2010 Budget Speech

[Geezer]

Fergus Shanahan writes the 2010 Budget speech in The Sun:

It’s 2010 and Labour has won the General Election with another huge raft of bribes and giveaways. But now comes the bill. Here’s how I imagine Chancellor Alistair Darling’s first post-election Budget going . . .

Mr Speaker, in November 2008 we all faced a crisis thanks to the Americans.
The Government borrowed £120billion to ensure everyone had a Happy Christmas.

As the Prime Minister made clear, there would have to be a day of reckoning, and now that Labour has won the General Election I set out my emergency tax-raising Budget.

First, I ask the House to consider the value of the Pound, which continues to fall sharply.

The only way to ensure stability is through prudence, and therefore the Bank of England will raise interest rates to 15 per cent from midnight.
I appreciate this will be painful but it is vital we avoid Tory boom and bust.
I am allowing homeowners an extra seven days in arrears before their home is auctioned.

Next, income tax. I froze increases in November 2008, but now I must impose substantial rises.

The rate for those earning up to £25,000 a year will rise to 25 per cent. For those earning between £25,000 and £150,000 it will rise to 45 per cent.
Above £150,000 the rate will rise to 70 per cent.

A typical worker on £450 a week will pay an extra £30 a week in tax.
National Insurance contributions will rise in line with inflation, at ten per cent.

Now, VAT. In November 2008 I reduced VAT to 15 per cent. It is now necessary to increase VAT to 20 per cent and further rises are likely.
Next, indirect taxes. I am imposing an extra £1 on 20 cigarettes.
On alcohol, I am increasing the duty on beer by 50p per pint and on wine and spirits by £2. This should make a pub pint cost around £5.

As the House will be aware, lower North Sea oil prices have cut revenue from petrol duty and it is now necessary to raise fuel duty by 20p a litre.
Two years ago I delayed rises in duty for older cars.

Those rises will now be brought in. To discourage the purchase of older cars, I shall double duty on them and the rate will now be around £500.

Now, the environment. The carbon tax on flights will rise to £50 per person.
Together with the increase in tax on holiday insurance premiums, this should add £300 to the cost of a family holiday.

This Budget today will secure lasting prosperity for the British people and ensure there is no return to Tory boom and bust.

Far fetched?? The jury is out!

He goes on to say:

SUPPOSE a bloke knocks on your door. He says: “Here’s a hundred quid to help you with Christmas. But I’ll be wanting it back soon, with another fifty quid on top.”

Would you bite his hand off?

Suppose you got drunk last night and have a raging hangover.

You can take an aspirin and fight your way through it. Or you can have another six pints and just delay the inevitable.

Which makes more sense?

Gordon’s great “giveaway” amounts to no more than him acting like that loan shark on your doorstep or that drunk putting off the hangover.

He is forcing you to accept his loan whether you want it or not.

And the money isn’t even his own — he’s removing it from your future earnings.

You’re being lent your own dosh. Fantastic, hey?

These aren’t proper tax cuts, just a temporary bung.

Even the bung has been bungled.

Stand by for chaos in shops as staff have to rewrite till receipts by hand to show the fiddly VAT cut.

Are we really going to stampede to the shops just to get a fiver off a telly?

Still, why should we expect Brown to be any good as a tax cutter?

It’s like asking the Pope to carry out a Satanic Mass.

Sure enough, there were plenty of tax bombshells yesterday, like the rise in NI.

And don’t think it’s just the rich on over £150,000 a year who will be hit. Middle and low earners will suffer too.

We’ll all be paying more.

Yesterday’s temporary giveaway will be followed by permanent tax rises.

Yes, it may seem nice to have a few extra quid. But we will all pay a high price for Brown’s handouts.

My predictions of Chancellor Darling’s post-election Budget speech (an election I am assuming has been won by more giveaways) may not be far wrong.

Brown has borrowed so much already that we are drowning in debt. Brown’s solution?

To borrow the largest amount in our history.

As Britain gets deeper into hock, the world fears to lend to us. Interest rates have to rise to save the Pound.

The best way forward is a savage assault on wasteful public spending, but Brown simply will not do it.

He keeps promising to cull civil servants but it never happens.

Instead, the State is set to HIRE an extra 50,000 employees in the next six months while in the private sector 300,000 will be SACKED.

It’s not just unfair, it is absolute barking madness.

People say to me: What would YOU do about it?

We must force the banks to lend again. That’s the most crucial thing.

But we MUST save public money — and there is masses that could be saved to avoid putting up tax.

Let’s have a referendum on leaving the EU (saving: £65billion a year).

Abandon ID cards (£20billion), the NHS database (£12billion) and all the other databases (umpteen billions).

Freeze State recruitment. Axe Town Hall and NHS penpushers. Close all quangos. That’s billions more saved.

Slash council tax. Halve spending on the Olympics. Sell the BBC.

Throw every penny at helping small businesses — the engine room of our economy — by giving them a long VAT holiday and cutting their tax and national insurance rates.

The EU says VAT can’t fall below 15 per cent: Let’s cut it to 10 per cent and tell Brussels to go to hell.

Yesterday was the day we saw Labour return to Stone Age Socialism of the kind that has nearly destroyed our great country in the past.

Screwing the rich with 45 per cent tax gets the brothers cheering, but consider the consequences.

Labour are turning on the very people — risk-takers, entrepreneurs, employers — we will rely on to get us moving again when the worst is over.

Many will sack their employees and start up in another country.

Blair would never have done this. But he wasn’t a raving Socialist.

Anyway, a Merry Christmas with your own money that Gordon’s so kindly lent you.

Don’t go spending it all at once.

 

[oldcro]

Just one question about the government borrowing 10's even 100's of billions of pounds.

Who is lending this money? is he (or she) a member here and does anyone have their address?

 

[Rovinghawk]

Who is lending this money?

Anyone who buys gilts or premium bonds, etc.

RH