Add a comment November 27th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
Alistair Darling has already had to start backtracking on the measure announced in the Pre-Budget Report - aka the emergency budget.
The Chancellor was forced to backtrack on a key element of his Pre-Budget Report (PBR) on Wednesday after he admitted that the Treasury had got its sums wrong and raised the duty on spirits by too much.
The proposed duty rise of 8 per cent announced on Monday, part of a package of duty increases designed to offset the cut in VAT from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent, has been halved to 4 per cent to leave the cost to the consumer broadly unchanged.
The Scotch whisky industry had pointed out that the 8 per cent rise would have increased the average bottle of whisky by 29p, whereas in his Commons speech the Chancellor had said that the duty measures “should keep the overall cost to consumers the same this year”. (The Times)
If Darling can’t even get his sums right over such a simple calculation, how can we possibly trust anything he has said in their entire budget?!
Add a comment November 25th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
The Pre-Budget report that Alistair Darling gave yesterday doesn’t contain any economy-boosting tax-cutting measures. Rather, it’s a tax increasing budget for most of us - now, and then again in a few years time.
What is he doing now:
- Raising duty on alcohol
- Raising duty on tobacco
- Raising duty on fuel
- Increasing borrowing exponentially to half a trillion pounds.
- Cutting VAT by 2.5%
A reduction of 2.5% in VAT means that if I spend £100 - except on alcohol, tobacco, petrol or food - I will save £2.50.
£2.50.
That’s down-the-back-of-the-sofa change.
And since the things that most people buy are alcohol, tobacco, fuel, and food - and in the credit crunch aren’t spending hundreds of pounds on other things - this will cost us money. Yes, I know the point of the VAT cut is to stimumlate the economy, but it won’t because it’s not enough. And many businesses won’t pass it on - after all, what’s the point of reducing something that is 99p to 97p or £9.99 to £9.77?
To actually achieve a stimulus this way, they would have as good as abolished VAT entirely. But of course, they can’t under EU law.
Since it is not possible to give us the right stimulus through VAT, they should have given us more money in our pocket. Either through reducing the income tax rate or increasing the personal allowance.
This way we get more money in our pocket and are ale to spend it as we wish. And boost the economy in the process. But Brown and Darling are economic retards, and so haven’t figured this out.
And then they’ll drop a tax bombshell on us.
2 Comments November 25th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
4 Comments April 14th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
Gordon Brown has the economy as his “sole focus,” does he? Then he should just take over from Alastair Darling as Chancellor.
A Prime Minister is supposed to be an overall manager, without a “sole focus” on any particular area.
That’s the job of the relevant Cabinet ministers. To be experts in their own area, providing the Prime Minister with advice on it.
If the economy really is Brown’s sole focus, then you have to ask why the hell he wanted to become PM - or bothered appointing a Chancellor when he did!
1 Comment March 19th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
I fully support this cause, and encourage other pubs to follow the example of this Scottish pub:
YOU’LL never eat lunch in this town again: the landlord of the Easter Road bar and eatery, Utopia, has placed a poster in his window, warning Alistair Darling to keep off the premises…
It shows a noose above Mr Darling’s head, with “Barred” above his picture and “Not Welcome In This Pub” below. It is owner James Hughes’ personal protest against new duties on beer, wine and spirits in this month’s Budget.
“The poster is meant to be humorous, but to make it clear to punters that it is not us who are putting prices up, but Mr Darling,” he said. “The noose signifies that it is the government who should be hanged and not the licensed trade.” (The Scotsman)
All pubs should show this poster created by Devil’s Kitchen in order to show their displeasure at yet more taxes being showed on booze.
Add a comment March 17th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
The nationalised of Northern Rock is to be shrunk to half its size, with thousands of jobs being axed, due to EU competition rules.
I thought the idea of the nationalisation was to prevent thousands losing their jobs through the inevitable slimming down that any private purchaser would enact?
Why didn’t Brown and Darling think of the EU rules before they decided on nationalisation? Or did they just not look through it properly - despite the length of time they took to come to a decision?
Seems like the next queue won’t be outside Northern Rock, but ex-Northern Rock outside the Job Centre.
A Labour government planning to axe thousands of jobs in a nationalised bank primarily based in the north of England. You couldn’t make it up.
Add a comment March 12th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
The first Budget in a decade will be made today by a politician who is not Gordon Brown. Well, at least that’s the plan. But we all know that, in reality, Alastair Darling is just a wooden puppet, controlled by strings. He may jump up and down and proclaim that he is “a real boy Chancellor”, but we all know the truth.
What do you want to see from the Budget? The one thing we won’t get is any tax cuts - heaven forbid we be allowed to keep any of our money! - or even a freeze on certain things, such as alcohol, which is inevitably to be a victim of this budget considering its current whipping-boy status in politics. Iain Dale has a list of the top ten lines the wooden puppet Alastair Darling definitely won’t say. More’s the pity.
Last year’s budget was boring, and backfired. What will the result be this year? Probably more of the same. But I will be keeping an eye on accountancy firm KPMG’s budget website for comprehensive analysis - especially since they think that the budget will “see the fiscal rules being bent, if not outright broken and/or rewritten”.
Should be interesting.
PS: Does anyone else find it ironic that they call it a “budget” when all they’re limited by is how much money they can take from us?
2 Comments February 20th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
Darling, please quit as Chancellor.
Please.
I just can’t take it any more.
Every single newspaper and blog seems to include at least one terrible pun on your name.
Please just go. For all of our sakes.
Add a comment November 28th, 2007 by ThunderDragon
HMRC staff are said to want punchbags to take their frustrations out on because morale is so low.
I suggest two punchbags - one with the Alastair Darling’s face on, and one with Gordon Brown’s.
Or maybe they’d prefer dartboards…?
Add a comment November 24th, 2007 by ThunderDragon
via The Last Boy Scout
UPDATE: Six more CDs containing confidential data have been lost by HMRC.
