The Budget

Mekon look away now...

or the whole story

All pretty dull really - you wouldn't believe there was an election in the offing ..... or would you ??

What I'd really like to see is NI and income tax merged, so we can really see what rate of tax we're paying

David

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Originally posted by David Stewart:
What I'd really like to see is NI and income tax merged, so we can really see what rate of tax we're paying

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Good idea in principle, but Gordon Brown would just make it an excuse to ramp up tax just that little bit more.

What I'd like to see is a budget from labour that actually meant they took a smaller percentage of all our incomes for once, instead of ramping it up a bit more each year.

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Originally posted by Steve G:
What I'd like to see is a budget from labour that actually meant they took a smaller percentage of all our incomes for once, instead of ramping it up a bit more each year.

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Agreed, but Gordon would need to conduct yet another feasibility study on the idea first, costing a further billion or 2...

Taxes will be going up after the next general election then. I liked it when he compared the UK's economic performance to the Eurozone, he always has to be careful there.
I am worried that I can't see how he has increased the tax burden on Londoners (he must have done it, he hates London and everyone in it, I just can't see how he has done it yet!).

Simon

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Originally posted by Simon Perry:
Taxes will be going up after the next general election then.

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To fund those spending plans it'll have to, and not by an insignificant amount either.

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I can't see how he has increased the tax burden on Londoners (he must have done it, he hates London and everyone in it, I just can't see how he has done it yet!).

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He does it every year by ensuring the Local Government Support Grant is inadequate thereby forcing Local Councils to do it for him - clever really!!

And on the positive side he's actually commited to doing what should have been done years ago, i.e. slashing the Civil Service manpower bill. At last a Labour policy I find myself able to enthusiastically support

David

[This message was edited by David Stewart on Wed 17 March 2004 at 18:09.]

Like or loathe Labour - Gordon Brown is a genius.
(head down)

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Originally posted by Rasher:
Like or loathe Labour - Gordon Brown is a genius.
(head down)

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I'm not sure about that. The problem with such a huge spending government is that it will cause inflationary pressure eventually. This govt has spent loads on just about everything (I'm not arguing against this BTW, since some ofit is necessary) BUT government spending is genrally teh biggest cause of inflationary pressure, not Joe Bloggs earning/spending in the high street. Inflation is a big evil in my view and has serious damaging effects to pretty much every economic parameter, so the overnment has to respond by some serious efficiency measures, to partly redirect costs to areas that generate revenue (hospitals, education are revenue generators in reverse, becasue they stop goverments spending on higher cost things like medication and benefits). Civil Servants in government generally do bugger all, and have incredibly flexible & generous working arrangements which are out of step with the private sector.

IN short, the steps Gordion Brown has taken were well overdue.

Gordon Brown has delivered a steadily growing economy, high levels of employment and historically low levels of interest rates and inflation through two economic cycles whilst providing serious increases in funding for Health and Education. No other Chancellor can claim anything like that sort of success.

Matthew

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Originally posted by Matthew Robinson:
Gordon Brown has delivered a steadily growing economy, high levels of employment and historically low levels of interest rates and inflation through two economic cycles whilst providing serious increases in funding for Health and Education. No other Chancellor can claim anything like that sort of success.

Matthew

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Absolutely (even though your comment sounds like a party political), but his spending on public services will cause inflationary pressure unless spending is cut somewhere, so I think he is doing the right thing - albeit a bit late by cutting spending elsewhere in the government. The bottom line here is that government spending is very inflationary and inflation is the biggest economic evil.

ps. The fact that Labour have precided over a period of low inflation is more to do with the fact that governemtn spending was lower in previous years and there is a "lag effect" in when inflationary pressure starts.

Fair play to Gordon for handing the power to set intetest rates to the B of E, and also well done on weathering the world recession.
However, all this increased spending came rather late in the day don't you think? Plus any cabinet member who failed to join Robin Cook in resigning over the illegal invasion of Iraq has little genuine credibility in my book.
Simon