Steeling from the future again

So George Osborne has decided people can blow their pensions early, as long as he gets a tax share and it makes his life long career in politics look good.

The idea that a significant number of people won't blow their pensions or worse still be conned out of them if laughable. We also know that its the tax payer who will ultimately end up picking up the pieces.

This one act in the budget shows the disgusting cynicism that is the life blood of our corrupt political class.

Still the cruise firms will be pleased - our Children are going to hate us as they suffer from the debt slavery we have signed up to.

Time to govern, time to choose

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly."

"To govern is to choose."

George Osborne and the coalition need to take both bits of advice into account today.

Its going to hurt and it needs to be swift. All of Europe has now ditched Labour's insane debt apocalypse plan ( and is grateful not to have Gordon Brown lecturing them from the Kirkcaldy telephone directory on it at international meetings ) - only the self interest of selfish Labour party careerist leadership candidates defy reality any further.

Yes it will hurt - but Labour are to blame - but they will never accept responsibility. Which just adds wilful deceit to their other crimes against our nation.

I'm away around the time the emergency budget is read out. And I'm one of the people who has real things to lose in it all - but they were lost by Labour and George now has to choose and act quickly.

The Cider sanction

When I heard Alistair Darling mentioned the 10p tax hike on Cider I was a little puzzled.

Its a very specific move, and one you can rely on appearing in the post budget headlines especially in the red tops.

And yet the budget has all been about doing nothing - except implementing a few popular Tory ideas, so they can't use them in their manifesto in a few weeks time.

All the pain has been denied or implied that it will fall on the hated rich ( it won't - but by the time people learn that it will be too late in Labour's plans ).

So what's all this about Cider ?

Well we know that it will hit hard in the South West.

We also know that the Lib Dems are likely to lose many seats in the South West.

Hence I concur that this is designed to help the Lib Dems !

How ?

Well you can see the Lib Dem leaflets already on this one. They do this sort of regional outrage combined with local campaigning very well. ( But so could their Tory opponents ).

But here's the trick - this will help drive Labour voters to prop up the Lib Dems, and that's precisely what they need.

You see nothing in that budget was done except for the political advantage of the Labour party.

Just because we can't see the reason straight away for a move doesn't mean its doesn't have a point.

My only question is has there been an collaboration with the Lib Dems on this ploy ?

Just politics

Today's performance should make Labour supporters hang their heads in shame.

Brown cling to power, not in the country's interest, but just in his own.

The country needs to move ahead to address its now chronic problems with debt, but all Labour will do is try to win the next election by delay and at any cost.

And the cost is very very high.

The consequences of Brown's betrayal of the nation will take a few years to fully be felt ( a fact he is cynically relying upon ), but they will be toxic and deeply deeply damaging.

One man's ego and selfish desires have laid a once great nation low and sold its soul into debt slavery by deliberately feeding a habit of inefficient and unsustainable spending - solely because it makes good dividing lines to use as a election strategy to buy at great cost a few more years of the disreputable political careers of Labour politicians.

David Cameron is right to get angry - so should the rest of the nation.

That wasn't a budget it was just more political propaganda bought at the highest price with other peoples money.

Update As the Press saw it (H/T TimMontgomerie )

A Future Fair for All

H/T Tim Montgomerie & CCHQ

Top ten Brownies of the budget: Fraser Nelson

This is worth a look by Fraser Nelson.

If Labour's budget is seen as lacking credibility with the markets then the ground is going to open beneath the Treasury very shortly. Darling ( or Balls when he's replaced ) will have to come back with an emergency budget. I Wonder how they'll spin that one ?

First reaction to budget 2009

I've done my best to follow the budget debate, despite some IT issues in the Shed this morning and here's my initial response.

In summary Darling has tried to put off necessary decisions, which means dealing with his main constraint which is now his ability to borrow money in our name. Therefore he has to give the impression that debt will fall, and fall quickly in the future. To achieve this he has put forward growth forecasts that certainly caused me to have a sharp intake of breath.

The govt efficiency savings aren't worth the risk of RSI in refuting, needless to say no one believes them.

Apparently the city is currently working out that the govt intends to raise over £200 billion in debt soon, and has had to use unusual ways of placing this debt due to the clear threat it won't sell.

The revenue raising measures will be ineffective, and are really there to help cover the political risks of just raising debt with no attempt to raise income. ( Though 5p on beer is going to hurt ! ).

The budget only balances because of the imaginary figures Mr Darling has conjured up. He's far closer to recklessness than prudence, but then it appears he doesn't care any more, at least not for us.

The truth is the economy is crashing at the fastest rate since 1945, and Alistair Darling has decided to put of dealing with the facts till after the next election by humming really loud and sticking his fingers in his ears.

That's going to be really bad for the rest of us and our children as we allow him to mortgage all our futures due to weak political leadership and a complete failure of patriotism in favour of selfish Labour party careerist interests.

Update: Other people have the money to be raised this year at £220 billion and counting ....

PS Its now clear that the 5-% tax rate won't raise much but will piss off lots of people who create wealth. Still it will allow Labour to run a hate filled campaign on a class war basis, so thats all right then ....

Public debt stabalisation costs - what Brown doesn't want you to see

From the Labour truth and embarrassing fact expunged IMF report:

Table 1.8. Public Debt and Stabilization Costs, end-2009

(In percent of GDP)

	Gross Government Debt			Financial
	200S	2010	2008-2010 (Percentage point	Stabilization Costs
Country	(Percent of GDP)	(Percent of GDP)	change)	(Percent of GDP)
Australia	8	7	-1	0.3
Austria	62	73	10	7.4
Canada	64	77	13	2.8
Denmark	22	30	7
Finland	33	46	13
France	67	80	13	1.8
Germany	67	87	19	3.1
Greece	95	109	13	4.1
Ireland	43	84	41	13.9
Italy	106	121	15	0.9
Japan	196	227	30	1.7
Netherlands	53	61	9	8.0
New Zealand	19	30	11
Norway	67	67	0	0.3
Portugal	65	78	14	2.3
Spain	39	59	20	3.7
Sweden	36	44	8	7.7
United Kingdom	52	73	21	13.4
United States	71	98	27	12.1

As BOM reports the Labour govt has bullied the IMF into removing the following table from their report. ( If I heard right on the radio is revised slightly down ).

This is the utter disaster that Labour have driven us into and they would rather you didn't find out about until after the next general election.

For the country or for the Election ?

That's the choice Alistair Darling had when putting his budget together.

Has he taken the painful decision now that will give us some chance in the coming years and not steal more from the future of our children than is now necessary ?

Or will is be the sort of budget Gordon Brown would produce. Highly political with measures designed to make life difficult for the Conservatives based on his understanding of our likely manifesto ?

I'd like to believe Alistair Darling would put the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland before the Labour party, but he wouldn't be the sort of New Labour politician we have all learnt not to trust if he did.

Frightening damage is now being done to our country, and reports are that Labour minister are busy signing 15 contracts for pet projects they want to make impossible for future governments to cancel.

As with MPs expenses and Gordon Brown's laughable attempt to rehabilitate himself, our money is likely to be w=wasted on the unqualified selfish self serving Labour career politicians who have lead us into this disaster.

I don't hold out much hope for the budget.

The only question is what will they be trying to hide from tomorrows headlines in the small print this time ?

The Budget: Misdirection, spin and leaks are in - must be bad

Misdirection: We've just discovered some schools insist on taking money of parents.

Of course the party of the London Oratory school knows this - as do lots of other left wingers. Its how they get around the prospect of destroying their children's education by leaving them at the mercy of the system. A mate of mine sends his kids to a state primary school that raises £1 million a year - and is populated by the offspring of BBC types, Guardian journalists etc.

Spin: its the world and specifically the American's fault - not ours. So the Treasury not paying of debt in the good times but splurging it on unreformed ( despite the usual Gordon Brown untruthful claim about continuing reform ) is the US fault eh ?

Leaks: Trying to control the news reports by leaking the move on fuel tax. Its just the sort of bypassing of parliament and spin that Gordon Brown promised to stop - but as we now know - he's a liar.

How about raising income tax ?

Now that might not seem the expect line from a somewhat right of centre blogger, however there is method in my madness, let me explain:

Gordon Brown has steathly increases the tax take from all of us, doing everything he can think of increase taxation without us realising it. He has stolen from our old age by increasing tax on our pensions ( and in passing reduced the value of the stock market causing negative feedback for pensioners - you can argue about how stocks should be valued, but this does seem to be an effect ). He has raised national insurance levels ( another name for income tax ). And most crippling of all council tax has increase by a staggering 50% - especially in areas that : Labour wish to tax disproportionately to punish them for being English or not voting Labour. And don't forget the anti South-East stamp duty rises.

All this deception has created deep problems in our society. The most obvious the damaged pensions and pensioners and the less obvious of making some voters think they can get something for nothing. Gordon Brown has picked our pockets without our noticing, but one day we'll wonder why the money is not there .

Hence George Osbourne should reverse as many of Gordon Brown's stealth tax rises as possible and increase income tax to cover the loss. I think the public would understand that this was a fairer and more honest thing to do. It would also expose Labour's deception that it has carried out over ten years.

There would then be wide spread support for reducing the size of the state - once people fully appreciate the cost of it.

Remember Mrs T raised income tax when she had to, to get the country out of the financial mess the last Labour government created.

Oh Darling !

Tom Stevenson writes in the Daily Telegraph today:

Britain now has the worst Budget deficit among the core EU members for the first time in nearly 40 years. After years of above-trend growth, a persistent deficit of more than £30bn is a sign of shocking profligacy.

Now this is going to hurt - but Labour minister will be OK as they have inflation proof, stock market proof risk proof financial rewards and one of the most generous pension schemes in the world.

Bremner and the Telegraph Fisk Gordon - in case you missed it

Well sort of - see Bremner's Budget.

Fantastic stuff - well done DT.

Brown fights back against Miliband's email, or so it seems

Gordon Brown was never going to let David Miliband start a potential election campaign address the Labour party, without getting his say also. Heres the email to Labour supporters - its just turned up via the usual channels - and here's my response - in blue this time.

Over the ten years I have been Chancellor, the priorities of families across Britain have been my priorities [ that's why social mobility is down and Britain is one of the worse countries in the world to be a child. Marriage rates are down and we have undermined the basis for the Christian family.].

Whether by keeping mortgages low[not my responsibility since I outsourced it straight away], providing the economic stability to deliver record employment[by growing the state sector to a size you can't afford - but they'll all vote for me and that's what matters isn't it ?] and sustained investment in schools[where the few improvements have been due to the previous Conservative governments focus on basics in primary schools - the rest is a massive mess.], this Government has worked hard to support hard working families[there are no marks for effort here - only success, which you've been lacking in].

Living standards have risen, thousands of children and pensioners have been lifted out of poverty and there are over two million more people in work[ combined disability and unemployment rates are at about 3 million [link may need subscription] - as bad or worse then the darkest days as Mrs T saved Britain from people like you].

So I was determined today to continue to put families at the heart of the Budget[unless they earn little in which case their tax went up - ho ho ] with more support for children, for pensioners and for schools.

When Labour came to power in 1997, child benefit was just £11. We've already increased it by over 50 per cent. Today I announced that over the next three years it will go up to £20 a week.

And nine out of ten families also now receive child tax credit, introduced by this Government[ and a spectacular mess - badly administered and taking unnecessary control of peoples lives], to help families with the cost of bringing up children. We are also going to increase this by a further £150 a year.

And to continue our attack on child poverty[as this is a relative measure - MiaS doesn't see how this can get better], the maximum amount of child tax credit will be raised to £75 a week.

These changes will lift another 200,000 children out of poverty.

There's more money for schools as well. Thanks to the hard work of teachers and pupils - and record investment in education[investment produces a return - what return has been shown ? Maths and the Sciences have dropping state pupil rates at top Universities] - we've seen dramatic improvements in school results over the last decade[or a massive slip in standards - which do you believe?].

We'll keep increasing investment in schools so that by 2010, spending per pupil will not be the £2,500 a year it was in 1997 but £6,000 a year[ so it will be over 100% more effective eh ? No ... ].

There's more help for pensioners[voters] as well as we move[haven't done it yet - waiting for wage rise inflation to drop the cost of this - but I want your credit now], as we have promised, to restore the link between the basic state pension and earnings which was broken by the Tories.

By increasing pensioner tax allowances, we will lift 600,000 pensioners out of tax altogether. We also announced plans to raise the threshold on inheritance tax[ see here for what a dirty double deal this really is].

But I also know that [David Cameron is making all the running on the environment] families want more action to help reduce pollution and tackle climate change.

So we are making sure that those motorists who drive cleaner cars will pay less in duty while those with the most polluting vehicles pay more.

We are going to give more encouragement and advice as well to families to help them cut energy bills at home.

All this is only possible, of course, because of the strength and stability of our economy [What no mention of "Tory Boom and Bust" this time - wonder what you know that we don't ?].

Under this Government, Britain continues to enjoy the longest sustained period of economic growth in our history[ This is a devious bit of writing - what he actually says is that Labour have come after the Conservatives set a successful economy and haven't totally screwed it up yet - but if you look at national borrowing and the size of the state you might wonder if they haven't already.].

Unlike the misery - 15 per cent interest rates [which were there for one day as Britain was forced out of the ERM - a policy Gordon Brown supported, but the rest of us have learned from. Brown no doubt thinks that Labour supporters are just too stupid to know this.] and three million out of work [Not that different from today] - caused by the deep recessions of the Tory years [Caused by the disaster of socialism and trade unionism and failed national corporations - all of which you supported you ... going to turn into Devil Kitchen at this rate- calm down and drink less coffee.] , our economy has grown every single year.

And to help business continue to prosper and create jobs,[ I have increased corporation tax on small companies where all the future of our economy comes from - but it pays of the big corporations who don't like the competition] I have cut corporation tax by 2p.

There are already over two million more people in jobs than in 1997 but I want to go further to reward work.

So our economic stability has enabled me to simplify the tax system for families by removing the 10p starting rate of income tax and cutting the basic rate by 2p to just 20p - the lowest basic rate for 75 years [ except for the one I just abolished - and also introduced earlier, but being a Labour supporter you to stupid to know that].

As a result of the changes announced yesterday, a family with two children earning £27,000 will be £500 a year better off.

That's why I believe today's Budget was a Budget for [my campaign to be Prime minister] Britain's future and a Budget for Britain's families.

Yours sincerely,

ps - Labour's Chief Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms will be answering your Budget questions next week in a podcast interview .

Update: This from the 18DT gang just fits in too micely ( via Iain Dale and Iain credits Dizzy thinks for first making the link ... )

Gordon Brown is Macavity

This is 18 Doughty Streets take at T.S Eliot's Macavity The Mystery Cat poem with everyone's favourite Chancellor Gordon Brown in the part of the famous Feline.

The con is on - but its seen through

Just watching Newsnight and the message that Gordon Brown was trying to pull a fast one seems to have got through.

Good - its about time people caught up with his tricks. Now Labour are in the worse of all worlds, Brown tax con budget will be enough to get him in a leader, but as a result Labour will do worse electorally.

So even though Man in a Shed has a small business and will be hit by the raise, for small businesses, in corporation tax, I will go to bed happier than many Labour MPs in marginals. They must now start to plan their post political lives. ( they may wish to think twice about starting their own SME's as I hear corp tax has just gone up ;-) )

The BBC play Pravda to Gordon's Stalin

After the last budget David Cameron gave a spectacular speech in which he destroyed Gordon Brown. The BBC appear to be determined that it shouldn't happen again. What have they done as of 16:50 21 Mar 07 ?

1) Cut of David Cameron's speech on their budget coverage.
2) Hidden his response with much smaller links of their web site.
3) Provided no link that I can find to his reply.

Its like they were determined it wouldn't happen again.

Then you see the headlines that the Labour party want - but no mention of the increase in National insurance.

The senior members of the Conservative party must remember this and castrate the BBC when next in power.

All the links in the high profile places point to Labour friendly stories - David Cameron is hidden away.

In the budget article again the reponse is hidden away.
The article giving David Cameron's response can't even get a picture of him in parliament with it, and no link to a video of the reply. Stalin will be happy !The new BBC media player doesn't tolerate dissent or alternatives. Only Uncle Joe.

If you work for the BBC you should hang your head in shame. The BBC is clearly one of the major threats to an open democracy in the UK at the current moment.

I'm not asking for good coverage for opposition politicians, but you should be able to manage equal and professional.

Update: The BBC bloggers do much better with analysis and balance here - shame the rest of the corporation feel propaganda is their business.

David Miliband's face

Just watched David Cameron giving a solid reply, under the difficult circumstances of a Brown disingenuous budget speech ( as always the bad news is hidden so his little spin merchant trolls can get out to brief the media on the message they would like to be on TV and in the papers ).

The bit I picked out from his reply ( before the BiasedBC BBC pulled the plug on Cameron ) was his suggestion that David Miliband was standing next to the door to get out quickly to launch his leadership campaign. The camera cut to Miliband who did his best student politics look of disgust - he protested a little too much - aka over acted - in my opinion.

Can't say anything about Brown's budget yet, as we have all learned to ignore what he says and pay attention to what he has actually done. Accept to say he's still up to his old tricks of announcing things many years of - but wanting the credit for them now.

Full reaction when the media accountants and economists have had proper time to spot where the money's coming from (aka who gets screwed. )

Updates: budget commentaries coming in now. See

The Business;
The Spectator;
Conservative home (hat tip for two links above); and
Devil's Kitchen.

A critical moment approaches

So here comes what we think is Gordon Brown's last budget. Remember he invented the style of the disingenuous budget speech - where bad news if hidden so far in the details as not to make the headlines with the 24 hr media or next days newspapers.

Last year David Cameron's response was fantastic. If memory serves me right he was describebd as like an Apache helicopter gunship attacking the old tank of Gordon Brown. But things have moved on from then.

For Gordon Brown needs to look like the fully human leader ready to take over.

David Cameron needs to steady hidden gitters in his own party ( mostly kept in private about recent policy ) - but also make good on the success of project Cameron in taking the Conservative party into scoring range and the likelihood of victory at the next general election.

All the pieces are in the air right now - and there are many possible futures before us - but only one road will be followed tomorrow.

What will happen ?

Man in a Shed welcomes the ideas on simplifying corporation tax, and any other taxes, as mentioned by George Osborne. But he is very worried about the green fascism agenda that seems to be taking hold.

If you think man made climate change is a real threat Dave - then Nuclear power stations need to be built - starting a few years ago. Man in a Shed is not so sure about man being responsible for global warming - but he does think the UK needs to develop greater energy independence and security. Also why pay certain countries large amounts of money when they spend it subverting our society or buying weapons to threaten us in the future ?

Lets see ...

PS Humphrey Malins (MiaS's local MP ) is on 18DT tonight - but I may have to watch a recording as I'll be out at a meeting. He's a thoughtful man, and as far as I can see a real gentleman. He has been independent minded, resigning from the shadow front bench about support for the Iraq war and has a first hand knowledge of the criminal justice system. ( Man in a Shed was impressed by the loyalty shown to him when he went round canvassing from those who had met Humphrey.)