I am not affiliated to any party, having over the yearssince the 60's voted for most on what I thought was best for me and best for the country in that order. As you get older you get more knowlegable [ was going to say wiser but probably that as well !]. Today was a budget of great difference to those of the past, instead of living in a collandar, we now live, today in a bucket with a couple holes in it. It started with PMQ's and KS reading from a wad of prepared script sheets which really just as always tried to make political points over an issue settled 3 days ago, so of no real importance to the running of the country and our present fight to beat inflation. Basically slapped down again and again ... SNP ... Flynn .. I feel sorry for some of my country folk that he is the best they can offer. His Q was basically about Rishi having to have his electricity over hauled to ensure it served his swimming pool. Within a 5 mile radius of my house there is dozens of private swimming pools all needing the same sort of "from time to time " upgrades and maintenance ... another 3 mins of Parliament time wasted on him then .......... The budget listened once as presented but will listen again.. generally not a in your face tax this tax that or give this or give that to gain political points. Have to say though today I am glad I am not an out and out Labour for life because my parents were type of voter, in fact I think I would be a despondent self denial one. A budget for the future success of UK and streams flowing from it help the areas that will contribute to it be the public or private ...
How about this for a bit of balance, according to a news flash I have just read 20 cigarettes will cost over £13
Glad I gave it up 17 years ago and I've never looked back or craved one. Giving up the booze is another matter...!
As you receive a state pension, and therefore must be state owned, are you able to make impartial party political social media posts? I pay you £thousands a year out of my taxes you know
Was around 17 years ago I finally gave up for good, after several failed attempts, some of which lasted a few years at a time.
It was my one and only attempt but I was a long term (since my early teens) very committed and quite heavy smoker Now I’m someone who can’t stand the smell of it
I gave up in 1988 just after my eldest daughter was born. One of my proudest achievements. I still buy them on the Duty Free for my friends when I go away. In Gibraltar Airport 200 Marlboro Lights cost around £25. I seem to remember ***s being £1.60 or possibly £2 for 20 at the time I gave up.
The best news of the budget is the cut in tax of draught beer. On the Daily Fail’s reckoner, if I increase my beer consumption to 10 pints a day I can offset the increase in other taxes and costs!!
smoking .............. I gave up smoking 6 tins of Golden virginia a few odd half ounces and on average around 60 No 6 or No 10 a month. I smoked my last cigarette around 10 am on the Saturday morning closest to the 14th OCTOBER 1974 .I will check mthe date later as in my logbook. Since that date in the first 3 month's I has a social puff on a big fat cigar! and around 1984 had 3 or more puffs to make my other half I had started and it was going to be "whatever 2oz and 40 ***s were " added to the budget .. 3rd puff was enough to show me just how vile it is to smoke.............
Some of us work for a living. I’ve not had a chance to listen to it yet. I could have guessed what slant you’d have put on it though . Good job you don’t work for the BBC, as yours isn’t a balanced view that’s for sure
it is not an opinion .. just commented on what happened .. However my thoughts are why the need to read from a prepared script even when giving an answer? SF chalk and cheese to IB! .. .. IB had a script but had something " pertinent" say although was the usual most weeks SF to be fair doesnt have a script.. didnt today anyways? but not yet got the hang of PMQ's ...point of PMQ's he has to ask a Q [ 2 actually, usually just 1 but second is used up trying to expand the first! ] .. a serious Q ... not try to crack jokes.
Can almost guarantee that Hunt (if he's still there) will make Tax cuts of some description in what will be surely his final budget next time around.
The media must struggle to find people who can make an intelligent comment or they deliberately try to find one [ or more ] with little comprehension of what the Budget was about this time round .. I would say it is 60/40 that it will be a partial success and 70/30 a success ... I was "asked" [ someone thought it was stupid budget! spending and no tax rises ] ...! I said think along the lines of it is a tax reaping method of the government to get more money in the coffers .. more people in work = more tax and NI they get, add to this the money they do not spend out on unemployed benefit ... then the new people who work get more dosh so spend more! so tax on what they buy ....etc etc
There ARE tax rises. Alcohol and tobacco (as usual) - although the 11% reduction for draught drinks will cancel the rise out for pubs, leaving prices (and tax) more or less as it is for them. Also, given recent inflation and (some) pay increases to soften the blow, the treasury is reaping £billions in ‘hidden’ taxes by way of VAT on goods which have gone up, plus income taxes on new (higher) wages. We in the UK are paying more tax now than ever before in the history of this nation - even when we had the Napoleonic, WW1 and WW2 to pay for. Someone somewhere has disastrously mismanaged the economy along the way when this level of taxation is necessary for us to balance the books - especially when we are not (yet) at war.
