Live Budget blog

12.30pm: And we're off with a typically modest comparison with him and Gladstone - the last time a Chancellor delivered 12 budgets was when Gladstone combined the jobs of Chancellor and Prime Minister!

12.31pm: Joking reference to Lord Turnbull - this is the 'new Brown' who can take a joke!

12.32pm: Claiming credit for 59 quarters of continuous growth although many of these predate Labour's coming to power.

12.35pm: Brown is talking about boosting human capital and skills - sounds like another quango on the way...

12.37pm: Brown is claiming to have met the golden rule but this is the rewritten rule and how much is hidden off balance sheet in PFI.

12.39pm: Brown rattling off a stream of borrowing figures - we'll have to double check the fine print - he only ever lingers over good news.

12.42pm: First surprise - significant gains from asset sale (privatisation) to be "reinvested" in key frontline services but the Departments benefiting are the Inland Revenue, the Attorney General and the Lord Chancellor.

12.43pm: More gobbldygook figures but he's relying on Gershon savings - so there anyone's guess.

12.45pm: Large cash boost for the NHS - but no sign of reform to correct for misspent money in the past.  Expect further targets and quangoes.

12.47pm: Brown keeps harping on about stability - score that as a tribute to George Osborne

12.48pm: Three priorities - global competitiveness, savings and the family.

12.50pm: 2p cut in mainstream corporation tax - score that as a victory for the TaxPayers' Alliance's campaign - to be paid for by an overhaul of capital allowances (expect more work for the accountants).

12.51pm: Oh dear - smaller companies' tax rate goes up?

12.53pm: Announces competition to develop greener technology.  Let's hope that Blue Peter aren't manning the phone lines!

12.55pm: Package of measures to improve energy efficiency in the home.  It won't be enough to satisfy the green lobby (thank God).

12.57pm: Here come the stealth taxes... Steep rises in landfill, aggregates and climate change levy and "underused business property" to pay higher rates.

1pm: As expected tinkering with the taxation of fuel - 'greener vehicles gain - dirty vehicles lose.'  Goes on to reject George Osborne's VAT ideas on domestic flights.

1.01pm: The first real good news - duty frozen on spirits.

1.03pm: Worthy sounding - but complex - proposals on the voluntary and charitable sectors.

1.05pm: Further extensions to the Working Family Tax Credit system - not clear how this complicated system achieves his objectives of global competitiveness - why not just make work pay by lowering the tax rates?

1.06pm: Big boost to pensions protections payments - a big issue among Brown's comrades.  Is there an election coming up?!  More worryingly suggests that the pensions system is worse than we thought.

1.08pm: Rejects Cameron's marriage tax proposals as unfair to too many children.  Claims that longstanding tax breaks for inheritance tax and CGT achieve the same end.

1.10pm: Phased rise in inheritance tax exemptions but probably not as fast as house prices.  Surprise increase in cash ISA limit.

1.11pm: Phased increase in child benefit - is Brown attempting to open a flank on the family against Cameron?  The battle of the nannies?

1.14pm: Significant phased increase in income tax allowances for pensioners.  So why is it such a good idea to help OAPs this way but not working age poor people?

1.15pm: Quite a complicated package - shifting between income tax and NIC - basic rate is widened but the lower rate of income tax was scrapped - unclear as to who is winning and losing.

1.18pm: Massive boost for education spending but you'll only get value for money when the schools standards offer genuine choice.

1.19pm: Oh! Basic rate cut by 2p to 20p from next April... er...

Comments

[comstock]

You didn't mention how far we have moved up the G7, William. From 7th to 2nd.

I hope people are listening to this...

[comstock]

10 percent more for the NHS. :)

[Editor]

I'm sure William will reply to you soon comstock - I think he's a bit preoccupied at the moment!!

[Andrew Woodman]

Comstock, I'm sure he's just announcing money over again.

[Melissa Bean]

What is "underused business property"?

[comstock]

What is "underused business property"?
I think he said 'UNused'

[Editor]

Some highly-paid bureaucrat will decide that Melissa.

[Michael McGowan]

The corporation tax stuff looks suspiciously like a tax RISE dressed up as a tax cut.

[Andrew Woodman]

The idea that the culture of spin will end when Brown takes over really is a nonsense. Most of this speech is the same as last year.

[Michael McGowan]

What a weird suggestion: IHT is a tax on death so how can a relief from a tax on death benefit a married couple who are living and intend to carry on living? Most people don't pay capital gains tax so spouse relief from CGT is insignificant.

[a-tracy]

What is "underused (unused) business property"?

My guess is all of those business properties (like shops, offices and warehouses) that our pension funds buy, speculating that they will be let quickly, who then can't let them for months on end. They'll now get stuffed with increased business rates so a lower return for private pension holders and yet another tax on our pension funds.

[TomTom]

Brown has an amazing ability to drive people to thoughts of homicide. He is such an overbearing smug and mendacious thug.

He thinks the Budget is his opportunity to tell people how they will live and how they will die and treat the period in between as if he has granted them a living allowance, but everuthing they have really belongs to him

[Andrew Woodman]

Interesting the use of the word 'I'. Not 'we' as a government but 'I' as a dictator.

[nopointwinningifnothingchanges]

we are the second richest country to .....er the US.....the worlds largest debtor........

I am so glad I live in the UK isnt it Brilliant........we have billions to give away to everyone..............thats why everyone loves them.

[nopointwinningifnothingchanges]

we are the second richest country to .....er the US.....the worlds largest debtor........

I am so glad I live in the UK isnt it Brilliant........we have billions to give away to everyone..............thats why everyone loves them.

[comstock]

YES 20% tax

GET A LOAD OF THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cloudcuckooland]

oh dear, that is a shameful election bribe

[Chris]

Income tax cut... maybe a snap election isn't completely off the table...

[Andrew Woodman]

Comstick, how as a socialist can you celebrate a tax reduction.

The signs of a desperate man.

[Sean Fear]

Basic rate of income tax to be cut to 20p by next April. Which tax is being increased to cover that?

[Jon Gale]

"how far we have moved up the G7. From 7th to 2nd."

Just out of interest, does anyone know what our ranking was in 1979?

I think I was told once it was 20-something.

[Obi-wan Kenobi]

So he cuts the main rate of Corporation Tax to 28%, changes the Capital Allowances no doubt to hinder the medium size Companies and hits the smaller Companies with a double whammy of reduced Capital allowances and 3% increase in their Corporation Tax rate. Why would you set a small business in th UK ?

[Melissa Bean]

It frustrates me so much that the government continue to tinker with the benefits system and tax credits, rather than decreasing income tax - or raising the lower threshold, which would really help poor families.

More "jobs for the boys"..

[Martin Wright]

What does Brown mean by saying the Basic Rate tax cut is from "next April"? As it is already March, most people would say "from April" if they meant the cut was from 6th April 2007. I'm suspicious because so often Brown announces changes for future years, so that he dine out on the same story twice (or more often!).

[JimJam]

Has the 10% band been cancelled ?

[Michael McGowan]

Probably National Insurance, Sean.

[Chris]

Sean, well we have all the increases in various rates, which will be passed on to the consumer. Brown wants people to think we are better off, whilst increasing the cost of living at a rate greater than inflation.

Cameron seems to be doing well :)

[Sean Fear]

"how far we have moved up the G7. From 7th to 2nd."

Most measures of GDP per head would place us behind Canada and Japan, as well as the US.

We had already moved ahead of Italy by 1997 (we were behind them in 1979) and have moved from slightly behind France and Germany in 1997, to slightly ahead now. Most of the catching up process was done in the period 1979 to 1997, however.

[comstock]

Has the 10% band been cancelled ?

Oh yes indeed!!

[South East Blogger]

In other words, comstock, he has increased tax for low paid and part-timers disguised as a basic rate cut.

Typically warped socialist

[NigelC]

In a surprise move at the end of what is expected to be his final Budget he cut the rate from 22p to 20p, although he also scrapped the lower rate.- from BBC

Does this help the low paid???

[comstock]

In other words, comstock, he has increased tax for low paid and part-timers disguised as a basic rate cut

The 10% band has been cut to zero, surely?

Thats how I understand it?

[Lucy]

What are the new tax bands?

[Martin Wright]

Nigel C - presumably he's concentrating on Tax Credits.

Of course abolition of the 10% rate hits every one, poor and rich

[jamesw]

Doesnt abolishing the 10% bottom rate, without increasing the tax free allowance correspondingly, actually mean that he is in effect increasing the bottom rate to 20%... This seems particularly harmful to the lower paid. Someone PLEASE correct me.

[Chris]

Bloody good response! His last attack will undoubtedly make it into the news broadcasts

[Andrew Woodman]

Good reply from Cameron.

Someones turned the bold on btw!!!

[Mark Fulford]

If this 3% Corp Tax figure is right, he's just cost my businesses about £7 grand. Glad that Gordon has so much more important things to do with our money than we do.

[Sean Fear]

2The 10% band has been cut to zero, surely?"

No, it's just merged into the 20p band. It's fiscally neutral.

[comstock]

Guilty I'm afraid Andrew . if that doesn't do it, sorry.

[Editor]

Bold off. Please be more careful comstock!

[South East Blogger]

''2The 10% band has been cut to zero, surely?"

No, it's just merged into the 20p band. It's fiscally neutral.''

Fiscally neutral only if you are not low paid or part time....

[Peter]

I see the McLabour subservient Marxist Scum of the BBC left th Budget response from Cameron early, as they always do every year.

[jamesw]

Not sure if it is fiscally neutral overall, but it will certainly hit the lowest paid hardest with any slight benefit only being felt by those at the very top end of the basic rate band.

[Neil Reddin]

The tax rate changes are from April 2008, not 07.

http://budget2007.treasury.gov.uk/page_04.htm

[Andrew Ian Dodge]

Gordon sure stuffed Cameron on the airplane uber-tax.

[Andrew Woodman]

Can look forward to the same speech next year then.

[Afleitch]

Just great; it seems my student debt is to be 'privatised' afterall. I'll now be in debt (thanks to the government) to a bank or financial institution rather than to the government. Thanks for kicking the boot into young people trying to work off Labour's debt and get a foot on the housing ladder one last time.

[Dan Hassett]

The "underused business premises" worry me. I'll be interested to see how it's defined. It could include council property like toilets and sports facilities, temporarily closed down shops, land reserved for development in deprived areas (often publicly owned) and even office car parks, depending upon the Chancellor's mood. Landfill tax will hit council tax bills as well - allowing Brown to blame Conservative councils for the increases.

[Martin Wright]

Neil Reddin - Thanks - I had trouble finding this in all the Treasury Press releases.

This a typical Brown con trick. The main purpose of Budget 2007 is preview the measures being included in Finance Bill 2007. A tax cut in April 2008 is next year's business, not this year's, but Brown is so desparate for publicity he announces it now.

[comstock]

Not sure if it is fiscally neutral overall, but it will certainly hit the lowest paid hardest

To me, if someone says a tax has been abolished that means just that. So the low paid currently paying only 10% tax will now pay zero, and tax won't kick in until the 20% band does.

That's how I understand it..........I'm waiting for the telly to explain it properly.

[Simon Chapman]

"To me, if someone says a tax has been abolished that means just that."

Comstock, if that "someone" is Gordon Brown, my starting assumption is precisely the opposite to yours. Have you learned nothing from the last 10 budgets?

[Londoner]

It is quite clear that he has paid for the cut in basic rate income tax from 20% to 22% with abolition of 10% rate and no corresponding increase in tax allowances.

Anyone with the tax bands to hand to say what the net effect is for someone above the top of the basic rate and where, if any, the break-even point is? Whatever the answer, the greatest benefit (or least harm) will be to higher rate taxpayers, particularly as I think I heard him say that the start of the top rate was going up (but maybe just to compensate for it cutting in earlier because the 10% rate has gone?). Not necessarily wrong, but not a tax cut and also not in the least progressive. The worst hit would appear to be someone on about £12,000 without child tax credits.

The lower rate and basic rate changes are all from April 2008.

Cameron's response was excellent, some very good jokes as well. I liked the one about everyone is standing for the Deputy Leadership because history tells them it's the only way to avoid the Gulag. But some good points of substance too, and he commanded the House.

[Chris]

I'm watching the Sky News coverage, the abolished tax benefits will be eradicated for many families just due to the sin taxes and NI increases will increase the treasuries overall revenue

[jamesw]

comstock, he didnt say the tax was abolished, he said the band was.

If the 10% band is going, and the tax free allowance isnt being increased to cover it, then the money that used to attract 10% tax will now fall into the 20% band.

It is a tax increase on the lower paid in order to fund the reduction in the band overall from 22% to 20%. Brown gets good headlines "standard rate down 2%", gets no less (probably slightly more) money and who pays... those who can least afford it. Anyone earning below about £17k pa will be worse off because of these changes and the less you earn more you will feel the increase so those on £7k-£14/15k or so will really feel it most.

[RobD]

Comstock - it isn't the tax that has been abolished, it is the band. Face it, the great socialist leader has robbed the poor to feed the middle englanders who he has such difficulty connecting with.

[Martin Wright]

Main ingredients seem to be abolition of 10% rate, counterbalanced by reduction of Basic Rate to 20%. This is allegedly £9bn increase in tax balanced by £9bn reduction on the BR.

Low paid will tend to be the big losers from the loss of the 10% band and will have to look to Tax Credits for compensation for their increased tax burden.

National Insurance bands are being aligned with income tax which I guess might lead to some simplification for small businesses.

[Londoner]

Comstock is apparently a Brown supporter. It sure helps to be so if you are as naive as him.

[comstock]

"If the 10% band is going, and the tax free allowance isnt being increased to cover it, then the money that used to attract 10% tax will now fall into the 20% band"

Thats how Ming has just put it also.....hmmmm

[insight]

Its worth noting that all this 'spend' is based on his economic forecast that are way above the city predictions.

It is no coincidence that the BOE issued USD bonds via banks last month, not important in itself you might think, it means however all the major banks vying for that business will have kept their forecasts upbeat to suck up.

His forecasts are still above these overly upbeat figures and therefore meaningless. Everyone from the Oecd down call for fiscal tightening not expansion. He cannot meet the golden rule, the 40% debt to GDP rules and spend more money..........its not possible

[Lucy]

I'm getting:

a 20% increase (£159) in income tax burden for the someone on 10k

sliding to a 1% CUT for someone on 20k

and a 5% cut for anyone over the top band threshold.

Ignoring married allowances.

[Michael McGowan]

Londoner is right....the basic rate tax cut is an illusion because it is more than offset by other income tax and NI adjustments which probably impact hardest on the lowest-paid. The corporation tax cut is all about small business (e.g. Mark Fulford) paying more and big business paying less. Your problem, Mark, is that you don't pay your Westminster lobbyists enough to get access to the Chancellor.

[jamesw]

Ming has put it that way because... that is how it is! I can promise you that i am not ming in disguise posting on ConHome from the green benches via blackberry...

[Lucy]

That's with the 10% bracket becoming 20% chargeable

Bands 2006-07:
Personal allowance £5035
Starting rate 10% £2150
Basic Rate 22% £33300

[Lucy]

"and a 5% cut for anyone over the top band threshold"

should read

"and a 5% cut for anyone AT the top band threshold"

[comstock]

Ed Balls has confirmed it. :(

A tax rise for a lot of low paid people.

Dunno what to say to that, tbh.......

[EML]

Yup Lucy. It depends what he is going to do to the personal allowance.

I've just done some quick calculations, and on my low income (which should rise by next year) I would pay over 9% more in income tax.

[Londoner]

Also the alignment of NI with the top of the basic rate band may raise quite a lot of revenue particularly as he is increasing the size of the basic rate band; and we don't know the detail of what "alignment" means.

I can only assume Gordon is losing his touch if his deceptions have now become so transparent that they can be unpicked by us 30 people talking to 30 people in less than half an hour! It used to take experts days.

Trouble is - you can bet that the news channels will show the flourish cutting the basic rate to 20% on all the bulletins.

[Londoner]

Lucy - worth your weight in gold. It takes a well-organised lass to have the vital details at hand that all us blokes failed to prepare ourselves with.

[EML]

That's the trouble. Brown gets all the plaudits for cutting tax, yet people won't feel the tax increase until next year.

[EML]

Check out these links:

Income tax rates. Personal allowance amounts.

Are they too simplistic?

[Chris]

The party is saying anyone earning less than 16k will be losers, and the income tax changes are in fact a net tax rise. Apparently will net the treasury an extra 340 million

['Disgusting' DVA]

"That's the trouble. Brown gets all the plaudits for cutting tax, yet people won't feel the tax increase until next year."

Good point - Gordon Brown has really messed things up nicely for his successor at the Treasury.

To put it crudely, this budget is tantamount to taking a dump on the furniture at 11 Downing Street - those observers tipping David Miliband rather than Alastair Darling or Ed Balls as next Chancellor might have a point after all...

[Steve]

Its worth noting that all this 'spend' is based on his economic forecast that are way above the city predictions.

It is no coincidence that the BOE issued USD bonds via banks last month, not important in itself you might think, it means however all the major banks vying for that business will have kept their forecasts upbeat to suck up.

His forecasts are still above these overly upbeat figures and therefore meaningless. Everyone from the Oecd down call for fiscal tightening not expansion. He cannot meet the golden rule, the 40% debt to GDP rules and spend more money..........its not possible

[Andrew Woodman]

I was thinking the same DVA. Whoever becomes Chancellor under Brown is on an absolute hiding to nothing. Says it all about the man that he's that desperate to reverse his poll ratings, that he'll announce next years measures now.

[Adrian Owens]

This budget helps lock people in the poverty trap.

The withdrawal rate for child tax credit has been increased from 37% to 39%. Along with the extra money Gordon is throwing at child tax credit from 2008/09 this will make incentives to work lower down the income scale less attractive than Gordon sucking on a lemon.

[Lucy]

NI taken out before Income tax

2006-07:

0% up to £97/week
11% £98 - £645/week
1% thereafter

Wonder what this alignment means? Expect that the 11% cut off will be raised to correspond with the upper rate income tax threshold. Converting 'gains' through income tax restructuring into losses for anyone earning over approx 33k. But that's a hypothesis - don't know what the alignment will be.

[NigelC]

Headline:
Brown raises taxes on low paid

[Martin Wright]

Half the time Brown has crowed about fostering small business and now he zaps it with a 3% CT rise. It's all very well talking about improved capital allowances, but many small businesses are labour intensive rather than capital intensive.

His motivation is that many small businesses have incorporated. This followed the introduction a few years ago of a 0% band for the first £10,000 of company profits. He soon regretted it and began to reverse it.

Isn't the current 3p differential a price worth paying to give risk takers an incentive to start up companies?

[Justin Hinchcliffe]

Has the overall tax burden been cut? If so, we should welcome it.

[Simon Chapman]

Justin,

There is no prospect of finding out what the overall burden is because Brown will have concealed most of the damage deep in the Red Book.

This is almost the classic Brown budget: he presents what is in reality a tax rise as a tax cut. This is a gift to all his critics in every Party.

[Mike Wood]

The overall tax burden has not been cut. Brown said it would be revenue neutral.

According to the Treasury's figures, the 2p cut in income tax will cost just over £9billion next year. The abolition of the 10p starting rate will raise just over £8billion - so most of the cost of the 2p cut in basic rate of income tax is being met by the people previously paying the lower 10p rate.

The rest of the money will come from those people who are just under the threshold for the higher rate of income tax. They will have to pay another £7.50 per week in National Insurance contributions.

[Graeme Archer]

comstock ... I can understand why you were initially full of jubilation, which is no doubt what Brown wanted, but as others have explained, the 10% band has been abolished, which means most people will pay more tax next year. There's a handy calculator on the BBC website if you want to see how much more your household will be paying. Fortunately even the BBC appears to have woken up to this and is headlining the budget as "tax rises for most people". Indeed our party is correct, in that the group in our society who will be most hurt by this tax change are the poorest paid. That's just great, isn't it, the people who are also most vulnerable to the closed hospitals, lack of GPs, huge increase in crime ... Mr Brown thanks them for their patience by taking more tax off them.

One thing I can't find anywhere is a reference to stamp duty ... was it changed?

[Ali T]

Well what can one say to Brown’s last budget. I was absolutely gob smacked to hear Gordo announce a tax cut and on income tax as well. Could it be, I thought, that a leopard can change its spots? Could it actually be that Gordo has seen the error of his ways and decided to stop squeezing us tax payers quite so hard?

A cautious smile started to spread across my face, until I heard that the 10pence rate was being scrapped. So what does this mean for someone like me, a youngish fella, living with his fiancé, who works for a charity on the South coast? Well my friends I can tell you that the net effect of the changes is negligible and the claw back of the 10pence rate wipes out any real benefit from the reduction in the 22 pence rate of income tax.

Coupled to this the extra money on wine, beer and petrol and the net result is that far from being better off, Gordon’s done it again and like millions of people in this country we find ourselves worse off.

To announce the 2pence tax cut on income tax whilst taking pretty much everything back else where is without doubt one of the most cynical uses of spin I have ever encountered. To me this budget document is Brown’s own dodgy dossier and the only thing that is missing is a claim about the introduction of a new fiscal measure in 45 minutes…or something like that.

If you actually add up the tax take from the adjustment Gordon is making to National Insurance thresholds as well as the effect of income tax changes he will actually be taking an extra £500 million, so far from the great give away this is actually the great tax grab.

Is it any wonder why so many people don’t trust a word Gordon and the Labour Party utter?

[Michael McGowan]

Perfectly put, Mr Archer. Stamp duty is basically unchanged. I'm afraid that the Taxpayer's Alliance have rashly rushed out and greeted Brown's Budget as a tax-cutting budget. They will shortly have to eat their words.

[Andrew Woodman]

Very disappointed in the Taxpayers Alliance. Thought they would be bright enough to realise the con.

[matthew]

Agreed on the TPA. Tax has gone UP. Gordon Brown's report says so.

The final bottom line - tax increases by £350m.

We should be seeing CUTS. Not robbing Peter and then giving it back to Peter in a different form.

[Richard Tyndall]

As someone who runs their own small Consultancy firm I am not best pleased to hear that the tax I pay is going to go up from 20% to 28%. over the next three years.

Cheers Gordon

[Julian H]

Updated Budget comments on this blog:

http://www.orangebyname.co.uk

GUARANTEED: NO PHOTOS OF GORDO INCLUDED

[Peter Hatchet]

There is no tax cut. There is no tax cut. There is no tax cut. There is no tax cut.

How many times does it need to be said?

Brown has done this; (a) for "Brown cuts income tax" headlines so he can guarantee election as Labour leader and boost his rating in the opinion polls. It is all politics - not economics.

The tax burden will continue to rise, particularly for the poorest.

Why? So he can shore up his position amongst Middle England and retain key marginal seats.

I hope no-one falls for it. Sad to see that some Conhome readers above already are.

[malcolm]

As with all Browns budgets the devil is in the detail.He always gets good headlines the day after his budgets and then once the Red Book details have been digested we realise we've been conned. Comstocks jubilation is probably niave and very definitely premature.
I do wonder 'though with this budget if we are going to have a GE later this year.

[Scotty]

2p income tax cut will backfire spectacularly for Brown for two reasons.
After 10 years and 99 tax increases he suddenly cuts income tax the year he becomes PM, only problem is that it will not be felt in peoples pockets because as usual he has given with one hand while taking with the other.
I think that this is a serious miscalculation by Brown and his team in an attempt to stop the slide in his poll ratings. But a headline bribe which does not materialise in peoples wallets will again prove how dishonest this government is.

[Josh]

People, don't be mean to comstock. Fisk what he says by all means, but don't go around calling him a troll or such things (these things may have happened on the other budgets threads).

I don't see comstock as being a troll simply for being a Brownite on a Conservative inhabited blog.

[Ted]

Comstock is a welcome regular - he has a profile set up in the CHome community that states he's a Labour man. So we know where he stands and can only commiserate when he realises that Brown has managed to give a bit and take a bit more from the poor.

[comstock]

So we know where he stands and can only commiserate when he realises that Brown has managed to give a bit and take a bit more from the poor.

I'm still bloomin angry with him tbh.

I'm certainly not a Brownite, but was enjoying the budget until I realised what 'abolish the 10p rate' meant. Unless there are variations in the personal allowances to at least mitigate the effect, anyone on less than 10k will be 3 quid a week worse off. OK 3 quid won't see anyone starve, but it's a poor way to fund a tax 'cut' and it's dishonest.

If he'd abolished the 10p rate to zero and left the 22p rate as it was, everyone would have gained a modest amount (about 4 pounds a week)

[UKIP@HOME]

A young man named Gordon bought a donkey from an old farmer for £100.00.

The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day, but when the farmer drove up he said, "Sorry son, but I have some bad news... the donkey is on my truck, but unfortunately he's dead."

Gordon replied, "Well then, just give me my money back."

The farmer said, "I can't do that, because I've spent it already."

Gordon said, "OK then, well just unload the donkey anyway."

The farmer asked, "What are you going to do with him?"

Gordon answered, "I'm going to raffle him off."

To which the farmer exclaimed, "Surely you can't raffle off a dead donkey!"

But Gordon, with a wicked smile on his face said, "Of course I can, you watch me. I just won't bother to tell anybody that he's dead."

A month later the farmer met up with Gordon and asked, "What happened with that dead donkey?"

Gordon said, "I raffled him off, sold 500 tickets at two pounds a piece, and made a huge, fat profit!!"

Totally amazed, the farmer asked, "Didn't anyone complain that you had stolen their money because you lied about the donkey being dead?"

To which Gordon replied, "The only guy who found out about the donkey being dead was the raffle winner when he came to claim his prize. So I gave him his £2 raffle ticket money back plus an extra £200, which as you know is double the going rate for a donkey, so he thought I was a great guy!!"

Gordon grew up and eventually became the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and no matter how many times he lied, or how much money he stole from the British voters, as long as he gave them back some of the stolen money, most of them, unfortunately, still thought he was a great guy ***

The moral of this story is that, if you think Gordon is about to play fair and do something for the everyday people of the country for once in his miserable, lying life, think again my friend, because you'll be better off flogging a dead donkey!

[comstock]

Brilliant, UKIP home. Elsewhere I'm reading similar from RESPECT and Green voters. We have the unholiest of alliances in blogland tonight, but this is really bad.

Heres what I posted on another forum, wanted to post it here too.
It (the 10 p tax band abolition) is gonna hit people who choose to work part time to study a college course one day a week, it's gonna hit people who choose a part time job in a field they want to work in with the hope of getting a full time job later, it's gonna hit the young artist or designer who chooses self employment on little money over shelf stacking in Sainsburys, it's gonna hit charity and similar workers who underdeclare their real hours because their organisation can't afford more and they truly believe in what they are doing.

All people I consider a million times better than any politician TBH.

[comstock]

I've emailed my post above to Mr Laxton (my MP), but with slightly better grammar and without the 'million times better' comment at the end. I wonder if he will reply?

[Ted]

comstock - quite.
My sister is part time post mistress in our village community shop. She is paid by PO for opening quivalent of about third of the week. She's there for most of the day - because it's a community effort and she wants to be around for pensioners etc. Her reward is a tax increase. OK the Tax credits might kick in somewhere but her two eldest are now over 18. She's not overjoyed.

[comstock]

Her reward is a tax increase. OK the Tax credits might kick in somewhere but her two eldest are now over 18. She's not overjoyed

I don't blame her. There must be countless other examples too ranging across workers for churches, homeless charities, small co-ops and credit unions and on and on.

And of course if you are single not only do you have to work 30 hours a week for tax credit, you have to be over 25. And under 22s don't even get a full minimum wage.

Well it pains me to say it, but even the Tories never went so blatently to the bottom of the pile when looking to fund a tax cut ...... :(