The budget

Budget horrors for me: the Chancellor halved air-passenger duty, just days before the Glasgow Climate conference giving tax break on the most climate destructive action there is: flying. Along with £4bn tax cut to banks and cancellation of pensioner's triple lock (breaking a election promise) it is not surprising to read the Office for Budget Responsibility comment 'Taking his March & Oct budgets the Chancellor has raised taxes by more this year than in any single year since Norman Lamont and Ken Clarke's two 1993 Budgets in the aftermath of Black Wednesday'

It’s infuriating yet again to see this government talk about family centre hubs being introduced as though it’s their innovation. Blair started Sure Start and funded local authority family centres. They were closed, devastated by the Tory austerity agenda. The public purse will be used to restart family centres, what a shameful waste to lose the buildings, the expertise. They did this despite clear evidence that investment in good early years services is cost effective. Huge increases in neglect, all forms of abuse, m.h. problems and the number of children in care.
That’s the cost of Tory austerity

It’s positive that the working poor get a bit of financial support in UC. Horrific thst the poorest on UC get nothing. But it’s ok, alcohol will be cheaper. That’s great for a country with a huge drinking problem.

Oh yes, mortgages will increase. It’s the curse of the just about managing and the working poor. Nothing to support parents with the cost of child care

Whitewavemark2

Oh! And council tax set to rise by a HUGE amount.

I spotted that too. I read that councils are about to lose £6 billion, but I haven't found the details yet. It will inevitably force an increase in council tax at a time when councils are ultimately going to have to pay for the increase in minimum wage for carers.

Whitewavemark2

I haven’t had time to digest it all yet, but I do notice that the richest man in parliament has reduced the cost of Champagne and air flights whilst living in a country with 2000 food banks and over 5million and rising children living in poverty.

Thought this summed it up (sadly) all too well.

One of Tax Research's headings this morning is None of Rishi Sunak’s assumptions on what’s going to happen in the economy look credible: brace yourself for the recession to come.

Richard Murphy then goes on to explain the table the Office for Budget Responsibility provided in its Budget documentation. This summarises the assumptions that they make that underpin the Chancellor's announcements.

He suggests that the OBR is assuming that the Covid crisis is over. To my mind, that is an amazingly big assumption to make and puts huge questions over any budget based on these figures. This governments main tool in fighting Covid seems to be a belief in luck rather than preparedness and science. I'm afraid that sort of thinking raises my anxiety rather than makes me trust this Chancellor. The article explains what could happen.

If you like to read as many in-depth, knowledge led articles, as you can this seems like a good one to add to your list.

Also a 5% cut to the extra corporation tax banks have to pay to "maintain competitiveness".

The problem with [your name here] is that you eventually run out of other people's money.

They are not going to reduce VAT on people's energy bills, are they - so the Government has quite a tax windfall coming its way already, since the recent increase in the cap, and far more to come from next April, when the cap will increase again by a far higher amount.

Yet another way in which they know they will get more tax out of even the very poorest in our society!

Gisela Stewart, on this very forum, told us that if we voted for brexit the government would be able to reduce VAT on our energy bills.

So to put it into a nutshell.

The government has cut taxes on

Short haul flights
Champagne
Bankers.

I can see why they have left VAT on energy costs removing it is not targeted to help those in need and the amount of VAT paid is not going to make a huge saving for those who need help.
I checked my average bill for the last year the VAT was just 70 just over a £1 per week
If the remove the VAT it can’t be targeted they have to remove it for all and for most this is a negligible saving

As I was listening to the rosy terminology he was using, I wondered if he was living on the same planet as the result of us, let alone the same country !! I lost interest when he congratulated himself on keeping the price of petrol down for everyone - he didn’t lower it, he just didn’t apply the scheduled rise in duty. The duty on champagne was lowered - says it all really.

some thoughts on the price of petrol from a friend of mine

If I was feeling pretty happy this morning about a short but successful trip to Orkney - and, believe me, I was - then a refuelling stop in Kirkwall (the main town in a county which not incidentally has some of the highest levels of fuel poverty in Scotland) dampened the mood just a peedie bit, as the local language would have it.
Fuel today is at an all time high of 142.94p per litre, which is higher than the previous record from 2012 when oil was $126 per barrel, despite today’s price being around $86. I’m not an oil economist, but what I do know is that 60% of the price (86.44p) tax goes straight to the UK Treasury in tax and VAT.
In remote areas like Orkney - and I just checked my receipt - it’s 150.90p per litre, of which 91.74p goes straight to yer man Rishi. In a little over two minutes the guy got nearly £40 from me. Which is something to think about the next time you’re filling up your tank. Or voting on Scotland’s constitutional future, come to that.
In six decades, resource rich Scotland has produced infinitely more fuel than it would ever need. Every. Single. Year. And we don’t have anything to show for it. Nothing. Nada. Not a penny.
Being Scotland, we are instead obliged to pay a premium rate for that fuel and expected to finance the treasury of another country with wholly divergent spending priorities and run by a government we haven’t voted for since 1955 and who then use part of our revenues to tell us we are too poor and wee and stupid to manage our own economy.
We beg for a piece of what’s already ours.
It’s bonkers, an insane state of affairs that can only be resolved when we finally get the vote on self-determination that our government was elected to deliver.
For goodness sake, let’s get this done.

The voters of Orkney and Shetland consistently reject breaking up the UK.

Consistently?

They've only been asked once in the last 40 years.

They've only been asked once since 1707 ..though six weeks after the "treaty of union " was signed the people who signed DID ask to have it revoked, there were riots on the streets because the PEOPLE of Scotland didn't want to be shackled to a foreign country .it was supposed to be a union of EQUALS .....seems like then, Bojo and his cabinet of clowns dont understand what EQUAL means !

Don’t worry....there will be another referendum for the people of Scotland to no doubt vote NO to independence along pretty soon.
Then perhaps things will settle down and the SNP just get on with making Scotland a better place.

The voters of Orkney and Shetland have been asked many times to choose an MP or an MS.

They have always chosen a Liberal Democrat because they believe that we are better together.

MSP

Many of them believe that they are better with Scandinavia.

What about the Barnett formula paddyanne? I think that more than levels the playing field. In fact, some say, Scotland benefits more.

MSP s representing Orkney and Shetland want to remain British.

Possibly if they ever had to chose between being ruled by the Scottish separatists and joining Scandianavia, they might chose to be Scandanavian,

The SNP slogan of "Scotland's oil" has certainly not made friends in the Northern Isles.

MayBee70

Gisela Stewart, on this very forum, told us that if we voted for brexit the government would be able to reduce VAT on our energy bills.

They’re saving that goody for the pre-election bounce I bet.

Just in case paddyann54 isn't around.

DH (born in England, incidentally) was incandescent about the huge amount of money that Sunak is giving Scotland, for two reasons; we don't want to be handed money and expected to be grateful for it. And its as clear as the nose on your face that its bribery: "look how generous we are to Scotland, aren't we better together"

Oh, get over yourself man. We're no as green as we're cabbage looking.

varian

MSP s representing Orkney and Shetland want to remain British.

Possibly if they ever had to chose between being ruled by the Scottish separatists and joining Scandianavia, they might chose to be Scandanavian,

The SNP slogan of "Scotland's oil" has certainly not made friends in the Northern Isles.

Its Scotland's Oil was from the Seventies.

I know its isolated in the Northern Isles but they know its not the Seventies

we don't want to be handed money and expected to be grateful for it

Oh come off it Alegrias. If Sunak hadn’t spread some largesse to Scotland (plus Wales & N.I. you will note) he would’ve been criticised. Until you vote OUT we are all one family in the UK remember? Share & share alike, pro rata per population.

He’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t! ?

He’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t! ?

Aye, pretty much