Follow the budget live (From Swindon Advertiser)

A failed budget......another one!

beer down by 1p but the wetherspoons put all their prices up this week by far more (with the excuse of pre-empting the budget) bet they wont be reducing them either.

Seems like a reasonable budget to me Like the idea of encouraging employers to take on more staff by tinkering with NI

Tories - No Score

Labour - 3 Own Goals

Balls nearly thrown out.
Milliband can only offer abuse.
The backbenchers prove they are a bunch of uncivlised yobs.

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:
A failed budget......another one!

What about the ten years of failed Labour budgets?
How convenient you ignore all of them, although that would be typical of a left wing extremist!

Localboy86 wrote:
Seems like a reasonable budget to me Like the idea of encouraging employers to take on more staff by tinkering with NI

I agree. A little safe, given the circumstances, but a fairly healthy looking budget. Helps those on the lowest incomes most of all and puts a bit more money in all working people's pockets.

There are some good incentives for business and employment and nobody seems to have been hammered.

As has been mentioned above, Labour obviously realise this was a decent budget as they were reduced to looking like the bitter and twisted little amateurs they truly are.

The only aspect that was truly laughable was the growth prediction. 2.3% in 2015, 2.7% in 2016 and 2.8% in 2017. NOT A CHANCE!

Still, a good day for Osborne and a very bad day for Miliband and Labour.

Always Grumpy wrote:

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:
A failed budget......another one!

What about the ten years of failed Labour budgets?
How convenient you ignore all of them, although that would be typical of a left wing extremist!

Maybe you could compare the unemployment and Growth rates, as far as I am aware Mr Osborne is yet to outperform his predecessors...
There nothing left wing or extremist in siding with the conclusions of the OBR, which are that the debt is rising, growth has stalled and deficit reduction is off target, facts!
The problem with this budget is that it is 3 years late, these measures should have been implemented in the first budget.
Unfortunately it took 3 years for Mr Osborne to understand that the Economy needs Growth (Investments, consumer spending), instead he stuck to a politically motivated Austerity program that has delivered very little and even led to the loss of our AAA rating.
These measures will not be implemented before 2014, so the effects will only be felt after the GE, too late to save this Coalition.
And we all know, who will be elected then........

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:

Always Grumpy wrote:

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:
A failed budget......another one!

What about the ten years of failed Labour budgets?
How convenient you ignore all of them, although that would be typical of a left wing extremist!

Maybe you could compare the unemployment and Growth rates, as far as I am aware Mr Osborne is yet to outperform his predecessors...
There nothing left wing or extremist in siding with the conclusions of the OBR, which are that the debt is rising, growth has stalled and deficit reduction is off target, facts!
The problem with this budget is that it is 3 years late, these measures should have been implemented in the first budget.
Unfortunately it took 3 years for Mr Osborne to understand that the Economy needs Growth (Investments, consumer spending), instead he stuck to a politically motivated Austerity program that has delivered very little and even led to the loss of our AAA rating.
These measures will not be implemented before 2014, so the effects will only be felt after the GE, too late to save this Coalition.
And we all know, who will be elected then........

Still, very conveniently, ignoring the ten years of labour.
It will take more than one conservative term of office to rectify the mess labour left this country in - what a pity you're just to thick to understand that labour's policy of borrowing and then spending most of it employing useless public sector workers just left the country further in debt and ill prepared for the world downturn.
You've got your head so deeply buried into the left wing idealogical sand you just refuse to accept labour ever did anything wrong. As usual Balls showed himself to be a complete and utter idiot in the commons yesterday - is that really who you want to run the countries finances? Milliband just sounds like a nasty old labour gramaphone records that always sticks at the same place.

Still wasting your employers time I see.

No doubt more vile threats from you will follow - threats that you seem too scared to try and back up. It's a bit of a nasty habit with you, isn't it?

@A.Baron-Cohen: I guess you missed today's news:

The ONS revealed the largest-ever increase in private sector jobs in one year since records began in 1999, an increase of 904,000.

A record 24m are now working in the private sector and 1.2m of those joined after David Cameron became Prime Minister.

You're correct about Labour winning the next general election, though. Still, once they're back in they'll start the irresponsible vote buying - sorry, government spending - immediately and, within their term of office, will destroy the welfare state once and for all, simply by making it unafforable and putting off anyone from lending to the nation.

Quite looking forward to it. Long overdue.

Always Grumpy wrote:

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:

Always Grumpy wrote:

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:
A failed budget......another one!

What about the ten years of failed Labour budgets?
How convenient you ignore all of them, although that would be typical of a left wing extremist!

Maybe you could compare the unemployment and Growth rates, as far as I am aware Mr Osborne is yet to outperform his predecessors...
There nothing left wing or extremist in siding with the conclusions of the OBR, which are that the debt is rising, growth has stalled and deficit reduction is off target, facts!
The problem with this budget is that it is 3 years late, these measures should have been implemented in the first budget.
Unfortunately it took 3 years for Mr Osborne to understand that the Economy needs Growth (Investments, consumer spending), instead he stuck to a politically motivated Austerity program that has delivered very little and even led to the loss of our AAA rating.
These measures will not be implemented before 2014, so the effects will only be felt after the GE, too late to save this Coalition.
And we all know, who will be elected then........

Still, very conveniently, ignoring the ten years of labour.
It will take more than one conservative term of office to rectify the mess labour left this country in - what a pity you're just to thick to understand that labour's policy of borrowing and then spending most of it employing useless public sector workers just left the country further in debt and ill prepared for the world downturn.
You've got your head so deeply buried into the left wing idealogical sand you just refuse to accept labour ever did anything wrong. As usual Balls showed himself to be a complete and utter idiot in the commons yesterday - is that really who you want to run the countries finances? Milliband just sounds like a nasty old labour gramaphone records that always sticks at the same place.

Still wasting your employers time I see.

No doubt more vile threats from you will follow - threats that you seem too scared to try and back up. It's a bit of a nasty habit with you, isn't it?

You see to be hellbent on blaming a political party, yet you are conveniently failing to mention that the crisis was not caused by any government, the financial crisis was a Banking crisis caused by the "banksters".
This coalition has had 4 years to fix important issues: press, alcohol, banking abuses and none are addressed.
The budget is introducing some good ideas, I agree with most of the measures, but it is a budget that is many years too late.....

Tim Newroman wrote:
@A.Baron-Cohen: I guess you missed today's news:

The ONS revealed the largest-ever increase in private sector jobs in one year since records began in 1999, an increase of 904,000.

A record 24m are now working in the private sector and 1.2m of those joined after David Cameron became Prime Minister.

You're correct about Labour winning the next general election, though. Still, once they're back in they'll start the irresponsible vote buying - sorry, government spending - immediately and, within their term of office, will destroy the welfare state once and for all, simply by making it unafforable and putting off anyone from lending to the nation.

Quite looking forward to it. Long overdue.

The great majority of the Welfare is paid to pensioners 120bn out of 200bn, so it is inevitable that pensioners will have to participate in the National effort, "we are all in it together" after all.
I am not looking forward to Labour winning the next GE, however another coalition would suit me.
For me, the best measure in yesterday's budget was the new role of the BoE and new targets, it is the biggest and most significant measure in terms of Economic and monetary management in 20 years.

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:

Always Grumpy wrote:

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:

Always Grumpy wrote:

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:
A failed budget......another one!

What about the ten years of failed Labour budgets?
How convenient you ignore all of them, although that would be typical of a left wing extremist!

Maybe you could compare the unemployment and Growth rates, as far as I am aware Mr Osborne is yet to outperform his predecessors...
There nothing left wing or extremist in siding with the conclusions of the OBR, which are that the debt is rising, growth has stalled and deficit reduction is off target, facts!
The problem with this budget is that it is 3 years late, these measures should have been implemented in the first budget.
Unfortunately it took 3 years for Mr Osborne to understand that the Economy needs Growth (Investments, consumer spending), instead he stuck to a politically motivated Austerity program that has delivered very little and even led to the loss of our AAA rating.
These measures will not be implemented before 2014, so the effects will only be felt after the GE, too late to save this Coalition.
And we all know, who will be elected then........

Still, very conveniently, ignoring the ten years of labour.
It will take more than one conservative term of office to rectify the mess labour left this country in - what a pity you're just to thick to understand that labour's policy of borrowing and then spending most of it employing useless public sector workers just left the country further in debt and ill prepared for the world downturn.
You've got your head so deeply buried into the left wing idealogical sand you just refuse to accept labour ever did anything wrong. As usual Balls showed himself to be a complete and utter idiot in the commons yesterday - is that really who you want to run the countries finances? Milliband just sounds like a nasty old labour gramaphone records that always sticks at the same place.

Still wasting your employers time I see.

No doubt more vile threats from you will follow - threats that you seem too scared to try and back up. It's a bit of a nasty habit with you, isn't it?

You see to be hellbent on blaming a political party, yet you are conveniently failing to mention that the crisis was not caused by any government, the financial crisis was a Banking crisis caused by the "banksters".
This coalition has had 4 years to fix important issues: press, alcohol, banking abuses and none are addressed.
The budget is introducing some good ideas, I agree with most of the measures, but it is a budget that is many years too late.....

No. That's just the propaganda line from Labour HQ.

Banks are regulated by governments. Brown himself claimed glory for setting up the utter failure that was the FSA - with the specific purpose of preventing such financial crisis.

The banks cannot loan money to people who do not sign loan agreements. The people who sign loan agreements know the true reality about how much they earn and what they can't afford to pay back.

The banking crisis was caused by governments, of various nations, preferring to 'enjoy' the false 'prosperity' created by the house price boom and cheap credit that their lack of regulation saw happen. Who could blame the banks for simply making money within the loose regulations they were allowed to operate in? They don't owe the nation anything, they don't dictate law or economic policy. That's down to governments.

And nowhere did a government let their nation down more than Blair and Brown's Labour government in the UK.

Not sure where you went to school, but your maths needs some remedial attention - the coalition has only been in power slightly less than 3 years, not 4.

And, as I've pointed out many times, it will take decades to fix many of the problems caused by Labour - with many more of their disastrous policies actually being impossible to rectify, regardless of time or who's trying to do it.

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:

Always Grumpy wrote:

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:

Always Grumpy wrote:

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:
A failed budget......another one!

What about the ten years of failed Labour budgets?
How convenient you ignore all of them, although that would be typical of a left wing extremist!

Maybe you could compare the unemployment and Growth rates, as far as I am aware Mr Osborne is yet to outperform his predecessors...
There nothing left wing or extremist in siding with the conclusions of the OBR, which are that the debt is rising, growth has stalled and deficit reduction is off target, facts!
The problem with this budget is that it is 3 years late, these measures should have been implemented in the first budget.
Unfortunately it took 3 years for Mr Osborne to understand that the Economy needs Growth (Investments, consumer spending), instead he stuck to a politically motivated Austerity program that has delivered very little and even led to the loss of our AAA rating.
These measures will not be implemented before 2014, so the effects will only be felt after the GE, too late to save this Coalition.
And we all know, who will be elected then........

Still, very conveniently, ignoring the ten years of labour.
It will take more than one conservative term of office to rectify the mess labour left this country in - what a pity you're just to thick to understand that labour's policy of borrowing and then spending most of it employing useless public sector workers just left the country further in debt and ill prepared for the world downturn.
You've got your head so deeply buried into the left wing idealogical sand you just refuse to accept labour ever did anything wrong. As usual Balls showed himself to be a complete and utter idiot in the commons yesterday - is that really who you want to run the countries finances? Milliband just sounds like a nasty old labour gramaphone records that always sticks at the same place.

Still wasting your employers time I see.

No doubt more vile threats from you will follow - threats that you seem too scared to try and back up. It's a bit of a nasty habit with you, isn't it?

You see to be hellbent on blaming a political party, yet you are conveniently failing to mention that the crisis was not caused by any government, the financial crisis was a Banking crisis caused by the "banksters".
This coalition has had 4 years to fix important issues: press, alcohol, banking abuses and none are addressed.
The budget is introducing some good ideas, I agree with most of the measures, but it is a budget that is many years too late.....

Too right I'm hellbent on blaming labour for most of our woes, because they were responsible.
If they hadn't backrupted the country whilst in power with their totally irrisponsible economic policies the country would have been in a much better position to ride out much of the banking crisis. It's labour's borrow and spend policy that you keep, very conveniently, ignoring, that was the root cause.
Look, with a name like Aaron, your probably only in your late teens or early twenties, so obviously don't understand these things. Just leave it to the grown-ups to sort out and go back to your play station or whatever.

Tim Newroman wrote:

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:

Always Grumpy wrote:

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:

Always Grumpy wrote:

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:
A failed budget......another one!

What about the ten years of failed Labour budgets?
How convenient you ignore all of them, although that would be typical of a left wing extremist!

Maybe you could compare the unemployment and Growth rates, as far as I am aware Mr Osborne is yet to outperform his predecessors...
There nothing left wing or extremist in siding with the conclusions of the OBR, which are that the debt is rising, growth has stalled and deficit reduction is off target, facts!
The problem with this budget is that it is 3 years late, these measures should have been implemented in the first budget.
Unfortunately it took 3 years for Mr Osborne to understand that the Economy needs Growth (Investments, consumer spending), instead he stuck to a politically motivated Austerity program that has delivered very little and even led to the loss of our AAA rating.
These measures will not be implemented before 2014, so the effects will only be felt after the GE, too late to save this Coalition.
And we all know, who will be elected then........

Still, very conveniently, ignoring the ten years of labour.
It will take more than one conservative term of office to rectify the mess labour left this country in - what a pity you're just to thick to understand that labour's policy of borrowing and then spending most of it employing useless public sector workers just left the country further in debt and ill prepared for the world downturn.
You've got your head so deeply buried into the left wing idealogical sand you just refuse to accept labour ever did anything wrong. As usual Balls showed himself to be a complete and utter idiot in the commons yesterday - is that really who you want to run the countries finances? Milliband just sounds like a nasty old labour gramaphone records that always sticks at the same place.

Still wasting your employers time I see.

No doubt more vile threats from you will follow - threats that you seem too scared to try and back up. It's a bit of a nasty habit with you, isn't it?

You see to be hellbent on blaming a political party, yet you are conveniently failing to mention that the crisis was not caused by any government, the financial crisis was a Banking crisis caused by the "banksters".
This coalition has had 4 years to fix important issues: press, alcohol, banking abuses and none are addressed.
The budget is introducing some good ideas, I agree with most of the measures, but it is a budget that is many years too late.....

No. That's just the propaganda line from Labour HQ.

Banks are regulated by governments. Brown himself claimed glory for setting up the utter failure that was the FSA - with the specific purpose of preventing such financial crisis.

The banks cannot loan money to people who do not sign loan agreements. The people who sign loan agreements know the true reality about how much they earn and what they can't afford to pay back.

The banking crisis was caused by governments, of various nations, preferring to 'enjoy' the false 'prosperity' created by the house price boom and cheap credit that their lack of regulation saw happen. Who could blame the banks for simply making money within the loose regulations they were allowed to operate in? They don't owe the nation anything, they don't dictate law or economic policy. That's down to governments.

And nowhere did a government let their nation down more than Blair and Brown's Labour government in the UK.

Not sure where you went to school, but your maths needs some remedial attention - the coalition has only been in power slightly less than 3 years, not 4.

And, as I've pointed out many times, it will take decades to fix many of the problems caused by Labour - with many more of their disastrous policies actually being impossible to rectify, regardless of time or who's trying to do it.

Whitewashing banks as you do, is part of the problem not part of the solution.
You want more regulations, yet Mr Cameron has fought very hard against banking reforms, banker's pay and press regulation, which side are you on?

@A.Baron-Cohen: how have I 'whitewashed' banks? Any commercial entity is going to seize every opportunity to make as much money as they can within the law.

If the law, and regulations, allow them to do certain things to make money, they'll do them. That's business.

Your silly response doesn't address the reality: the banks acted within the law and no banks forced anyone to take out loans they knew they couldn't repay.

I know people love to shift the blame away from themselves on to conveniently fabricated bogeymen, but the problem is not really with the bankers, it was with governments and those individuals who kept on taking out expensive mortgages, credit cards and loans. What did they honestly think would happen eventually?

Bank bailouts are, in reality, really just the government using taxpayers money to cover the debts of those who took our unafforable loans. A lot of people have actually done very well out of it. All that's happened is that everyone now has to pay the money back. Which is what was ALWAYS going to happen. Did people *really* think they'd get their house, car and £20k spending money for nothing?

Regulation of the banks is not about Left or Right, Tory or Labour. But, as it happens, I believe both Labour and the Tories got it wrong. Which, when you look back, is exactly what did happen.

In any case, the UK only really has Left-wing options to vote for. The Tories and Labour are both significantly left of centre and they're the only parties that will win any election (or form the larger party in coalition) in our lifetimes.

All parties are as useless as each other in the long run hence the constant chopping and changing of the parties in power. Just have to get on with it and do what we can ourselves in our own lives. and stop moaning about something we cant change.