The Budget

ah interesting.

so it's really the Catholics' fault then? :-D

They are calling this one "The Hillbilly Budget"

Labour's plan to increase the duty on cider by 10% above inflation will be scrapped from July.

na, it's just mother nature really, but when you become aware of a problem and don't act on it that's when guilt can truly be attributed so it's everyones fault, epically Tynan's.

Min tax bracket widened..

A cynical move to distract from all the other 'benefits' that they will lose out on. Based on the way public services have developed over the last 30/40 years it is quite clear the types of communities that this will impact on and the much wider and very long lastign effect it'll have on society as a whole. Yes some of the working poor will be financially better off in that respect but with more to pay out on VAT may well balance that one out, however, it is the other thnigs that are far more important such as education. With the 'free schools' that are going to happen there will be a squeeze on those in the most deprived areas where educational standards are already lacking. This simply contributes to the spiral of social exclusion making it harder and harder to break free.

looks like someone's been brushing up on his Marx. I'm not a Marxist but it's incredible to think that this guy was saying exactly the same things about limitless economic growth 150 years ago and it still rings true...

but growth is o.k. if it's real growth. when people say "i made £xxxx's on my house" i ask them where does that profit come from? and how much more would you have to pay to move to a similar or larger house?
some people just don't get that the rampant house price inflation that has had the full support of the government is just an increase of debt. it's fictitious growth subsidised by borrowing.

If the banks weren't desperately casting about for new hosts to parasitise, consumers would never have been allowed to take out loans they couldn't pay back. Our financial system is in a mess - we propped it up in 2008 out of necessity, but to continue without drastic reform (other than the desultory banks tax which Georgie Porgie says will eventually tot up to 2bn) we're saddled with a massive functionless organ in our society which basically squats on the money supply rubbing its hands together...

They are calling this one "The Hillbilly Budget"

The Wurzel budget, surely? I didn't see a cut for corn whisky!

You'd think. I can't wait until I leave the UK with £200k unpaid credit cards.. :)

Make sure you save enough for the £75 we will now be charging for the pleasure of going home

no it's not.

i know this is an ideological battle i'm unlikely to win on here, but ultimately standing around outside your office complainign about it will piss people off, waste your own time, damage the income of your employer and steel the management/shareholders against you and make it more likely that things will get worse/ you'll still get made redundant.

Slippery slope indeed.

People do not strike because they are whinging about their jobs. They strike because they are getting employers to honor contracts or perhaps deffending their rights, the same rights that prevent employers (for whom many the prime objective is to make money) from sending young children up chimneys, prevent them from discriminating on the grounds of sex,

What kind of people does it piss off excatly? I see someone on strike I tend to wonder why. People don't give up pay for the fun of it. They might just have a legitimate reason. The people who are pissed off by it (and this is a generalisation - but fuck it, this thread is full of generalisations) - are self centred who only consider the immediate 'what's in it for me' angle who can't see any further into the future and see how workers standing up for their rights might just benefit them in the future and how workers making a stand in the past mean you enjoy the rights you have today.

Corporations act like psycopaths - their interest is profit not people. If people are exploited on the way, or damaged or worse it doesn't matter to them. Only with those rights, often gained through industrial action, do we have a degree of protection and mean that you don't have to work with cancerous chemicals without sufficient protection.

The Wurzel budget, surely? I didn't see a cut for corn whisky!

People who've been on this forum a while know what I'm talking about...

but growth is o.k. if it's real growth. when people say "i made £xxxx's on my house" i ask them where does that profit come from? and how much more would you have to pay to move to a similar or larger house?
some people just don't get that the rampant house price inflation that has had the full support of the government is just an increase of debt. it's fictitious growth subsidised by borrowing.

Finite land + more people = more demand for housing = house price growth.

Since most people want to live in the city, city properties are expensive and rise as more and more people move to cities.

The growth isn't fictitious.

Right - I'm just back from the pub on Budget day... and there is no money left in my wallet. Who pray is responsible? How could George have got his hands on it so quickly.... now what's in the fridge I can drink....

A cynical move to distract from all the other 'benefits' that they will lose out on. Based on the way public services have developed over the last 30/40 years it is quite clear the types of communities that this will impact on and the much wider and very long lastign effect it'll have on society as a whole. Yes some of the working poor will be financially better off in that respect but with more to pay out on VAT may well balance that one out, however, it is the other thnigs that are far more important such as education. With the 'free schools' that are going to happen there will be a squeeze on those in the most deprived areas where educational standards are already lacking. This simply contributes to the spiral of social exclusion making it harder and harder to break free.

"limiting social tenants' entitlement to housing in appropriate-sized accommodation."

• sounds fine to me
  
  

Benefits like "The chancellor announced that tax credits will be reduced for families earning more than £40,000 next year, while child benefit will be frozen for three years."

£40k is a lot of money.. why should they be getting any benefits?

"The Health in Pregnancy Grant is to be abolished from April next year, and the Sure Start maternity grant is to be limited to the first-born child. Lone parents will also be expected to return to work once their youngest child goes to school."

• fine by me, don't breed if you can't afford it, might stop some 'benefit babies'
  

Right - I'm just back from the pub on Budget day... and there is no money left in my wallet. Who pray is responsible? How could George have got his hands on it so quickly.... now what's in the fridge I can drink....

Did beer prices go up?

Did beer prices go up?

No, although VAT will add around 10p a pint in January.

further putting pubs ubder pressure.

Yeah right.

yeah. you're right.

what's going to stop brits drinking?

further putting pubs ubder pressure.

You knob... :D

terrible typo.i should be shot.

Not so much that, the 'worrying about the state of our nation's pubs' thing... :D

The smaller pubs will be affected, however the truly awful "chain" pubs (Slut and Legless etc) will just have to sell more blue drinks to kids.

"limiting social tenants' entitlement to housing in appropriate-sized accommodation."

• sounds fine to me
  
  

Yes, provided they have a sensible understanding of what an "appropriate" size is.

£40k is a lot of money.. why should they be getting any benefits?

dunno about this actually. It sounds like a lot of money, but that's per household, not per person. Let's say you live in London with your partner/spouse and 2 (or more) kids, and you're both earning 20 grand.

I earn more than that and have no dependents, and just about get by with a little bit of money left over. If i had even one kid on the wage i'm on now, i'd struggle to make ends meet, especially if my kid had to go to nursery or needed any other childcare. And what if a family had a child with serious disabilities?

"The Health in Pregnancy Grant is to be abolished from April next year, and the Sure Start maternity grant is to be limited to the first-born child. Lone parents will also be expected to return to work once their youngest child goes to school."

• fine by me, don't breed if you can't afford it, might stop some 'benefit babies'
  
  

Um, rape victims, accidental pregnancies... loads of people get pregnant when they don't really want to. Also lots of people find out they're pregnant too late to have an abortion.

Also on Sure Start - a major element of Sure Start involved social programmes to stop parents from breeding more than they could afford to, supporting parents to be better educated on basic household skills like finances, healthy eating, family planning etc. Sure Start was a really, really important programme that they really should have kept if they were genuinely serious about supporting young (often socially excluded and poorly educated) parents into work and off benefits.

Um, rape victims, accidental pregnancies... loads of people get pregnant when they don't really want to. Also lots of people find out they're pregnant too late to have an abortion.

Well then rape victims should get a grant/compensation!

Accidental pregnancies? too late for abortion?
Legally, you have 24 weeks after insemination to find out, make a decision and carry out the abortion. Is there really lots of women who don't worry about their late period after 4/5 months? Am I missing the point here?
Also it is probably a good incentive to make people more responsible about familly planning and contraception.