The headlines say it was a budget that hit drinkers, smokers and gas-guzzlers.
Chancellor Alistair Darling hiked up the usual “sin taxes” in his first budget.
But he also postponed a 2p rise in fuel taxes until October.
He also made a bid for the green vote with a call for a new road pricing scheme and for retailers to charge customers for plastic bags.
Analysts said he had little room to “pull a rabbit out of the hat” because of the slowing economy and global credit crunch.
And indeed, he cut growth forecasts and ramped up borrowing.
Has it been a good or bad budget for you? - And was it a success or failure for Darling?
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5 comments so far
It’s an absolute disgrace to increase the tax burden of the very lowest income group. The very same people who will suffer most from rising food and energy prices.
Largely a legacy of ‘Calamity Brown’.
What do we pay these polititians for?
- Posted by S ZackusThe budget was bad for me. I’m a taxpayer, so how could a Labour budget be anything but bad for me?
The budget was a success for Darling. He got his hand a little bit deeper into everyone’s pockets and the organ grinder will be pleased with him.
Things aren’t all bad, though. A little bit of mental arithmetic shows that the increases in Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit will go some way towards off-setting the increases in tax on alcohol and tobacco.
- Posted by Mike TCharging for supermarket bags is just another Labour enforced price rise. Reusable bags are not hygenic and therefore not an option for anyone wishing to stay healthy and avoiding being a burden on the National Health. The increase in Alcohol will not have any effect on binge drinking as the youngsters go to the most expensive places to drink and are clearly not interested in saving money. Those that can not afford the increase will simply turn to crime in order to get it.
- Posted by Richard PorrettWhy not just let Brussels prepare our budget, as we’re handing almost everything else to them.
Could they do any worse??
Mike P
- Posted by Mike PorterNothing good comes from this hapless government.
- Posted by bozcannonThey are one disaster after the next ; nothing for families , nothing for the working man ; they waste billions on failed system installations , thousands of overpaid ‘managers’, and who has to cough up for the next round of waste ? .. yep , you guessed , me and you.. They borrow more and more , and it’s not long before we are third world and broke…