Budget 2011: Government 'due £8bn windfall'

[Chrysalis]

I probably need to watch in full also rather than relying on news reports that pick bits out for sensation.

[Ignitionnet]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzo3wjyd1x8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDL7ogXKItA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fFIYtgFi3M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHWZ_A0-Qng

[chris9991]

Looks like the government chose not to renew this benefit - does it make it a stealth benefit cut?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...allowance.html

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by chris9991

Looks like the government chose not to renew this benefit - does it make it a stealth benefit cut?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...allowance.html

i saw this on the news this morning - we will have to see what next winter is like and how many old people freeze to death in their own homes before judgement can be made .

[dazzer89]

Originally Posted by Mick

Just watching PMQs - Some points about the budget raised - However, this was pointed out by a Tory MP and I sit beside myself with disbelief that this was allowed to continue under the last useless Labour Government. It cost £330+ to change a light bulb in an NHS hospital, is it any wonder why we are scraping the barrel and having to look at spending cuts when Labour couldn't have given a bloody crap about value for money. What a waste and what a farce the last Labour Government was.

Ozzy Osbourne would have done a better budget.

As far as I can make out, when Labour left office - borrowing was less than was forecast and growth was higher than forecast. A year into The Tories and growth has not only fallen South but is in decline, is planned to go even further South than forecast this year and is in trouble of running out of places to go South next year. In addition to an extra £45bn worth of government borrowing over the next 6 years.

In case you hadn't noticed:

- the economy is shrinking
- unemployment is up
- government borrowing is up

Exactly how is this (as the Tories say) heading in the right direction?

---------- Post added at 11:34 ---------- Previous post was at 11:31 ----------

Originally Posted by chris9991

Looks like the government chose not to renew this benefit - does it make it a stealth benefit cut?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...allowance.html

Sounds about right.

Originally Posted by dazzer89

In case you hadn't noticed:

- the economy is shrinking
- unemployment is up
- government borrowing is up

In case you hadn't noticed, the last Labour chancellor stated, less than six months before the election, that measures more drastic than those taken by Thatcher would be necessary by whichever Party won the election.

Further, the economy is not shrinking. It is growing. It is growing more slowly than forecast, but it is still growing.

But if listening to Ed Milliband huffing and puffing gives you a warm feeling inside, I don't suppose I can blame you for taking his soundbites and rhetoric at face value.

[dazzer89]

Originally Posted by Chris

In case you hadn't noticed, the last Labour chancellor stated, less than six months before the election, that measures more drastic than those taken by Thatcher would be necessary by whichever Party won the election.

Further, the economy is not shrinking. It is growing. It is growing more slowly than forecast, but it is still growing.

But if listening to Ed Milliband huffing and puffing gives you a warm feeling inside, I don't suppose I can blame you for taking his soundbites and rhetoric at face value.

Growing????? Take your head out of your backside please.

In case you hadn't noticed they desperately want to get rid of the minimum wage something which has bougt stability to many who were paid peanuts when the Tories were last in power.. They are pushing through not 1 but 3 private members bills to do it.

The first is the Employment Opportunities Bill, that would allow ‘opt-outs’ of the Minimum Wage, though anyone who has worked for an agency will know there will certainly be situations where if you want to sign up for an agency to get work part of the contract would include an opt-out of the Minimum Wage.

The second bill is the one that’s just been chopped, a Minimum Wage Amendment Bill, that would force the Low Pay Commission to look at areas with above-average unemployment rates and automatically set the Minimum Wage at a lower rate, which the Government would be obliged to enact.

The third bill is the Training Wage Bill, which will again allow opt-outs of the Minimum Wage for people who are training.

Same Old Tories - Same Old Deceit

Its hurting but it isn't working.

Hahaha, very funny.

As I'm clearly so mathematically challenged, could you please explain to me in what sense the graph on this page shows the economy shrinking:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12830224

As I predicted, you seem happy enough to swallow and parrot whatever Ed says, so there's probably little point trying to have an actual exchange of views with you.

Still, I am eagerly awaiting proof that you're not completely innumerate. Your thoughts on the graph, please?

[dazzer89]

Originally Posted by Chris

Hahaha, very funny.

As I'm clearly so mathematically challenged, could you please explain to me in what sense the graph on this page shows the economy shrinking:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12830224

As I predicted, you seem happy enough to swallow and parrot whatever Ed says, so there's probably little point trying to have an actual exchange of views with you.

Still, I am eagerly awaiting proof that you're not completely innumerate. Your thoughts on the graph, please?

More Tory bottom gravy from the cave dwellers.

Originally Posted by dazzer89

More Tory bottom gravy from the cave dwellers.

Fair enough. I think you've given most of the people following this thread sufficient reason to ignore you now. My work here is done.

[dazzer89]

Originally Posted by Chris

Fair enough. I think you've given most of the people following this thread sufficient reason to ignore you now. My work here is done.

99.9 of that graph is predicted growth, it's already telling lies .

---------- Post added at 13:41 ---------- Previous post was at 13:40 ----------

Originally Posted by Chris

Fair enough. I think you've given most of the people following this thread sufficient reason to ignore you now. My work here is done.

See ya. Its hurting but it isn't working.

Originally Posted by dazzer89

See ya.

Bye bye. Feel free to come and rejoin the discussion when you've grasped the difference between "the economy is shrinking" and "the economy isn't growing as fast as we thought".

Originally Posted by dazzer89

Its hurting but it isn't working.

Perhaps you should see a neurologist.

[dazzer89]

Originally Posted by Chris

Bye bye. Feel free to come and rejoin the discussion when you've grasped the difference between "the economy is shrinking" and "the economy isn't growing as fast as we thought".



Perhaps you should see a neurologist.

Another brilliant, detailed right wing analysis I see.

I'm really struggling with this budget and the Tories / liars approach to things.

As someone who is trying to get a small business off the ground, the budget benefits me, and as Cameroon keeps saying I, as an entrepreneur, will be the one to get us out of this mess (who'd have thought a CF Mod would have been a solution to this countries problems eh? )

I don't agree with turning everything over to the private sector like the Tories are doing and I don't agree with the neo-liberal agenda of liberalising everything in sight whilst reducing the role of the state (I've seen what the World Bank has done to developing countries under this pretence and it ain't pretty I can tell you). Liberalism requires that there should be a tradition of charity and that it is not the states job to redistribute wealth, however from where I stand, people (especially rich ones) are no longer interested in anyone but themselves and so to an extent the state must be there to help moves this wealth to people in real need.

Its all just one big fat mess. One week the financial institutions say spend, the next week they say cut. No one really knows for sure what would have worked or what will work, the only thing that we can do is wait and see. Osborne's budget is supposedly pro-growth and so if next year unemployment falls as he predicts, and growth does occur then coughkudoscough

Labour did spend too much. Keynes stated that economies work in cycles, ie boom and bust; during times of boom you're supposed to save, so that when the inevitable bust comes, you use those savings to spend your way out of the recession more quickly. However, this time we didn't save and so we'd have to borrow to spend out way out, which would increase the deficit. I'm not placing all the blame on labour as that would be simplistic. For me it also comes out of culture of greed that has hit the west, especially in the city of london...which for me the Tories plan to do absoutely naff all about.

If you're trying to get a small business going, you really need to understand the difference between 'shrinking' and 'growing, but more slowly than previously forecast'. This is not a right-wing analysis of anything, it is GCSE-level maths.

[Chrysalis]

dazzer nice post, not too dissimiliar from my views. Recently I have came across pro labour whilst the truth is I feel both parties have messed up. But its the tories and lib dems in power now so they the ones getting my current crtisicm.

Ultimately it doesnt matter how low tax is, its more diffilcult to run a business in a shrinking economy with restricted credit.