Tuesday 7 July 2015

Osbrone to repeat 2012 Omnishambles budget

There is a budget tomorrow, lost in the unfolding Greek disaster that it will be. But from the bits I have gleaned in the media I am confidently predicting a  2012 style omnishambles budget:

There are to be £12 billion of welfare cuts, £11.5b if you exclude the radical and stupid idea of outsourcing over-75's licence fees to the BBC (it is a silly gamer, the licence fee is our money, like any other tax not the BBC's, the Government are just engaging in fiscal sleight of hand to cut the BBC budget a smidgen).

Also f note is the move t increase the inheritance tax threshold just as some welfare cuts are to be made. In the early years of the Coalition the Tories took a lot of flak, rightly, for cutting the 50p top rate of tax to 45p. At a time when the cuts are hitting the poorest, this is no time to do it.

The time to make radical tax cuts is in the 2 years before an election, not in its aftermath. You don't reward voters who have not served their purpose by voting, you look to store up the political capital to make them happy next time ahead of the next election.

Not that I vote Tory, but their sunny days in the polls are to be numbered if the Budget turns out as currently predicted.

14 comments:

dearieme said...

"if you exclude the radical and stupid idea of outsourcing over-75's licence fees to the BBC": it's the best political joke in ages. The BBC always whinges about cruel governments blah, blah, blah; now it will have to explain why it is being cruel to The Old Folk.

Brilliant. I've enjoyed the news no end; unlike The News

Roderick said...

Agreed. Osborne has played a clever blinder on the BBC, who are no doubt splitting feathers about it.

Jer said...

"the Government are just engaging in fiscal sleight of hand to cut the BBC budget a smidgen"

You say that as though it's a bad thing.

Blue Eyes said...

CU, have you considered getting a dog?

CityUnslicker said...

BE - I have a dog and very nice she is too.

I am not clapping this half-arsed approach to the BBC. A real governement would privatise it or atleast half of it and celebrate that success - this is acutally shows how weak the Govt is, having to browbeat state institutions instead of showing some real leadership.

Bill Quango MP said...

I think they want to see the reaction.
BBC will close BBC3 {was doing this anyway} and maybe BBC 4.

I suspect the gov want to see how many 'why oh why' letters the beeb gets. If the outcry is muted they may then look again.

The Cowboy Online said...

"In the early years of the Coalition the Tories took a lot of flak, rightly, for cutting the 50p top rate of tax to 45p. At a time when the cuts are hitting the poorest, this is no time to do it. "

Why should the government be taking flak for cutting the top rate of tax? What about where the top rate of income tax starts? I fall in to it, and after paying mortgage and bills I can certainly tell you I don't feel like I'm rich, or even that well off. I'd certainly appreciate the tax burden being eased and certainly applaud the efforts of the government to scale back the distribution of money to the poorest, who will, of course, be hit hardest by the cuts as that's the section of society that has benefited the most from the largesse of previous governments while keenly expanding their client estate.

CityUnslicker said...

Cowboy - because its poor politics. Nobody cares if the rich get hit, but hitting the poor is headline news. Hitting the poor whilst cutting taxes for the rich is mental.

There are so many things that could be done that would be 'fairer' and under the radar - take the scrapping of the tax free element over 100k. Easy to remove, not a headlie like 50p-45p, probably worth more money to most people than the headline cut.

It's a wonder they don't do this; it is the one thing Gordon Brown was great at, screwing those he wanted too but doing it in an underhand way.

Phil said...

The tax and benefits system is a farce, end of. We effectively encourage highly skilled people like brain surgeons to work for three days and retire at 50 because it doesn't pay to do anything else.

Blue Eyes said...

Joking about dogs aside, how is privatising Auntie more politically astute than cutting the 45p tax rate?

I reckon George should get the difficult stuff out of the way now, so the lefty righteous anger has got boring by the time if the next election.

Thud said...

The govt should embark on a blizzard of non stop reform,tax cutting and anti union etc legislation.Keep the tempo up and make the lefts head reel.Labour never stopped trying to transform the country and engineer society so hit them hard and fast.

Blue Eyes said...

Agreed.

Y Ddraig Goch said...

BQ,

"I suspect the gov want to see how many 'why oh why' letters the beeb gets."

Would it help if I sent a letter of my own? I'm thinking of "why oh why is the government pussy-footing around? Just give it to Beeb right between the eyes. No, on second thoughts, make that a sharp wooden stake through the heart".

Blue Eyes said...

And sell off C4, immédiatement.