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George Osborne's Autumn Statement - your reactions please!

223 replies

CatherineHMumsnet · 05/12/2012 10:30

The Chancellor George Osborne will begin making his Autumn Statement in Parliament today at 12.30. Thought we should start up a thread so Mumsnetters can comment as it happens.

OP posts:
LoopsInHoops · 05/12/2012 13:13

Twittermeadwaj @meadwaj
I think they are actually just pulling figures out of their bottoms at this point. 2.8% growth by 2015? Did I hear that right? #as2012
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LoopsInHoops · 05/12/2012 13:14

Chancellor says he would have to hit the UK with £17 billion extra cuts per year to meet supplementary debt target. BINGO!

LoopsInHoops · 05/12/2012 13:14

Oh, I forgot all the 'on course, can't give up now' bullshit

JakeBullet · 05/12/2012 13:15

Douglas Carswell (Tory MP) on Twitter is just on fire lol.

"So we missed the target then....why not just say so".

LoopsInHoops · 05/12/2012 13:15

'turning back now would be a disaster' BINGO!

JakeBullet · 05/12/2012 13:17

"Families out of work should not get more than those in work".....he has said that twice now....double BINGO

LoopsInHoops · 05/12/2012 13:17

'Osborne repeats the mantra "we are all in this together" - to cheers from coalition MPs and jeers from Labour.'

DOUBLE BINGO!!

78bunion · 05/12/2012 13:21

No real cuts. No real change. Nothing for enterprise. Tinkering at the margins.

niceguy2 · 05/12/2012 13:29

Agreed. Biggest announcement was probably the scrapping of the 3p fuel duty rather than another delay which is probably the right thing to do. Another delay just brings another round of bad press nearer the time.

TBH I don't think he's got much room for manoeuvre.

Electricblanket · 05/12/2012 13:29

What an awful response from Balls! He can't speak.

PPPop · 05/12/2012 13:32

Ed balls conquered a stammer. I think he's doing pretty good, it sounds like a bear pit.

claig · 05/12/2012 13:33

Ed Balls keeps asking "Mr Speaker" questions, and "Mr Speaker" doesn't reply to him. What's that all about? If he wants to have a discussion with "Mr Speaker", why do teh whole house have to listen in?

Balls' reply to Osborne is a mishmash, it;'s meandering all over the place and getting nowhere.

MrsjREwing · 05/12/2012 13:35

Mr Speaker has no spare time, too busy saying calm down and being exasperated by Sally.

claig · 05/12/2012 13:35

ElectricBlanket, I agree with you. Balls' speech is a load of all with bells on. I thought he was better than this. Even the Labour benches are falling asleep, having well and truly lost what little thread there was.

mrscogon34thstreet · 05/12/2012 13:38

Heard Ed Balls going on about the USA's 4.1% growth since 2010. The problem is that they have achieved this by harvesting loads of natural gas and thus bringing their energy prices down so that their consumers have more $ to spend.

This is something we could do (North Sea gas), alas EU rules don't allow it - which party is it again that love the EU? Oh yes, Labour! So hypocritical!

claig · 05/12/2012 13:39

Labour are lucky that Balls did not become leader. This is almost incoherent and insignificant, and appealing to "Mr Speaker" for help is making it worse.

hoodoo12345 · 05/12/2012 13:43

George Osborne- the Devil in a suit, makes my skin crawl.

CinnabarRed · 05/12/2012 13:48

I'm a tax policy adviser for one of the big professional services firms. I've got 20 mins before my next press interview - if anyone's got any questions on tax then I'm happy to do what I can to answer.

InMySpareTime · 05/12/2012 13:50

Which tax avoidance loopholes have been closed? He talked a lot about it without saying anything at all.
I'm not talking tax evasion, which is illegal, but "aggressive tax avoidance".

StiffyByng · 05/12/2012 13:51

Claig, all speeches in the House are directed at Mr Speaker. All the other people making speeches will do the same. It's a formality.

MrsjREwing · 05/12/2012 13:52

how many people put 40k a year into a pension?

claig · 05/12/2012 13:55

Thanks, StiffyByng. I'm all for tradition, but it just seems a bit archaic to mention "Mr Speaker" neraly every sentence. Osborne didn't seem to do it as often, and it just seemed so noticeable in Balls' speech.

Electricblanket · 05/12/2012 13:57

My husband does Mrs Ewing. Its That or pay 50% tax on his bonus. It's a huge amount of money, we know that!

CinnabarRed · 05/12/2012 14:00

There are three corporate tax loopholes that have been closed, all highly technical and very much a minority sport to do with dodgy financing between group companies (their names are mismatch schemes, property return swaps and manufactured payments, if you're interested. Net effect to the Exchequer of their closure estimated at £nil - which shows you how minority they are.

There's also a measure to stop UK banks who have paid bank levies overseas from claiming double tax relief - that's worth around £340m per annum.

Significantly less than 1% of the population pay more than £40k into pensions per annum. The main people affected will be those in defined benefit schemes earning more than £80k, who maybe haven't earned much in the past but have been awarded promotions and now want to top up their pensions. The big question is who pays the extra tax - the employee or the pension fund?

DB schemes earning over £80k. Who pays the tax? Employee or pension fund?

Viviennemary · 05/12/2012 14:15

It said absolutely nothing. That was my interpretation. But I am not exactly an economist! I was disappointed they didn't raise the basic tax allowance by a lot more. I think it should be raised to £10,000 minimum or more and that would take a lot of low paid people out of income tax altogether. Why should they pay tax on this pittance.