Uk budget day yesterday - We are sooo screwed

[Incontinenta Buttox]

The debt is eye-watering; these are numbers that are hard for anyone to comprehend. Even our grankids are going to be paying these debts, so drunkenly run up by the man sitting next to Darling this afternoon. Never has an economic "strategy" been so brutally laid bare. They have run up more debt than the sum total run up by all the other British governments put together, ever!!!

And it wasn't clear to this layman where the succour was going to come from; lots of "small" tax rises (not small if you're already struggling, of course), the odd New Labour initiative here and there, big on promises, short on delivery, and a lot of very very dodgy predictions. The only thing likely to grow at 3.5% per year any time soon is that badger-faced bastard's, Alistair Darlings eyebrows.

Some two centuries ago, a Russian minister erected a whole series of fake villages, so it is said, to trick Catherine the Great into believing that the lands he had conquered for her were rich and full of bustle and commerce, rather than desolate and empty. This budget's tricks don't even rise to the level of "Potemkin villages", though, because no sentient being could ever imagine that they're looking out onto a landscape of plenty when in reality it's scorched earth from here to the next election.

No, what we have here is a Potemkin Prime Minister; initiative follows relaunch follows fightback, but there just isn't anything behind it. A facade; hollow, empty, fake. Pointless. Really, what is the point of these people any more? What is the question to which the answer is "Gordon Brown", unless it involves a bucket of sulphuric acid, ten thousand enraged scorpions and a blowtorch?

Let's be shot of these discredited wankrags and start from the beginning. How much worse could it be?

[Каие]

To be fair, it wasn't Darling's budget it was all Brown. All of it. The best thing the Labour party could ever do now is get rid of this man. A deeply disturbing human being.

The budget, I'm trying to think of something good in it, and the only thing I could think of was the tax breaks for pensioners and the Business support.

Here's Mr Cameron's reply to the Budget.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/f...h-in-full.html

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/to...he-budget.html

George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor's reply.
http://playpolitical.typepad.com/uk_...hancellor.html

[justicar5]

the training schemes for unemployed under-25s are a good idea as well. But yea mostly the budget was made of fail.

[Каие]

the training schemes for unemployed under-25s are a good idea as well. But yea mostly the budget was made of fail.

Yeah true, I forgot that. A good policy indeed.

[Treize]

British politics are fail, since Blair took power and it has only worsened (I don't know about the goverments before him).
Not only British politics though.

The WHOLE European continent is ruled by incomptent s...

[justicar5]

British politics are fail, since Blair took power and it has only worsened (I don't know about the goverments before him).
Not only British politics though.

The WHOLE European continent is ruled by incomptent s...

well the conservatives gave us Black Wensday so...

[Incontinenta Buttox]

well the conservatives gave us Black Wensday so...

Labour has done what Labour always does; hosed money - taxpayers' money, our money - at the bloated public sector until the country went bust. In the 70s it was nationalised industries, under Bliar and Brown it's been nulab's client state.

You really have no idea, do you? We're knackered for a generation.
I swear, Labour is the best possible argument for an absolute monarchy and the cessation of democracy the UK has ever seen. At least a monarch wants to hand down a country in decent shape to their successors. These people have deliberately made sure that the position of the incoming government (not them as they are well aware) will be bloody awful, just so that they will be able to make cheap jibes about 'Tory cuts' for a few years.

Labour makes me sick.

[Barry Goldwater]

Welcome to 10-20 years (possibly more, even? Not that that's necessarily a bad thing ) of Conservative domination, Britain

I assume Labour doesn't stand a snowball's chance in Hell of winning the 2010 election?

[Ketchup]

British politics are fail, since Blair took power and it has only worsened (I don't know about the goverments before him).
Not only British politics though.

The WHOLE European continent is ruled by incomptent s...

What about America and Bush? If European politics are "fail" what the hell are they!?

[Treize]

What about America and Bush? If European politics are "fail" what the hell are they!?

Dunno, the abducting kind of fail...

[Calvin]

Glad I'm leaving next year. Anyone remember how hopeful people were when New labour took power back in the 90s? Look at it now...I feel like we've been totally betrayed by our government.

[bigfootedfred]

Full response from Cameron

part 1


part2

[ivan_the_terrible]

Full response from Cameron

I love the cheering. It's almost like a football match!

[Aetius]

Full response from Cameron

part 1


part2

I LOVE British Politics.

You guys insult each other openly and everyone laughs, it is downright mean.

In USA it is boring and such as "Now we move to Item C, in Section 2a, concerning minority issues in nebraska..."

[Incontinenta Buttox]

Thatcher had to clear up the mess of 30 years of failed socialist consensus.

Cameroon will have to fix the mess of 12 years of failed socialist consensus.

Hopefully Cameron will have the guts to be unpopular. This Labour government thought that it would never have to make tough choices and now that it should it failed the test.

[cristophe el perno]

Cameroon will have to fix the mess of 12 years of failed socialist consensus.

New Labour are a lot of things, but Socialist really is not one of them. Try 30 years of failed Thatcherite Neo-Liberalism.

Theres a fair amount of epic fail in the budget, but as has been mentioned there are some good things.
Training schemes for the unemployed under 25s, more money for pensioners etc.

I'm also going to say that the 50p tax rise is a good thing. This will sadly end up being blown out of all proportion by the Daily Heil and the Torygraph (who rather hilariously today ran a headline of ''The Return of Class Warfare''), but in actuality I thing it effects about 1.5% of the British population, and that a significant proportion of that 1.5% will avoid this new tax by classifieing earnings as corporate gains (taxed at 18%). The government needs money from somewhere, and if the rich can afford to pay a bit more to slightly reduce (sadly only slightly) the size of the budget deficit.

Besides, I read in the Guardian today that the average FTSE CEO in theory should end up paying over 250,000 more a year, and that gave me a nice fuzzy red feeling insider.

Edit - I feel I should clarify that I am not wholly in favour of this budget. I'll point out the good points, but I don't want too much association with it.

[Каие]

Thatcher had to clear up the mess of 30 years of failed socialist consensus.

I wouldn't really call Macmillan's tenure failed nonsense, he did pretty damn well.

[justicar5]

I wouldn't really call Macmillan's tenure failed nonsense, he did pretty damn well.

was it him that told america NO over Vietnam?

[Каие]

That was Wilson.

[JP226]

Why can't we have any eloquent politicians like Cameron over here. Maybe it's just our procedure and the inability to actively question someone like Pelosi.