Thetownend.com

Surprised the isnt a thread on it already

What did everyone think?

Personally I thought it was going to be worse with a load of green taxes on everyday activites that people and business couldnt afford to pay right now.

If Labour pull it off then they may regain some credibility. Trouble is, the whole budget seems to be based around there being economic growth at the end of the year which is based on....... nothing other than guesswork and hope it would seem. The IMF dont agree, and they seem to have been more right throughout the reccession unfolding.

It makes me laugh,ive heard people on the radio talking like its the end of the world.A tax hike on the 1% mega rich paying 50% tax above 150k is very Old Labour and a a great move.

They've messed up the economy big time. Taxes will have to go up & cuts will have to be made. But they are postponing the pain until after the election, hoping that they will either get back in, or the Tories can be blamed when the taxes go up, cuts come in.
I read this on one site, & IMHO is about right:

Debt explosion - even on Darling's figures, debt on the Maastricht definition is forecast to be 90.7% of GDP by 2013-14 (against a Maastricht limit of 60%) - and ludicrously, that excludes anything for the cost of bank bailouts
Wildly optimimistic growth assumptions - no mainstream forecaster is anywhere near Darling's assumption of 1.25% growth next year and 3.25%pa thereafter. Tyler's fag packet says that taking the IMF's latest growth forecasts instead would add about £30bn pa to Darling's borrowing forecast by 2013-14
Wildly optimistic bank bailout assumptions - Darling's borrowing forecasts exclude any losses, even though he reckons the cost will be 3.5% of GDP; worse, the real cost will be more like 13% of GDP (£200bn), as forecast by the IMF yesterday
Wildly optimistic public spending assumptions - Darling factors in £15bn pa of spending cuts, but they're in the form of Gershon "efficiency savings", the ultimate Marx Bros funny money.
There are two possible explanations for such a load of wishful thinking. Either he actually believes it - quite possible given the record - or, more likely, they realise they're stuffed, and want to leave as big a mess for the Tories as they possibly can (like, how will Dave and George defuse that ticking 50% tax rate, given that there's no money?)

http://burningourmoney.blogspot.com/

Bit disappointed with fuel tax increasing again, seeing as it is already ridiculously high, but none of it surprised me really

Think Labour will be gone next election Toddy..its nothing to do with money troubles,all countrys are in the mire...its how they handle themselfs publically...a budget in a recesion should be seen to helping out the working person...cant see anything in it that helps me or any other working person....in fact its contary taking from us all again...of course The tories etc arnyt any better and thats why i dont vote,and before anyone says i shouldnt whinge because i dont vote i understand that view....i am but a lemming,if the government says ive got to jump ...well i have to jump!

Agree with phil_s, this is a nothing budget,  a holding pattern until economic recovery comes when everyone will be hit and spending slashed.

50% tax on the rich, in the grand scheme of things a pointless gimmick.

£2k car scrap scheme. Can't see it working that well.  Can't see many people with 10 year old cars having the cash for a brand spanker. Given the 'industry' has to pay for half the 2k then surely cars will be going up by 1k and/or discounts reduced to offset.

Everything else as expected, but as I say, the calm before the storm.

On the subject of the scrappage scheme, most who would buy new don't have a ten year old car to scrap. People who buy new tend to change the car on a regular basis....... not after ten years. It may just work with the lower value cars that retail for say £6k & most of those are made abroad.
The other issue is the manufacturers have to pay half. I can't see them being able to cut prices by a further £1k, they probably have cut as much as possible any way to cut their stocks. I await Honda's verdict. What they say is more likely to make sense than Darlings speil

This may be a simplistic view as i'm not a financial or political person, but all i seem to hear or see is that everything is based on consumer purchases growing, which will balance out all of the borrowing. But how many DVD players or ipods etc can people have? I would imagine most people have got all they will ever need, and unless something breaks or wears out, spending will never get back to what it was, and therfore their resoning is flawed badly.

Couldnt they just pick up an old banger for 100 quids?

That doesn't make any sense to me, people will spend what they have spare (and more in some cases), there are always new things to spend on.

It's only redeemable against a new car.

That's the whole point of capitalism isn't it? making people spend money on things they don't really need (or want in some cases).

yes i ment buy an old banger to redeem against the 2k off a new car

You have to have owned it for 12 months.

No real surprises although the meanderings from the City folk that other countries may not see Britain being good for the Government’s massive debt’s is a bit of a concern.

The 150k - 50% rate is great news for us offshore jurisdictions off the back of a difficult few months.  These are the just the folks that are being targeted and the Government’s increase only helps drive them over even quicker.

Where's that ? CI, IoM, Gib ?

The 50% on high earners is a headline grabbing red herring anyway. The government will make significantly more from putting 2p on petrol.

I cant help but think its all going to end in tears. I dont think anyone wanted to see savage cuts to public services, but labour seem intent on spending and borrowing more and more to try and get out of the hole they dug by........... spending and borrowing too much.

If there are no signs of economic growth by early 2010 at the latest, we are going to be fucked because (guess what?) Labour will have to borrow even more to fill the gap in revenues.

Even if they are right with their forecasts I'm not looking forward to the next few years from a personal finacial perspective. virtually everyone who works is going to get caned by taxation to pay for all this. good times ahead.

The £2k car scheme is similar to ones used abroad in recent months and they helped Germany record it's best ever month of new car sales, so I guess it works.

Thats fair its a decent idea in principle, except the Gearman one offers €2.5k from the govermnet, i.e. around twice as much

Am I missing something? 2.5k Euros is about £2.2k. That's nowhere near twice as much.

But ours is funded 50/50 between the motor industry (i.e. the dealer) and the government.

Exactly. And you know there will be some dodgy sums being done to make sure the dealer isnt actually matching the goverments discount

which based on reports so far suggests they will do, in fact the man from Nissan I think it was, suggested they'd add the £1k from the government onto a marketing scheme they were already doing that offered around £2k.  They are desperate for sales, not profit, they need cash and to free up dead stock.

Agreed, it's a poltical gesture nothing more....but...wait... is that the sound of screeching tyres I can hear?

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article6155378.ece

IoM

On the scrappage scheme - my car (a 306) is just over ten years old - I've been looking into buying a car for a while.  I need to look in to the details, but this could actually help me.  Say I went for a Panda, going for list price at about 7K.  With the deposit I have got together I couldn't afford to pay the loan to cover the rest of it.  Knock 2K off and I probably can. 

I'm not saying this may work for a lot of people, but have to say it's got me thinking.

My lady bought a brand new Micra a few months back for 6.5K as well - but it's a ridiculous looking thing. 

Dont expect a car to be £2k cheaper next month than it was last month, £1k maybe. but fuck it if tou were going to do it anyway then a grand off is a grand off

Mandy says: We are not a high tax party.  :soapy tit wank:

Most probably, it's going to be the Tories who are tasked with raising taxes in 2010...so maybe he has a point.  Darling's budget was all gesture politics.

The 50% tax band is a gimmick affecting those with annual incomes in excess of £150k.  Whoever is in power next summer will have to raise taxes and slash public spending.  That definitely won't be a gimmick, and it will affect everyone.  I can see the 20% tax band becoming a 24% band or 25% band quite quickly.

It's just that my Aunt works for an offshore bank in Guernsey

"Mad on Borrowing" = "I am Gordon Brown"


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