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I'm hiding from it............
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tinyurl.com/4h8dutn
An alternative but interesting view.
Pat
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I like the escalator being shut down, I was never a fan of it anyhow and it seems like the new arrangement will be a stabiliser of sorts which is what many were calling for.
If next year they can see their way to dropping VAT again, that will help but we shall see.
Im not sure georgie had a great deal of wriggle room really so anything positive helps.
On a non-motoring front, I like the way the level for income tax has risen, it is a great thing for those on modest incomes and a real way to give people more money in a relatively simple way.
Dont care about fags and booze, I consume neither.
Whether it helps the economy time will tell as ever.
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>> If next year they can see their way to dropping VAT again, that will help
>> but we shall see.
>>
If they can reduce VAT I reckon it will not be until just before the next general election, not that I think that politicians are self serving and devious of course. :-)
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Id rather a devious cash give away than a pious refrain.
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Despite the economic woes and the dire state of the Treasury coffers, neither this or the last Osborne budget feels like quite the punitive shoeing that Labour used to give us every year. The measures seem better considered and more, well, measured. The 1p fuel duty cut is a token gesture, but a gesture nonetheless, and suggests that there is at least some listening going on.
Apart from those on benefits, and those at the very top end of the scale (who can afford to get the kind of advice to ensure they always win, regardless of government), I really don't know who benefitted under Labour. I got clobbered every time, as did most of the people I know, across a diverse range of incomes and financial circumstances.
Maybe the ConDems just package things better and I'm going soft in the head, but I can only comment on how things feel to me.
Cheers
DP
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This is my first week on day shift in ages, i've been blown away with the reduction in commuter traffic into and out of Glasgow.
I don't think traffic's down by half but i'd guess it's over 1/3. Wonder if the trains are fit to bursting but i pass through central station to get to the car park each day and volumes don't appear to be up.
Where'd everybody go?
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There all on night shift :-)
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Like DP, I prefer the ConDem policies to NuLab. Cutting corporation tax will, I hope, encourage growth and reducing tax will certainly help everyone. The NuLab approach (tax and spend) seemed to encourage wasteful spending which didn't really help anyone (apart from those with their snouts in the trough).
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Skoda, I have been on holiday this week so thats one commuter spoken for :)
I know of quite a few folk who are off on holiday this past week, end of holiday year and entitlement still to be taken.
What route were you taking - heard them saying the M8 was back to the Fort as normal this morning?
My train fare is about £6 return which is still working out more than straight diesel cost. There must be something psychological in that I am prepared to put £70 odd quid diesel in my car at a time, at approx £6.25 per gallon but don't want to pay £6 a time to commute to work by train.
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>> My train fare is about £6 return which is still working out more than straight
>> diesel cost. There must be something psychological in that I am prepared to put £70
>> odd quid diesel in my car at a time, at approx £6.25 per gallon but
>> don't want to pay £6 a time to commute to work by train.
>>
At least you get a seat in your car.
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>> At least you get a seat in your car
And there's no weasel at the heater controls. Why are trains always the wrong temperature? "It's mild and dry outside, lets set the heating to 'cook' that'll please 'em"
>> What route were you taking - heard them saying the M8 was back to the Fort as normal this
>> morning?
Yeah the M8, free flowing all the way in to the gas tanks at Blochairn, in previous weeks i'd be slowed right down at least at Stepps and often from the Fort.
Yesterday as we were joining at Newhouse the radio were doing a traffic report "and it's nose to tail from Newhouse through to Coatbridge currently", it wasn't even what you could call busy! I was near enough at Coatbridge by the time the traffic bulletin was finishing.
I'm not complaining mind.
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Well I am back to work tomorrow so hope you are right!
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>Maybe the ConDems just package things better and I'm going soft in the head,
After every Labour budget I knew I was being shafted but it took weeks to work out exactly how and when it would happen.
Is it now, next year or when I see my pension projection? Is it in my paycheck, my council tax bill, at the grocery store, or when I need to get away from their petty punishment culture for a few days?
The F-wit for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath along with his advisors, Ed and Ed, took great delight in obfuscating the real effects of their tax grabs.
A pox on all their houses!
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When Labour dropped VAT for 13 months by 2.13 per cent, it made little or no difference or impact on most people, but cost the Treasury billions; people were more impressed by the "Up to 70 per cent" cuts promoted by retailers.
I think it's unlikely that the present rate of VAT will be reduced as it seems to be a case of the UK being (or having to be) in line with the majority of other European countries. See:
www.pincvision.com/en/news/eu-vat-rate-change
for VAT rises in some other countries this year.
Full listing in table at:
tinyurl.com/4n8lznr
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Wake up folks. Thanks to the loony left the country is broke and we have just joined in another war. It is payback time, don't expect any handouts from the government untill just before the next general election.
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Missed the EDIT -
Most of the austerity measures already announced have yet to be implemented. If you think things are tough now...................
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Just listened to some idiot of a Tory MP trying to justify the great fuel measure on radio.
Its not 1p, its 6p because they have cancelled the 5p rise.
Yes, but people won't feel that since they weren't paying it yet says the reporter. Of course they will says Tory idiot.
So whats to stop the oil firms recouping their tax through increased prices?
International Oil prices will prevent that says he. If a forecourt operator thinks the price is getting too high he won't buy from that supplier says he!!!
He went quiet when asked about the additional VAT on fuel.
Plonker. Total plonker.
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I'm just glad to see the back of Labour, that's enough for me really, the LibCons seem to be doing their best to steer HMS Britannia on the right course for the future, economically speaking,
but yes - things are gonna be tough for a year ... or two ... or?
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Indeed. If the Labour government were a teenager, they would have ended up on that prog Bank of Mum & Dad. As it is, the ConDems have had to confiscate the credit card instead and play the big meanie.
Ive often thought its a shame Labour didnt stay in because they ducked out just when they would have had to manage savage cuts of their own - it would have made them unelectable for a generation I suspect, so id have suffered another 5 years of their mismanagement for that end result.
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Being of a slightly paranoid disposition, I've often thought (quite seriously) that Labour deliberately run this country into the ground ... stupid, I know but - they couldn't have made a worse/better job of it if it, if they had tried.
I also note the Scottish con-nection between Blair + Brown + Darling.
Time for my medication now.
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>> So whats to stop the oil firms recouping their tax through increased prices?
>>
Because oil prices are set on international exchanges. Local taxation makes very little difference, the price is set by what traders are willing to pay, not what oil companies would like to sell at.
As for forecourts, they are only a branded franchise of the oil company, they couldn't care less about taxation on production.
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I think the extra tax that is to be applied to the oil companies will be passed straight back to the likes of me and you in increased prices.
Therefore wiping out the 1 pence decrease and the scrapped 4 pence fuel escalator.
I think by Easter it really will be £1.50 a litre of diesel by then.
where is 'Brynle Williams' when we need him, oh that's right working for the Welsh assembly now.
Just shows, if you create enough racket then you get silenced with a nice cushy job.
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>> I think the extra tax that is to be applied to the oil companies will
>> be passed straight back to the likes of me and you in increased prices.
>>
There is no way they can do that. The UK oil and Gas producers have no means to control the selling price of their output.
Last edited by: John H on Thu 24 Mar 11 at 10:27
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Sorry BobbyG, but I think you are the total plonker here.
>> Its not 1p, its 6p because they have cancelled the 5p rise.
>> Yes, but people won't feel that since they weren't paying it yet says the reporter.
>> Of course they will says Tory idiot.
>>
So another journo proves their profession is full total plonkers and twonks.
>> He went quiet when asked about the additional VAT on fuel.
>>
Well done that man when he could have ranted about the EU - because EU rules mean it would be illegal to have a different VAT rate on this commodity.
>> So whats to stop the oil firms recouping their tax through increased prices?
>>
As the CEO of UK Oil and Gas said on radi5Live this morning, they can't recoup their extra cost because in this industry the selling price of their product is not set by the producer, it is set by international markets.
Plonker. Total Plonker. And very biased, and with a short memory of how labour got us in to this mess. Perhaps there should be an exception made for those who don't welcome the 6p cut - they can be asked to pay for their fuel as if there was no change in the budget.
I say well done to the ConLibs, and well done the Treasury coalition team.
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I agree with the underlying points in John H's post though would certianly not concur on Bobby G being a plonker;)
Nor would I concurr with Bobby G that the Tory on the radio was a plonker.
It is quite clear, the plonkers are/were Brown, Darling, Balls et al who got us into this mess!!
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>> Nor would I concurr with Bobby G that the Tory on the radio was a
>> plonker.
>>
Especially as he was not a Tory, but a LibDem Scot "MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12844157
"Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said the suggestion the oil tax would be passed on to motorists was "complete nonsense" because the North Sea oil companies were separate from those selling fuel at the pumps, who have access to a competitive global oil market.
He went on: "If the oil companies try to pass that on to retailers they will simply buy their fuel from elsewhere. You've got a global market for oil and you've got a competitive market for the supply of fuel, so there is no prospect of that being passed on."
Here is the quote from CEO of Oil and Gas UK:
"Malcolm Webb, chief executive of Oil and Gas UK, said it would have a "depressant effect" on the industry but denied that companies would pass on the increase. He told the BBC: "Oil is an internationally traded commodity. This is a direct squeeze on the incomes of the oil companies. It won't affect the consumer at the pump at all."
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First of all, I am not a plonker. IMH biased O.
Secondly I don't think it was Danny Alexander, might have been David Mundell who I think is the only Tory MP in Scotland.
Finally, I was not trying to claim that Labour, Raving Monster or anyone else was any better, just that this guy came across as a plonker. IMHO.
Especially his quote of the 5p saving.
Politics, I don't give a monkeys about any of them, they are all liars and are in it for themselves. I wouldn't trust anyone of them, well there is one local MP who I would as I have not had any reason to distrust him. Yet.
My brother is bigger than your brother da dee da - there is no worse reality show that the shower of muppets who fill the House of Commons and House of Lords, not to mention Holyrood as well.
I am sure if you go back to the start of the Labour tenure, they will also have made all sorts of claims about the mess the Tories had left them? And similar all the way back through the years.
One of the reasons reigning parties change, is because, in opposition, it is often easier to say vote for us because we will change x,y and z. Doing this in practice is a whole different story.
How many cabinet ministers will know what the price of fuel is? Or bread? Or milk?
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none of them.
They live in their own little bubble surrounded by all the secret Mi5 / 6 goings on that we know nothing about.
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>> I am sure if you go back to the start of the Labour tenure, they
>> will also have made all sorts of claims about the mess the Tories had left
>> them?
They didn't because there was no mess. Labour came in on the build of a big bubble, with fiscally sound coffers.
It seems to me that Gordon Brown was actually mentally unsound when he came to power. There seems to be plenty of anecdotal evidence to indicate he was slightly paranoid.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 24 Mar 11 at 12:37
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Not doubting you but why did Labour get in then if the country was doing so well?
My lack of interest on this subject means I can't remember!
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Without looking it up, I seem to remember we were suffering high taxation, and high levels of unemployment.
We being the lower middleclass/working class.
And the sleaze!
Last edited by: swiss tony on Thu 24 Mar 11 at 12:44
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Probably the first budget in years that will have next to no impact on my life.
Fuel 'cut' but by an insignificant amount. VED left alone apart from inflation.
Overall I might be £40 a year better off, but I'm sure that will be easily taken up by the utilities bills.
In other words, I'm sort of pleased to have been left alone for a change. The last lot used the annual budget to batter motorists repeatedly.
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Government sleaze, Edwina Curry, and the TV charisma of Tony Blair vs the charisma of the grey thin man with glasses who's name I can't even remember.
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Ah, I remember, don't eat eggs and all that stuff?
So the country was doing well, but the nation voted labour because someone looked better on TV?
Maybe I need to change my initial description, its not the politicians who are the plonkers but the voting public!
Did John Major and Edwina not have a wee fling as well?
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>>>Did John Major and Edwina not have a wee fling as well?
Even now all these years on I prefer not to think of that!
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as if your voted really counted !
i.e. I bet the whole voting system is all rigged anyway.
We all know how back stabbing and corrupt they are.
Just look at the expenses scandal !
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I'm with Kenneth Clark on this one. Despite their significant details I find all budgets an utter snore-fest.
I think there's something wrong with me actually. I was in the US in 1973 while Nixon was slowly being rumbled as, er, a sort of criminal. Every time he appeared on television to squirm and denounce the American people for their disloyalty and ingratitude, I would lose consciousness within seconds.
Chancellors of the Exchequer have the same effect on me. Perhaps that is one reason why my 'finances' are in such fundamental disorder.
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"Especially his quote of the 5p saving."
There IS a 5p saving. If it hadn't been for yesterday's budget, your petrol would have been 4p more expensive. Instead it's 1p cheaper.
If that's not a 5p saving, then give it to me. Plonker Bobby! ;)
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Yes, it would be a saving once the other increase had came into play. So it was in effect less of an increased cost, rather than a saving
But it hadn't yet.
The 1p decrease came into play at 6pm last night. So that is a 1p saving.
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Shame most forecourts put their prices up by 1 pence in the morning to then decrease them again by 1 pence at 6pm.
Who is conning who ?
Government or oil companies ?
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>> Who is conning who ?
>>
>> Government or oil companies ?
>>
They are both as bad as each other.
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>> Shame most forecourts put their prices up by 1 pence in the morning to then decrease them again by 1 pence
>> at 6pm.
I thought I was the only one who'd noticed that, seems not. bit.ly/fzyj9C
Bought 30 quid's worth of BP diesel this morning at 140.9p, walking to school this afternoon it was selling at 139.9p. Just as well you only get 21 litres for 30 quid, I'm not going to get irate about losing 21p.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi {P} on Thu 24 Mar 11 at 20:03
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Pedant mode "ON"
There is no such thing as 1 PENCE. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!
Pence is the plural of penny and can only therefore be used if one is referring to, or describing, more than one penny.
Pedant mode "OFF".
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Calm down Roger.
We the British overtaxed and overworked slaves coined the term Pence when referring to this new funny money, even if it was 1 pence...it didn't deserve a singular and plural version to describe it, thanks again politicians for something i and nearly every other working person didn't want.
It had to be like this to give us everlasting mourning over the loss of our proper money, which were of course penny or pennies.
Still remember those days when a half crown felt like something worth owning.
No, sod it, don't calm down, continue as normal, there's few left.
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Oh my god GB, that was over 40 years ago! there are generations who never saw or used old money.
You must have got over it by now.
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No and i haven't forgiven the traitors running the tory govt of the time for conning the country into the beginnings of the EUssr either.
There are some things that can never be forgiven.
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As they say GB, get over it, - move on man!
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Oh come on - surely everyone over a certain age still translates 60p into 12 bob in Tescos? I know I do, and often put things back on the shelf because I'm just not paying sixteen shillings for a bar of chocolate or something.
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I've got a collection, well it was my dad's but it's mine now, of sixpences covering most years from 1914 to 1967. The pre-1920 ones are solid silver and the 1920-1946 ones are 50% silver whereas the 1947-1967 ones are cupro-nickel. I should do something with them really other than keep them in a box which gets opened every other decade.
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>> Oh come on - surely everyone over a certain age still translates 60p into 12
>> bob in Tescos?
Of course they dont! Well my mum does, but she is 80 and senile!
I know I do, and often put things back on the shelf
>> because I'm just not paying sixteen shillings for a bar of chocolate or something.
Doh! no wonder you cant sleep at night. Join the real world!
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I prefer my world ta. Cheaper for one thing. But then I do have trouble spending money as some of you lot seem to!
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>>But it hadn't yet.
But it was going to unless somebody changed the law.
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Looks like already some oil companies are reconsidering investment in the North Sea due to the budget change
www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2201515
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>> Looks like already some oil companies are reconsidering investment in the North Sea due to the budget change
That might be a good thing? Save UK reserves for when the stuff's running out and worth a bob or 2. A litre of petrol is still cheaper than a litre of water at the petrol station.
Heard a politco on the box the other lunchtime waxing lyrical about how Scotland should retain the income generated by the North Sea reserves instead of passing it to Westminster. That's exactly what this country needs in a depression, in-fighting.
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Trouble is, I need 60 litres of fuel and half a litre of water. Water is a fair bit cheaper out of my tap, too.
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2011 Budget - swiss tony
