All-round Budget thread

Nope Nigella, I don't. I have a terminal illness. All the money in the world won't enable me to see my son grow up.

I don't envy people with money, I envy people who have a future.

Lol!!!!!

Have you inherited wealth, Wubbly?

the politics of envy, do me a favour. I have no need for money.

Wubbly.

The politics of envy are a rather unpleasant set of beliefs.

The better off already cushion everybody else. No need to make them pay even more after death aswell.

Strix, if we spent the anywhere near the same amount on the NHS as the US spend on their healthcare, you might be comparing like for like.

You can't have a small state with low inheritance tax and then moan when the Goverment ask you to make a contribution towards your care in old age.

I'd set inheritance tax at 100%. Level the playing field a little.

Agree with happiestblonde. Services run by the government are typically very wasteful and provide little to the intended recipient.

Private healthcare in the US is far superior to the substandard care I have experienced on the NHS. Or at least it used to be. We'll see what happens with Obamas Socialist wrecking ball which is swinging from coast to coast.

Xenia - some teenagers can find work, granted. But there aren't enough jobs to go round in many areas. Fares to college are often adult fares before 9.30am and colleges don't provide books. It isn't fair to suggest that all teenagers stay for A Levels to coin in £30. Have you no sympathy for the ambitious youngsters of those on minimum wage trying to better themselves, or youngsters with a parent with a disability? Please do not tar all with same brush.

What are you on about happiestblonde? The state provides a safety net - can't see the private sector giving a monkeys, for example. If the private sector is so special, why do they preside over sweatshops, employing kids in appalling situations, look at the state of the railways, look at healthcare in America just to name a few examples. Oh let's all bow down to the wonder that is the private sector

Not true Xenia, I went to college many years ago and had a free bus pass (20 miles round trip) and also free meals. This wasn't means tested either so was available for all 16-18 year olds. Those where the days when had someone decided to leave school and look for a job they were entitled to some out of work benefits aswell.

If you think that poorer students only stay on to do A levels for £30 a week then you have missed the point, spectacularly, about EMA.

Most us grew up without being paid to stay on at school. Poorer teenagers had to get Saturday jobs or wash cars (someone knocked on our door today asking to wash cars) which I suspect did them better good than being given a state handout for doing something which benefits them. If the only reason you want to do A levels is because you get £30 a week or whatever it is then you need to question your motivation. Most teenagers with al ittle tenacity can find some kind of work which will pay £30 a week, thinking of our paper boy here and others.

I'm not bothered about inheritance tax, there is a huge threshold and families with a potentially vast inheritance tax bill can and do find ways around it.

Happyinherts, the loss of EMA is a national outrage but I guess it only affects the poor so who cares.

The state never does a better job. The best thing a state can ever do is take money from some people, lose a lot of it en route, and give it to others.

Inheritance tax is just wrong. It's re-taxing post-tax income and essentially a tax on choice because if you spend the money you'll pay VAT but if you save in perpetuity and bequeath it you pay inheritance tax (which brings in VERY little revenue post admin costs and affects a huge percentage in the South East not just the ultra-rich)

One thing that bemuses me is the NHS - why does the coalition think it's a good idea to spend all this money taking us back to a pre-war healthcare system that failed so many????? Sometimes the state does a better job Xenia.

Tell that to the working poor who's teenagers have lost the EMA and also don't qualify for free school meals when those who are unemployed but have more money, do qualify.

Please research before you post Xenia

amidiawish what companies are these? We have had an international financial crisis too - let's not forget.

I don't pretend that labour didn't balls up but under no illusion that the Tories coalition are our saviours

A small state benefits the poor. A fat state is unsustainable. Brtain did not get Great through a fat state. The Coalition is much better at looking after the needs of the hardworking poor than Labour ever was.

That bit where people can avoid 10% inheritance tax if they leave 10% of their estate to charity?

Well, won't they just set up a "charitable trust" or whatnot for their children/grandchildren? They're hardly likely to leave money to the local cats' home.

I agree. We need private companies to flourish and in order to do that, we need to create a place where they want to/able to do business.

Loading them up with regulations and taxing them to the hilt may be the socialist utopia but in the real world, it does nothing but drive big businesses abroad and discourages little businesses (which one day may have been HUGE) to start.

In a world where globalisation is the norm, governments can no longer tax companies how they like and must compete with other countries for the "business" of multi-nationals.

For all their faults i do think their focus on enterprise, entrerpreneurship and business is the right strategy
companies are leaving the UK at an alarming rate
some areas of the country have 50-60% of employed people working in public sector jobs, that just isn't sustainable
overall i think the budget was good, without job creation today our kids are screwed.

Thanks for the links, seems like I am one of the winners being an employed single mum. Saying that I'm out of the system altogether next year when DD finishes school and although I will have to make changes then (work full time, instead of indulging in a 4 day week ) I am glad that I will be out of the it, just feel sorry for DD and her peers re Uni fees etc.

Seig, I saw the 'common people' U tube sketch pre election, it's really shows David and Gideon for what they are.

4p on the pint etc,

Sorry but with an already declining number of pubs this is going to be a disaster. Pubs do a good job of employing a great many people and many support local producers, there is likely to be fall out as this isn't addressing the "alcopop" side of things and the binge drinking, this is affecting normal everyday folk who like to occasionally relax and have a real ale etc. I know and appreciate that alcoholism is a big problem but there are also many independent producers within this country who employ a great many people and who this will affect. I don't see this as support for British business at all.

And the 1p fuel decrease, well that means that apparently we get 2 increases next year. At this rate won't we still be in the recession? I think they could have done a bit more to help the general population.

Am still wading through it all.....

Well, I really hope all of you saw the youtube video before the election, 'Common People' (based on an original idea by Jarvis Cocker). Looks even more accurate now than it did then.. I quote:

I'll have the votes of the common people.. Then once we're in we're set for life, Cut public spending overnight, sack off healthcare, cut some jobs, support the rich guys and f*ck the yobs...

Don't say it's too simplistic. Sometimes the truth is this plain. These people are seizing the day; they want to make a small state, and they don't care what the consequences are; however they are too stupid to see that the new crowds on benefits will swell state dependency.

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/budget/8401309/Budget-2011-how-it-affects-you-in-numbers.html

The coffers are pretty bare so there isn't much scope for tax reductions but I suspect over the 5 year Parliament term there will be more tax cutting chances than there might have been under Labour.

I certaily agree the squeezed middle are hit as most people are in that group and only by getting money from them will be continue to operate as a nation and pay our way etc. There are a lot of people who don't work at all (some from choice and some not) however and don't pay any direct taxes on income, although they pay VAT on adult's clothes (and petrol duty if they are rich enough to afford a car).