Alistair Darling will announce his first (and probably last) Budget in a few minutes. I'll try and keep you updated, but you've more than likely heard it all before.
Well Darling has told so many lies I really don't know where to start. He knows that we know he's lying, but he's hoping that Joe Public will fall for it. Darling has postponed the 2p rise in fuel until October, that's just delaying trouble for him, us and industry. What this Budget works out to be is an increase in tax of £1.9bn and a massive amount of borrowing to fill the spending gap. Inflation is claimed to remain around 2% CPI but we all know how much our fuel and other everyday costs have gone up, and it's a damn sight more than 2%. So we are going to be spending more to live and paying more tax. Great.
Cigarettes are to go up by 11p a packet today; five cigars go up by 4p. Beer up by 4p a pint, wine 14p a bottle, spirits 55p a bottle and cider 3p a litre by Sunday. On top of these massive increases, duties on alcohol will go up by 2% above inflation for next four years.
David Cameron hit the nail on the head when he said "you failed to mend the roof while the sun was shining". David also slapped down Ed Balls for some very unsavory heckling during his Budget response.
You can watch the Budget statement by clicking HERE.
And if you missed PMQs click HERE.
2 comments:
Good point.
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