The 2010 Emergency Budget thread

[Anna B]

In spite of us 'all being in this together,' what's the betting that after the budget tomorrow the rich will continue to get a lot richer, the poor, a lot poorer,

and the gap between rich and poor will continue to grow ever wider, only much quicker...

[Dogs Of War]

Ahead of DD Later today i just want to thank Blair, Brown and Labour for the mess they have left this country in and the damage they have caused during 13 years of incompitance, mismanagment and total disregard for the british public.

 

We are ALL going to suffer because of what Labour have done .

 

Lets hope some good comes out of this mess ,and it serves as a warning to never ,ever elect a Labour government again.

[Anna B]

I'm no lover of the labour party but I think your blame is somewhat misplaced.

 

The labour party certainly haven't helped the situation, but it was the banks that got us into this mess, and who deregulated the banks allowing this to happen?

 

Step forward Margaret Thatcher.

 

Remember all those Yuppies in the eighties having so much bonus money they didn't know what to spend it on? (And Loadsamoney getting fat off their backs?)

That was when this horrible mess began, with Porsches and designer clothes and rocketing property prices and massive salary inflation in top jobs insisting that they should keep pace with the banking sector.

 

The 'because I'm worth it' generation... encouraged to keep up, financed by cheap credit (and the bank bonuses just keep on coming...)

 

Both Labour and Conservative were in thrall to the rich bankers. can you honestly see any of this lot seriously suffering in this coming budget?

 

No, it's poor shmucks like you and me cop it every time.

[Vague_Boy]

but it was the banks that got us into this mess

 

The £160 billion deficit for 2009/2010 excludes the cost of the bank bailout. That figure (which is likely to be closely replicated this year) is solely the result of the government spending way more than it takes in.

 

I'm no fan of the banks, but to place all the blame on them is a touch simplistic.

 

Why didn't the last government undo the bank deregulation? For an answer, watch Dispatches (How the Banks Won), available for 22 more days on 4oD (link). At 15 minutes in you can watch Gordon Brown ass kissing the bankers in 2007, declaring that "this is an era that history will record as being the beginning of a new golden age for the City of London". Clearly he was oblivious to any problems or the need for regulation.

[artisan]

Ahead of DD Later today i just want to thank Blair, Brown and Labour for the mess they have left this country in and the damage they have caused during 13 years of incompitance, mismanagment and total disregard for the british public.

 

We are ALL going to suffer because of what Labour have done .

 

Lets hope some good comes out of this mess ,and it serves as a warning to never ,ever elect a Labour government again.

 

Perhaps if certain people got off their backsides and did some work, instead of posting on here all day, they would be entitled to whinge about the country.

[taxman]

But none of it was secret spending. If it was so secret why would people be going on public record about it.

 

It's at best spin, at worst lies. Cons and Libs play this game where they pretend to have only found out about freely accessible spending records after the election. It's just nonsense. They were working with senior civil servants in all departments for months before the election with Libs being unusually heavily involved because of the prospect of a hung parliament. There is always a transition plan between parliaments. Always.

 

Yet despite this the Libdems were adamant that drastic immediate cuts weren't the answer. Right up until the election results were announced they were adamant that Tory cuts would be damaging.

 

Surprise surprise after a few minutes of coalition talks they discovered they were wrong all along, they'd campaigned on something they didn't believe in and what we all need is savage cuts, right away.

 

Maybe they'll airbrush from history their campaign poster warning about Tory VAT rises as well.

[espadrille]

As you can see from the text above( post 24) the office for budget responsibility shows the deficit to be much worse than they thought and of course after realising that ( read the figures) one would have to revise the calculations .Wouldn't you? You are the taxman after all.

 

Things change each day in politics and sometimes when the information is staring you in the face you have to revise your plans. Senior managers do it every day dont they, or do you think that you should stick to what you thought was right so that it doesn't look like you are weak, having changed your mind about something.

Surely this shows strength of character admitting that you have to do things differently for the sake of the country.

[Wildcat]

As you can see from the text above( post 24) the office for budget responsibility shows the deficit to be much worse than they thought and of course after realising that ( read the figures) one would have to revise the calculations .Wouldn't you? You are the taxman after all.

 

Things change each day in politics and sometimes when the information is staring you in the face you have to revise your plans. Senior managers do it every day dont they, or do you think that you should stick to what you thought was right so that it doesn't look like you are weak, having changed your mind about something.

Surely this shows strength of character admitting that you have to do things differently for the sake of the country.

 

The OBR report showed that the forecast for public borrowing had reduced by 8% over the last few months.

 

First, the amazing shrinking public sector borrowing requirement. In Alistair Darling’s last budget, the predicted government borrowing figure for 2009/10 was £167bn. Figures produced just recently suggested that – because the economy had performed a bit (yes, only a bit, but look at the impact) better than expected, the borrowing figure was in fact down to £163bn. Today’s OBR report suggested an even smaller borriwing figure of £155bn. These are of course mind-numbing figures, but Government expenditure as a whole is over £600bn a year, so what’s important is that in the space of less than three months, the borrowing figure has been reduced by 8%. That’s how powerful just a little bit of growth can be – and it indicates quite clearly that the simplest and best way to reduce the size of public debt is to promote growth.

 

http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk/2010/06/the-amazing-shrinking-borrowing-requirement-and-why-robin-hood-is-the-answer-to-low-growth/

[I1L2T3]

As you can see from the text above( post 24) the office for budget responsibility shows the deficit to be much worse than they thought and of course after realising that ( read the figures) one would have to revise the calculations .Wouldn't you? You are the taxman after all.

 

Things change each day in politics and sometimes when the information is staring you in the face you have to revise your plans. Senior managers do it every day dont they, or do you think that you should stick to what you thought was right so that it doesn't look like you are weak, having changed your mind about something.

Surely this shows strength of character admitting that you have to do things differently for the sake of the country.

 

The OBR said that Darling's plans were actually working to get us out of recession and into growth. What they also said was that there was a greater than expected structural decifict. There is no need to eliminate the structural deficit within the lifetime of this parliament. It needs to be addressed but over 2 or 3 parliaments. Otherwise we will suffer what will amount to needless austerity measures. This is nothing to do with the Tories responding to a changing situation. It's simply a case of them doing what they wanted to do all along, not what they need to do. And the only way they can rationalise it is by blaming Labour which IMO is a sign of weakness and shows a lack of respect for the electorate.

[ukdobby]

I agree with you on this ,but this problem wont ,and cannot be solved until there is a big enough financial difference between wages and benefits.

 

For example , a job that pays only £6 per hour over a 40 hr week , after stoppages is only roughly £180 a week take home pay. now if you have rent or a morgage to pay ,plus standard bills like gas , electric ,water etc,you are basically no better off than on benefits.

 

There has to be an incentive to work .

 

this is not going to happen until the minimum wage rises drastically to a minimum of £8 per hour, making it worthwhile to work .

 

while ever companies are allowed to get away with paying such a low rate of pay , this situation will continue.

 

Or the level of benefit drops,benefit should be enough for survival not to go abroad on hols and have plasma tvs ect you should have to go and work for luxeries.