people on your way down. I'm in employment but know from experience how easily and quickly you can lose your job, but once again cuts are made first to the most vulnerable in society, the people who can't fight back and who the politicians think rather arrogantly, don't vote.

I was watching question time and someone asked the question that, even though Osborne keeps saying we are all better off, why do we not feel it? The answer was that apparently figures show that the 'average' household is better off. Convenient? Who are these magical average households, I haven't met any. The real answer is they are liars, and I'm a great believer in statistics can show anything if you want them to, they are just numbers, it doesn't mean anything. So if you fall for that, you'll fall for anything. I used to value my right to vote, and am not anti Conservative/Liberal/Labour and am quite open to listening to ideas/policies from any party, but these last two governments have made me so, so apathetic and I find myself indifferent to anything the politicians say. They are so out of touch, they may as well be in power on the moon for all I care. Their policies don't resonate with the world I know, and they have an elitist air of entitlement about them. No wonder a whole generation is being turned off.

Unfortunately I couldn't agree more with you Scott they are all morally bankrupt and greedy as well I really don't see who I can vote for as there really is nothing between any of them any more. they have no concept of what the real world is really like.

Spot on. Totally agree. Similar types infiltrate the ''system''. Far too many above the law smug liars clinging to the cross of public sector worship or clawing their way into lucrative positions and will swear blind that black is white or use your vulnerability against you so they do not have to do their jobs properly.

A meaningless budget supposed to convey (I guess) just how "responsible" Osborne & his mob are - failed !
In all my years of political awareness, (and there have been far too many), I have never seen a Chancellor who has been so inept in his management of the countrys finances that he couldn't even offer a "sweetener" in his budget. A 1p reduction in tax on beer doesn't quite hit the spot. God help us if this (unqualified) fool is allowed to continue.
Don't forget that the UKs economy was actually increasing in 2010, at twice the pace it is now in 2015. Boy Georgie choked it off, and gave us the 5yr wilderness the UKs experienced. It says a lot that the only economy that has recovered quicker than the Uk is the US, which went down the other route (the one proposed by Labour). Also, ask your local Con candidate just how they're going to reduce the Deficit if the many "newly employed" are not paying tax, and are still having to rely on benefits to top up their meagre wage ! It definitively shows that something is seriously wrong if there are more people "in employment" and the welfare spending is still the same as in 2010 !Who benefits ? Companies paying slave labour rates, using zero-hour contracts, knowing that the government will force people to work for them AND top up the wage through benefits ! What a joke.

Things will go very badly, very suddenly, and the white elephant Osborne and Cameron are peddling will collapse with disastrous consequences to the social fabric of this country. Not only are they likely to destroy the NHS and Welfare State, but they will destroy Britain. There will be so much anger when it all collapses, that there will be a massive backlash against the Tories and their super rich backers. What Osborne and Cameron are doing are not in the longer term interests of either the Conservative Party or the wealthy, because it will cost them dearly.

Thatcher the nasty ideologue had the type of parliamentary majority and populist appeal that Osborne and Cameron could only dream of. She was backed by North Sea oil revenues. She was in office far longer, but she never pushed the pedal to metal like this, because she at least had the sense to foresee it would backfire badly. However, this is the problem, Osborne and Cameron are slick salesmen, but lightweight intellectual fluff, who have no inkling or insight into the social chaos they are going to create. Osborne and Cameron are the most dangerous men, and the most dangerous confidence tricksters in the country. They are selling the equivalent of a massive political Ponzi scheme, which will spectacularly collapse, and take our whole social fabric with us.

It's long been a complaint on the Tory (and now UKIP) right that Thatcher made a mistake. She was too cautious, too moderate and too slow.

The Cameron/Osborne/Maude project is, I think, exactly what it appears to be. A Tory party that barely scraped into government in 2010 with the aid of the LibDems, and didn't expect to do any better in 2015 simply decided to make as many irreversible roll-backs of the welfare state, the NHS and local government as it could in the time possible.

It's no coincidence that the same Tory government has also made it much harder for citizens to challenge government in the courts by Judicial Review or appeal tribunal. Or to challenge their employers via industrial tribunals.

They're thinking long term. While they have the chance, smash as much as possible while shoveling cash up from the bottom to the top. Undo as much of the work of both the Liberal government of the 1900s and the 1945 Attlee government as possible.

So what if they leave chaos behind, it will make undoing their time in office very difficult and very, very expensive for any subsequent government. So sod the deficit, rake up a bigger one. Sod the national debt, borrow more in 4 years than your predecessor did in 13. The more constraints they can make their successors operate under the more they like it.

The aim is to let the free market rip and the devil take the hindmost. Which is to say, most of us,

Long term, it's to go back to laissez faire, "small government" and that's it. A return to not the 1930s but the 1830s. A low-pay, zero hours contract, scared, compliant workforce terrified of getting ill or old, with a reduced standard of living and perpetual insecurity.

I remember people saying of Thatcher that "she can't know what effect her policies are having, if she did she wouldn't be doing these things to people". Of course she damn well knew, what happened was what she intended to happen. And Cameron, Osborne, Smith, Shapps/Green/Fox/Champion and the rest of them know what they are about as well.

Did anyone notice or know just how many of these so-called benefits are due to actually start 'THIS YEAR'?

Most of which I noticed are due to start either next year or even later.
So he gave us something that a lot of people will never be able to have the benefit of because they will have died before it's inception.

Phil-H wrote:

Did anyone notice or know just how many of these so-called benefits are due to actually start 'THIS YEAR'?

Most of which I noticed are due to start either next year or even later.
So he gave us something that a lot of people will never be able to have the benefit of because they will have died before it's inception.

Well spotted but isn't that part of their long term plane to get us out of debt

It won't be relevant to me but I don't see how putting off selling ones pension annuity until 2016 will help the debt.

Let people sell them now, give them the money in their pockets and we are not talking about the few who will flee the country but just think of all that extra cash being ploughed into the system and people paying tax's and VAT on.

Then there will also be the miss-guided who will be taken over their savings threshold and will therefore lose there benefits which means more cash being left in the states coffers.

One question/answer I would like to know and so-far have been unable to find a answer on the internet is, when exactly is the NS&I premium bond being increased up-to £50k

Because again all I keep reading was 'from last year it will be next year' and now this year again no date just 'later in the year'

The investment limit for Premium Bonds will increase to £50,000 from 1st June 2015. Please note that if you are not resident in the UK, premium bond winnings are likely to be taxable in your country of residence.

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Thanks for for that, I had looked all over for the date but just couldn't find it.
I just don't know why they can't put dates to things instead of just saying the likes of 'later in the year'

Now is it also my imagination, but many years ago when the bufget came out it was actioned on almost immediately, obviously there were certain exceptions where garages were supposed to have sold all their old stock before increasing prices, the same as with the tobacco industry, which usually led to mass panic at the filling stations.

But now, it all seems to be about what they will do in the future, now another question, what happens to all their promises after the next general election when they don't get back in, will the opposition have to honour them?