CCHQ: Seven things not mentioned in the Budget

This just in from CCHQ (illustrated with two graphics chosen by the Labour Party):

"1.      The £200 payment made to pensioners before the election to help with council tax bills has been abolished. It was the centre-piece of his Budget last year and not mentioned in his Budget this year (page 188).

2        Gordon Brown did not mention the fact that this Budget adds £5.5bn to Britain’s tax bill – already the highest ever – over three years. Of this £5.5bn, £4.8bn was not even contained in the Budget measures announced today. Tax as a proportion of GDP has been revised up from 40.7% to 41% by 2010/11.

3        Even after that, Brown has revised up his borrowing to £175 billion over the next six years – £7,000 per family. The current deficit for next year almost doubled from £4bn to £7bn.

4        Brown made much of environmental taxation but the proportion of taxes raised by environmental taxes has fallen from 6.4% to 6.2% (page 262). The Climate Change Levy will, according to the Red Book, raise less revenue in the next three years after the changes he announced. Friends of the Earth responded by saying: “Gordon Brown’s latest Budget will do little to tackle the huge challenges posed by climate change”.

5        There was no mention of the NHS at all. For years the Chancellor made the NHS his priority. Now it is in financial crisis he simply ignores its existence.

6        There were no measures to implement the Turner Report or to restore incentives to save.

7        The Treasury have revised down long-term productivity growth from 2% to 1.75%."

This was the signature at the bottom of the email I received from New Labour HQ about the Budget (that also included the childish pictures...).  Any handwriting analysts out there?

Comments

[Paul Bavill]

Nothing like a nice mass email to round off the budget. Maybe if GB doesn't get the keys to No. 10 he could get a job with the Nigerian Finance Ministry.

[Chad]

It looks like a deliberate attempt to look innocent and child-like to me, like the graphics, but, importantly, it does not bear the slighest similarity to the Gordon Brown signature on the Treasury site.

[Guido Fawkes]

A graphologist writes:

The signature is that of a psychologically damaged meglomaniacal control freak who suffers from manic depression.

[malcolm]

On the treasury site he looks like he signed it after about 10 pints of 'heavy'.His budget calculations probably looked pretty good at that time too!

[Jamie]

I'm on the Lib Dem maillist and you've got to give Menzies credit. No sooner than about 3 mins after his speech had ended he'd got back to his office and emailed me a long email headed "Gordon Brown fails to face up to his responsibilities" detailing the Lib Dem response. He may be a old, but he's sure got the hang of touchtyping; he may be boring but he can use the internet pretty smartly. Maybe we should give him a bit more time and not pass him off as useless quite yet.

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

"This was the signature at the bottom of the email I received from New Labour HQ about the Budget (that also included the childish pictures...)."

Cut him some slack - it must have been some feat to scribble all that on the back of a fag packet.

[Chad]

lol. Yes the Treasurty version seems to say 'Gordra Bum', whereas this version just says 'day release'.

[Ted]

Number 8 -
1.5% of the 2.5% growth accounted for by more working days 2005/6 than 2004/5 not economic growth.

From Islingtonian on Political betting
"the financial year 2005-2006 did not include an Easter, whereas 2004-2005 contained two of them. So in economic terms 2005-6 (255 working days) was 1.5% longer than 2004-5 (251 working days). This statistical quirk accounts for 60% of Gordon’s (2.5%) growth figure."

Now in dim distant past when I was more deeply involved in planning we would account for differences in working days etc by adjustments - not sure if this is done in Gordon's stats (which is why independent Stats Office a necessity)

[Tomo]

Guido: Manic depression.
Well if you took notice of Brown during Cambell's response to the Budget, thats exactly the impression you would get of the guy.

[Cllr Iain Lindley]

Off-topic, but Cllr Tim Perkins has outlined his reasons for leaving the LibDems. He has also applied for membership of the Conservative Party.

[Patsy Sergeant]

Imho - the signature above could have been made by someone lefthanded. This person gives the impression of being rather heavy-handed and in a hurry. The big, heavy G shows that they are keen to give an impression of their 'solidity' their 'worth', but the little capital 'B' shows that underneathe they are much less sure of themselves, even to the extent that they might bite their nails.

They are certainly not in the least bit interested in how they look or being fashionable.

Heavy-handed, single-minded and not much sense of humour could sum this person up!

[Chris]

I'm on the Lib Dem maillist and you've got to give Menzies credit. No sooner than about 3 mins after his speech had ended he'd got back to his office and emailed me a long email headed "Gordon Brown fails to face up to his responsibilities" detailing the Lib Dem response. He may be a old, but he's sure got the hang of touchtyping; he may be boring but he can use the internet pretty smartly. Maybe we should give him a bit more time and not pass him off as useless quite yet.

Surely this post is a joke?

[Tory Convert]

the proportion of taxes raised by environmental taxes has fallen from 6.4% to 6.2% ... The Climate Change Levy will, according to the Red Book, raise less revenue in the next three years

This is a total red herring. The point of eco-taxes is change behaviour, not raise revenue. If an eco-tax is successful, the revenues from it should go down - as this means that the damaging activity is being curtailed.

For better reasons why the Climate Change Levy is a duff policy see here.

[Annabel Herriott]

I went to a beginners computer class, and they showed us how to use "write"or was it "paint" clever to dig it up in the middle of an email! I managed to draw a tree with my mouse, but see here, this guy is signing his name with his mouse! RESPECT!!

[Margaret]

Nothing for pensioners and they are steaming mad. The grey vote is huge, so that was a big mistake Gordon.

This is a typical Communist type budget. Pour money into teaching and training the young, indoctrinate them & make them so grateful to the "Party" they will become Party members.

As for wanting to have the same funding per child as in the "Public" schools, this is sheer pie in the sky. Where is the money coming from? Sheer cheek when a few years ago he wanted to scrap all "Public" schools. I remember my son's school talking about moving to Switzerland to get away from Labour's clutches. I assume this is just an aspiration.