The Budget

[Jamiesfuturewife]

I'm sure he said they were scrapping free swimming but can't see anything about it now?? Hope so! No pool full of unwashed youths who's parents send them up for the whole day so they don't have to bother with them!!

[pauld]

That's always been the way though hasn't it? Be fucked without students (or decent/clever/innovative ones at least) in the long run.

Be that as it may, the universities minister apparently doesn't think so. And I guess this doesn't look too good for you soap-dodgers either:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/10378384.stm

[Bogus Dave]

Hmm. From a purely selfish point of view it's not that bad for me. Doesn't read to well though, was education not supposed to be left untouched?

[pauld]

Hmm. From a purely selfish point of view it's not that bad for me.

Until your course gets cancelled/the dept gets shut down before you get your degree.

Doesn't read to well though, was education not supposed to be left untouched?

IIRC the ringfenced things were to be left "untouched" only in terms of "frontline services". Of course, there's considerable scope for wiggle room in what constitutes "ringfenced", "untouched" and "frontline". But let's be honest, here, we're in poo creek and nothing will be sacred no matter what the pledges and that would always have been the case no matter which party won. They cancelled a new hospital the other night - I think that sends a much clearer message than any pledges about "ringfencing" and "frontline services untouched" etc.

[LucienSanchez]

They won't cancel courses people are already on, they'll just have far fewer places available next year and forever more...

[Bogus Dave]

Yeah that's what I'd have thought. My course is quite highly ranked in the country so *hopefully* shouldn't be too badly affected.

Have to say it doesn't look good for my sister looking to go to uni next year

[ghanimah]

Personally I don't understand why everyone is moaning about the budget, the most important issue is noisy crisp eaters:

I take the train to work, which would be fine but for the fact that in a train, unlike in a car, you don't get to choose who sits next to you. This is a problem if, as I am, you're a magnet for people who eat noisily in public.

During just about every train journey I take, there will be someone within 10 feet eating so noisily that I find it impossible to read, write or indeed do anything other than calculate how quickly I could flee to Brazil after throttling the warthog in question with his or her own shoelaces.

I don't know whether this is your experience. Perhaps it's just me. Perhaps I unwittingly give off some signal that makes fellow passengers think: "I say, that poor devil looks as though he could do with hearing some squelchy, burp-punctuated mastication this morning. I must endeavour to be of service."

The trouble with the noisiest eaters, aside from their screaming gracelessness, is that they are invariably also the slowest. The other day on the train, a man across the aisle was noisily eating crisps. "Eating" is possibly the wrong word, because almost as much was leaving his mouth as entering it. But what made it worse was that he was doing it one crisp at a time, at a rate of not less than 20 seconds per crisp, thus prolonging the torture to a degree surely inadmissible under the Geneva Convention.

The moral of the Telegraph is; don't forget there's always someone worse off than you.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/7844120/Public-transport-is-marred-by-noisy-crisp-eaters.html

[Simon Pieman]

Did the drop in VAT rate last year rejuvinate the economy? A rise won't change much.

Clearly a very shitty budget for most people, but hopefully it will rejuvinate the private sector and kickstart the economy as intended.

The danger will be if this short term emergency budget is continued for many years.

[Lumps]

2.5% on VAT certainly won't make me consider spending any differently. It's not as if I'm going out spending £000s on luxury goods each month. An extra 2.5p in the pound is next to fuck all for most people. That's only an extra couple of quid (if that) on the monthly shop.

Er....... if you only spend £100 pounds a month you're right. Not living in rural Albania my outgoings are a tiny bit higher than that.

[Simon Pieman]

If you can spend, say, 1000 quid on vatable items then the 25 quid extra shouldnt be a problem.

[Batch]

I think having the Universities Minister describe you as "a burden on the taxpayer" isn't the best sign of positive things to come

That is definitely Labour's for screwing up Higher Education by turning everything in sight into a University so that the masses could exercise their right to read for a degree in something useless like media studies or flower arranging. After all the country will need a skilled workforce.

Then they realised it costs too much so now everyone will be shafted on fees.

[@MacPhlea]

Did the drop in VAT rate last year rejuvinate the economy? A rise won't change much.

Clearly a very shitty budget for most people, but hopefully it will rejuvinate the private sector and kickstart the economy as intended.

The danger will be if this short term emergency budget is continued for many years.

May encourage a few people to buy stuff before the rise - it doesn't seem a lot but for anyone extending a house, employing tradesman or buying a car it can add up to a considerable 'saving'

I'm surprised he didn't re-intrduce betting tax - the labour government did a great job of replacing tobacco addiction with a gambling addiction - pretty sure they could make a nice bit by re-imposing the 10% levy...

I think they should also introduce a higher rate of tax for all off-licence sales allowing the pubs to survive a little longer

[Mexicano Rojo]

This rise in VAT is a fucking killer for me, im in a business where i get hit by the rise but cant pass it on to my customers, as i said will cost me personally about 10 grand.

[@MacPhlea]

This rise in VAT is a fucking killer for me, im in a business where i get hit by the rise but cant pass it on to my customers, as i said will cost me personally about 10 grand.

Look on the bright side, that 10 grand means that stinky kids can still go swimming in JFW's pool this year for free

[ghanimah]

I think they should also introduce a higher rate of tax for all off-licence sales allowing the pubs to survive a little longer

One small problem that would be illegal under EU law.