Budget 2009: Incompetent and vindictive
Jill Kirby 4:43pm
I almost felt sorry for Darling, as he delivered this preposterous Budget. Lacking Brown's capacity for self-deception, he cannot possibly believe the growth forecasts he offered us, and on which his borrowing plans depend. There was nothing in today's speech to suggest that the Government has the remotest idea of a credible plan to rebuild the British economy; the announcements and re-announcements which purported to support jobs and boost industry were almost all as trivial - or illusory - as the spending cuts which are meant to sustain them.
But this was also a deeply socialist Budget, setting its face against the City and against the engines of growth. Brown and Darling both know that the 50p tax rate will raise very little revenue - and may indeed cause revenue to fall - but it makes them feel good and it puts the Tories in a tricky place. Having swallowed 45p (and in so doing, appearing to abandon the principle that competitive tax rates have a dynamic effect on wealth creation) will Cameron and Osborne now go along with 50p? When you've given way on a principle, knowing where to draw a line can be tricky.
Of course, coupling the new rate to the removal of higher rate tax relief on pension savings is a classic Brownism: don't think you can get round this tax by putting your income into saving for your future. Brown has hit pension funds before and he's no qualms about hitting them again. Meantime, the divide between the public sector executives on huge, publicly funded pension pots, and the wealth-creating private sector who've already seen their pension savings collapse, will yawn even wider.
Incompetent, socialist, vindictive and above all incredible, this Budget is the last act of a horribly failed regime. Darling knows he is finished, as this Government is finished; they cling to the hope that the Treasury will be able to flog enough gilts to save them calling in the IMF before the year is out - but even that looks pretty optimistic now.
Jill Kirby is Director of the Centre for Policy Studies
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Hysteria
April 22nd, 2009 4:55pm Report this commentum - so if this government refuses to do the hard things, and are intent on clinging on until June 2010, maybe having the IMF in is our least worst option?
Sally Chatterjee
April 22nd, 2009 4:55pm Report this commentI don't even think it's Socialist. Real Socialism would involve sharing more and lifting tax on the poor.
The 50p rate is predicted to raise what, a couple of billion? That's not Socialism, that's dog whistling for tomorrow's headlines.
In times of crisis, we needed a solid budget but this is very lite, a soggy mess. No wonder it was delayed to as late as possible.
IanB
April 22nd, 2009 4:58pm Report this commentAs always with this government the details will be telling.
Already on the car scrapping scheme it appears the government only puts in half of the £2000 headline amount, the rest comes from the manufacturers. Does this mean that payments will be limited to slow selling models that the makers need to shift?
David Bouvier
April 22nd, 2009 5:08pm Report this commentSally - if you use the Treasuries assumption but factor in the impact on NI, VAT etc it is less than that.
They want to talk about anything but public spending cuts.
Moraymint
April 22nd, 2009 5:09pm Report this commentWhat happens in practice when the realities of the Labour Party's breathtaking economic disaster coupled with their fantastic recovery assumptions collide to meet you and me out here in the real world?
As the ordinary guy on the street, what will I experience in practice as our economy collapses on the back of a decade of incompetent, unreconstructed socialism? It was always going to end something like this; it always has in the past.
Can one of you clever commentators give me a clue please?
TrevorsDen
April 22nd, 2009 5:11pm Report this commentThe useless Huw Edwards is making a poor fist of interviewing Yvette Cooper.
This crisis is not over yet. More events will no doubt make even lickspittle Edwards to think again.
TomTom
April 22nd, 2009 5:13pm Report this commentReal Socialism would involve sharing more and lifting tax on the poor.
Hardly. Socialism is about feeding Moloch in the form of THE STATE. Socialism is Hegelian and knows The State is the reificiation of the Ideal.
We are born to feed ourselves and our children to The State the all-devouring. Socialism is not about people as individuals but about Absolute State Power
Forlornehope
April 22nd, 2009 5:14pm Report this commentThe fifty pence rate will only raise a couple of billion if there are no feedback effects. There always are and on this they will be strongly negative. People on above £150K have lots of ways of avoiding paying tax. With the stock markets as they are, share options are very attractive and don't incur tax until they vest. Deferred bonus payments, often in equity, are another way of putting off the tax bill until, hopefully, sense is restored. It should be quite easy for a Conservative government to point to a fall in tax take from those above £150K as a result of this manoeuvre and then reverse it. That's if they want to of course.
GJTory
April 22nd, 2009 5:22pm Report this commentwhy am i getting this feeling that we are going to get an election soon?
I have no logic for this. i'm just getting that feeling
David
April 22nd, 2009 5:22pm Report this commenti When you've given way on a principle, knowing where to draw line can be tricky.
Well, then, why any tax at all? After all, you've given away the principle, so drawing the line is tricky.
Come on, what a stupid argument. Just because you are willing to accept taxation up to amount X doesn't mean you have to support amount Y. Same with detention without charge-just because you accept 7 days, doesn't mean you accept 90.
Jon Rosenberg
April 22nd, 2009 5:50pm Report this commentThis budget's not for the country, or for the poor, it's not a budget for jobs, or for pensioners, or for savers, it's not even a budget for the labour party as a whole and it's certainly not a budget for prudent finances. It is a budget designed for one person only. For Gordon Brown. It is done simply to provide him with a few political points with which he hopes he can trap the Conservatives and make them look bad at a time of national crises. All done to try and keep him in his job.
It is a disgrace.
Ed Hall
April 22nd, 2009 5:53pm Report this comment@Moraymint
you see those 4 horsemen in your garden...
Susan Hill
April 22nd, 2009 5:56pm Report this commentGJTory. No. Brown is a bottler. He will cling on till the last possible moment by his bitten fingernails - he will only have an election when he has to have one. This is the man, remember, who bottled a GE he was 90% certain to win.
The Laughing Cavalier
April 22nd, 2009 6:33pm Report this commentHe's only a cipher, a proxy for Brown who has never let go of the Treasury reins. Move over Darling
David Ossitt
April 22nd, 2009 7:35pm Report this commentGJTory
Calm down GJ; go lie down in a quiet room with the curtains drawn, take deep steady breaths.
Do not panic.
This strange feeling you have will pass; it is understandable with all that is going on but you must understand the Mad Man will not go early.
It will be April next year at the very earliest but more probably it will be in the May.
David Ossitt
April 22nd, 2009 7:46pm Report this commentMoraymint.
"It was always going to end something like this; it always has in the past".
Your post was spot on.
In my opinion; David and Co will make a brave effort to put things back together but will not manage to do so; because they really do not have the balls.
It will take a latter day Thatcher; man or woman with the will, and stamina to sort out this mess.
.
TGF UKIP
April 22nd, 2009 8:01pm Report this comment"Incompetent and vindictive" What a pefect description of Mr & Mrs Balls, this Budget and this government.
Nicholas
April 22nd, 2009 11:21pm Report this commentTalking of the Balls's - I just watched the sullen schoolgirl half of the undynamic duo (no, Yvette not Mr Ed the talking horse's arse) on Newsnight. Had to switch off as my TV screen was in danger from various missiles being thrown at it.
Their lies are now extraordinary but still unchallenged by the stooges at the BBC.
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