Another budget one. Sorry.

Reading the right wing media's crazed response to the budget (and every breath Labour take) it's hard to believe they've had the brass neck to spend the last 8 years calling other people snowflakes and remoaners.

The venn diagram of people who said Labour thought there was a magic money tree and people who now don't want to pay their way is a perfect circle.

I will get a pay rise! Yep, you read that right. I earn NMW so my wages will go up

On paper it's excellent news. If you get to keep the hours you're on. Some companies like to jig things up a bit. Which can mean do the same job in less time or lay a person or 2 off and distribute the work amongst the rest. Been there.

Tories came in just after the banking crisis... Some of what they did was in response to that...(There was no money left remember?)

Sunak spent money supporting people through COVID. And Ukrainian fuel crisis. (But also trying to sort out the complete mess of Truss and Johnson and costs of Brexit )

Thatcher came in to sort out the complete cluster fuck of the Winter of Discontent.

Labour spent on hospitals but we are still paying in increased parking fees for PFI. Disabled kids go to hospital more often and less able to take public transport. That one hit us hard.

It will be the same with Labour.

Labour will fuck some things up, do some things right. Some people will benefit, some won't. There might be no money at the end of their term and the Tories will get the blame the next time they are in, even if it is Labours mismanagement or world wide economics . Or Labour might do well in a favourable world economy and we all end up better off.

It is never as simple as Labour good Conservatives bad. To be fair, I think many politicians go in to politics to try and make things better. None of them are going to have a perfect overview of the economy and understand that if they tweak this, that will happen.

Lots of the electorate are biased and think my party good, other party bad when it's usually a mixture of a bit of both and the other side comes up with some good stuff.

I did see this, but I have no faith they will fully fund the NI increases in schools.

They never do.

Not to mention that TAs and support staff are still waiting for their increase from the last budget... Round here, you can make more working at Tesco.

DH’s cousin has 3 DC with autism, currently in an independent school because they can’t cope with mainstream education. They can’t afford the VAT increase.

Brananan
Oh dear. Well, I suppose he can retire soon without losing face, if he's been working for 40 years.

Intends to go on as long as possible. Committed to public service. Had been asked to stay on beyond retirement.

I’ll give it one more go. Your expertise is?

I don’t think that I will be directly affected in a negative way by the budget. It seems that business will be affected. With the increase in wage costs and increase in employer NICS payments.
However it did occur to me that where businesses are having their costs increased they will simply pass those costs on to us. Making it more expensive to do our weekly food shop. Concerned about whether there will be job losses in smaller businesses. Time will tell.

This country has been fucked over for the last 14 years.
If we carried on in that trajectory lord knows the state we'd be in in 10 years time.

Something has to change - it won't be perfect and people will always complain, some will lose/gain but something had to change.

Spirallingdownwards
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You really should tell us his name so we know to avoid his advice 😱

Pathetic.
You don’t like paying a bit of extra tax, I get it. No need to insult the expertise and proven track record of someone you don’t know.
Your contribution to society is what, exactly?

@ChardonnaysBeastlyCat you've had the invocation of the husband

OBR or them take your pick ;

Pay rises should not be predicted on efficiency- if people are on their knees they can't do more

Efficiency has limits that are only broken through investment in new tech

Oh dear. Well, I suppose he can retire soon without losing face, if he's been working for 40 years.

He's talking out of his arse, if he's even real

🤣 very real, very experienced and very successful.
Again, your expertise is economics?

We will be making efforts to mitigate things that will affect us.

The problem for me is that I have zero faith that this extra money will make the difference people think it will. For example they have already given pay rises without any requirements for increases in productivity. Extra money for the NHS but is this going to be accompanied by efficiency savings? Most of the money will disappear into a black hole.

They are already looking at more hotels for asylum seekers. What are they doing to 'stop the boats', all seems to have gone very quiet.

BTW those that think it won't affect them are wrong it will however the worst is yet to come as council tax is next on their list.
Now that will affect everyone.

Brananan · Today 10:59
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The poorest have not carried any of the financial burden as they pay very little, if any,

VAT and inflation disproportionately affect the poorest.

He's talking out of his arse, if he's even real.

That's what I think.

Not affected YET. Just because they didn't raise the main taxes such as income tax now, doesn't meant they won't raise it next year. She already said that further tax raises are not ruled out.

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat
Oh well, if hubby says so then of course we must defer to his superior opinion

Unless you’ve economics and maths (and physics) degrees and 40 years of market experience, yes, you probably ought to. His opinion is based on expertise and a very successful track record. What’s yours based on? Daily Maily/Telegraph comment?

Oh dear. Customers stop buying. But if prices arent raised the busibess can't meet their increased overheads. Margins aren't met. Businesses fold. Staff made redundant. Economics 101!

As I said before, schools and other public sector bodies are going to receive additional funding to compensate for the NI increases.

It's not worth it, my last 2 companies contribute plus my contribution equals 17%-18%. 3% would be for very small basic companies I imagine, I work in wealth management so good pensions, good salaries and benefits. I can't imagine people thinking it's worth living on those low salaries for the sake of a pension you might never live to see. Maybe that's just me.

You really should tell us his name so we know to avoid his advice 😱

The poorest have not carried any of the financial burden as they pay very little, if any, tax.

'@ChardonnaysBeastlyCat
You will be affected. It just won’t appear on your payslip.
Businesses be passing on the increase on the customers.'

The 'business will pass on the increase on to customers' is a bit simplistic.

Unless a company provides something really essential, customers can vote with the feet and simply stop purchasing products and services that are 'nice to have' but not essential if businesses take this approach.

Or customers will reduce the frequency of purchase and/or amount that they buy.

so unless these business want to fold they need to be realistic in their pricing.