The 2010 Emergency Budget thread

[truman]

Many public sector workers in Sheffield got 0.5% last year and were this year being offered 0.4% (that is of course before Osborne decided this was ridiculously high)! And lets not forget that by Cameron's own admission anything below inflation is a pay cut.

 

 

Well that's 0.5% and 0.4% more than I've had in the last 3 years.....and we've lost staff..

[llamatron]

but we're going to start paying it all back to rich people, who don't even need it. What's so good about that?

 

no we aren't. we are going to use it pay off the deficit.

 

or do you think borrowing money from a bank then refusing to pay it back is acceptable due to the fact that they have more than you?

[Rupert_Baehr]

You can't pay off a deficit. You pay off a debt and reduce a deficit. Before you can start paying off the debt, you have to reduce the deficit to zero.

 

Don't hold your breath while you wait for the country to be able to pay off anything.

[emma royd]

You can't pay off a deficit. You pay off a debt and reduce a deficit. Before you can start paying off the debt, you have to reduce the deficit to zero.

 

Don't hold your breath while you wait for the country to be able to pay off anything.

 

People always like the way of life that they can buy on a credit card. They just don't like it when the bill comes in.

Currently the UK has a credit card bill equivalent to 3 times its annual salary which is increasing at the rate of 50% of annual salary each year. AND STILL THEY DON'T GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[L00b]

The Corporation Tax cut is probably the one highlight of a mean spirited budget. Hopefully it will provide opportunities for expansion and job creation.

That is exactly the intention, according to a mass of accountants I networked with this morning (the CT cut is heavily ring-fenced and biased to achieve that result, btw)

The real bad news was buried deep. A 25% cut across all Government departments could be catastrophic at this point in the economic cycle.

In economical terms, it's only a 'real bad news' if your prophecies come to fruition and, essentially, that was the choice faced by the Chancellor (the same amount has to be saved over the same time period, regardless of how to get there): cut more now and promote growth through business activity from the off, or cut less and promote growth through business activity less or later.

 

He made his decision - he chose to promote business. Many (most?) have their doubts that he will carry it off. I'm not particularly fond of the guy at all, but I can only pray he succeeds. Just so long as he keeps Vince on-side as, if the spending review cuts Vince's dominion at the knees and he walks, then...

[Anna B]

If we are having 25% economy cuts across departments what about 25% less MP's?

 

Why do we need 650 MP's plus 700 plus members in the house of Lords to govern such a small island?

 

The USA have half that number in spite of a population 5 times bigger, and they seem to manage.

 

We can also axe half the Euro MP's too.

[Wildcat]

People always like the way of life that they can buy on a credit card. They just don't like it when the bill comes in.

Currently the UK has a credit card bill equivalent to 3 times its annual salary which is increasing at the rate of 50% of annual salary each year. AND STILL THEY DON'T GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Perhaps it is you that don't get it?

 

If public debt was 300% of GDP we would be in a worse situation than we were in the 50s when it was 200% of GDP, but we aren't, the current level of debt is 62% of GDP.

[Wildcat]

Interesting article on how this is going to increase child poverty:

http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk/2010/06/budget-claims-on-child-poverty-do-not-stack-up/#more-8493

 

Included is a link to a blog from a woman directly affected by these cuts, someone who has had her job offer returned and with the cuts will find it hard to survive in work or out of work, despite having studyied, worked hard, getting qualifications everythiong she could do.

http://deeplyflawedbuttrying.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/single-parenthood-and-victimhood/

 

What have the LibDems done for her? wrecked her life.

[TeaFan]

or do you think borrowing money from a bank then refusing to pay it back is acceptable due to the fact that they have more than you?

 

I think it's acceptable, but not because they have more money than me. The banking sector is amoral and socially useless. Why show any scruples to them when they show none to anyone else?

[emma royd]

Perhaps it is you that don't get it?

 

If public debt was 300% of GDP we would be in a worse situation than we were in the 50s when it was 200% of GDP, but we aren't, the current level of debt is 62% of GDP.

 

No it is you that doesn't get it. You can't spend GDP. That is just the gross domestic product of the country's industries and services, not the money the government has available to spend or pay its debts. The government taxes people and businesses and collects round about £350 billion per year which it uses to pay for these things. £1 trillion of debt equates to around 3 years total tax revenue. A fiscal deficit of £159 billion in 2009 means that the Government spent 50% more on services than it took in taxation in one year alone and had been planning on overspending by a similar amount in the current parliament.