Budget? What budget?

Good glad to hear it.

I don’t think that Corbyn or McDonnell are brilliant minds, but they want Brexit ( for Socialist reasons) at least.They even walked through the Lobby to vote with the government a couple of nights ago.

Not really this budget but another example of the Cons not being able to organise a small celebration in a brewery. Because the levy they put on large companies for apprenticeships has been so badly organised the number started in this last year have halved. That will really help us get out of the mire the Tories have got us into!

The Tories Austerity policy has plainly failed. Since 2010, Government debt has soared, the deficit has widened and wages have dropped. Hospitals, schools, the police, the armed forces, the welfare budget (including benefits for the disabled and most needy), local councils (including libraries, etc) have all been starved of cash. I could go on.
These are proven facts.

Yet some people crazily still think that the Tories are better at handling the economy.

Is that because Labour is more likely to increase the taxes of the wealthy and to clamp down on tax loopholes???

It's all the fault of the dastardly EU mostly harmless, not the tories.

Haven't you seen the light yet?

Yes very true GracesGranMK2. Disgraceful budget.

They didn't vote with the government, lemongrove. Believe it or not, they voted for the population.

If the amendment had won, it would have meant that they would have had to have all customs taxes the same. This would have meant that if they had got a good deal from the EU, the same deal would have had to be given to every other country they dealt with. You must realise that that is not in the UK's interest.

I do, and that us the only good thing about the two of them, they are keen on Brexit.

They are not keen on Brexit. They are keen on ensuring that people have jobs - a slight difference.

£3 billion for the UK, £40 billion for the EU. All you, Remainers, on here should love it!

People do have jobs ( almost full employment at the moment) however I realise that you are talking about secure jobs and yes, they are keen on Brexit for Socialist reasons, that cheap foreign labour ( since we are in the EU) has had a devastating effect on wages.Another good reason to be leaving then.

Tell that to the two thirds of those in inwork poverty.
You really do get taken in, don't you, lemon.

I've not seen much reference to the fact that having five Fridays in December will take the pay of claimants who are paid weekly, over their usual monthly earnings. This means they will lose benefit, and have to start a new claim in January.
I really cannot decide whether the people running this are incompetent or cruel?

It wasn't 'cheap foreign labour' that had a devastating effect on wages; it was (and still is) the tory 'austerity' policy. It wasn't an influx of 'cheap foreign labour' which restricted public sector workers' pay rises to 1% a year since 2010 and has produced an actual real terms drop in wages.

The study most quoted by Leavers was the one that said that unskilled workers wages had dropped by 1% over eight years as a result of EU wotkers. Not good, but it isn't a massive amount (as 1% of not very much is not very much) and doesn't explain why wages of skilled workers and professionals have failed to even keep pace with inflation.

So, why do you think that Corbyn and McDonnell are all for leaving the EU then?

All the insults of prejudice and ignorance directed at leavers hardly take into account all the intelligent men and women in all walks of life,who voted that way.

I can understand remainers being worried about the future, but simply cannot understand all the vitriol directed at leavers.It’s fear I suppose, it makes them lash out at others blindly.

Are you not worried that your children and grandchildren are living through the worst pay restraint since before records began?

Hammond has just told nurses today that last year they received on average 3.3% pay rise.
How could that happen if pay was capped at 1%?
He's the third Tory to say that this year. He's a liar.

He's a Tory.

Sorry if this has been mentioned - the IFS has warned that UK workers face two decades without wage growth in the biggest squeeze in living standards since records began.

Yes I am worried about my children but considering they both work in the private sector and not the public sector they are not even on the radar of this Labour Party !

Actually, gillybob, the private sector lose out with the Tories as well.

Those two thirds of people living in inwork poverty are not all in the public sector.

Labour want a higher living wage.
Hammond will put it up by 33 pence an hour next April, for those over 25. That leaves it £1 an hour behind the real living wage, worked out by the Living Wage Foundation.

How much did the politicians accept for a pay rise this year? A lot more than the 1% capped pay they allowed any regulated pay.

Hammond is not a liar, and certainly not a liar ‘because he is a Tory’ how absurd.
The nurses pay is complicated, over half of the NHS staff received what amounted to almost a 4% increase in the last year.If you spread that out across all of the NHS it gives the figure that Hammond gave.

Gillybob the wages of those in the private sector are not under the direct control of any government, so I don’t understand what you are trying to say.

People do have jobs

They appear to although, as statistically a person who works for one hour in a week is counted as 'employed', it would be interesting to see a detailed breakdown of so called 'employment'.

That aside, we perhaps need to look at whether 'full employment' should be our only goal and certainly whether one by which we measure the effectiveness of this Tory government.

People are earning less than they did in 2008. We were told 'austerity' would take decade to work out of the system; this has proved to be untrue. Meanwhile, little or no investment was made by the Tory government to support infrastructure or training and those with very little had more taken away and work became more insecure.

We have a whole generation of those who are in work or about to enter it, who look at the jobs market and see their future as bleak and depressing. They cannot see a time when they can have a normal life. Growth may not even be enough to battle inflation in the coming years. People are in jobs, yes, are statistically in employment, yes, but it does not give them a living. We have lived with the lie since 2010 that low unemployment is automatically good, jobs are automatically good. This is fundamentally, economically untrue for large swaths of our population.

With lots of people in jobs who can't earn enough money to have a decent life it is another reason to question about the Tory economic ethos.

As if I worry about such things.
Next April I'll be £70 a year better off with the increase in personal allowance, definitely new car time.