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What did you think of the 2011 budget?

George Osborne has delivered his budget speech for the 2011/12 fiscal year to parliament.

The Chancellor said corporation tax would be cut by two percentage points to 26 percent from April, rather than by just the one point originally planned. A levy on banks would be increased to help pay for it.

Osborne also announced a surprise cut in fuel duty, while slapping higher charges on oil and gas production which he said would raise 2 billion pounds. Meanwhile, the government will offer loans to help first-time buyers get on the property ladder.

Osborne called it a “Budget for growth and jobs.” Do you agree? Take part in our poll below or leave a comment on this page.

What did you think of the 2011 budget?

• Great budget!
• More good than bad
• Neither good nor bad
• More bad than good
• Awful budget!

Best of Britain: Watch me

Whether they’re eager for an audience like climate change activists near an oil refinery, or just captive observers like football players watching a goal go in, this week’s Best of Britain theme is all about watching or being watched.

Included are photos of rows of televisions showing Chancellor Osborne during a speech on future budget cuts, a model with an unusual hair style during the Alternative Hair Show, as well as the shadows of workers as they cross the road in Whitehall.

There are also photos of police officers at a memorial for a slain colleague and a racehorse getting washed before his morning workout.

from The Great Debate UK:

Taxes and the emergency budget

-Julia Whittle is head of International at Punter Southall Financial Management. The opinions expressed are her own. Join Reuters for a live discussion with guests as UK Chancellor George Osborne makes  an emergency budget statement at 12:30 p.m. British time on Tuesday, June 22, 2010.-

It is highly unlikely previous Capital Gains Tax proposals will be reversed in Chancellor George Osborne's first budget.

The new rate is due to increase in line with income tax – and the option of taking it up to the highest rate of 50 percent has not been ruled out. The change could start from June 22, or even be backdated to April 6, 2010

This will hit second properties as well as investment portfolios. The tightening up of the definitions around  “private residence relief”  which enables people to sell their main residence free if tax could pour salt on the wound for second-property owners.

Regarding pensions tax relief, we believe Chancellor George Osborne is likely to stick with the principles of the current proposals, but could ease some of the administrative complexities.

There’s also a chance that he could decide to replace the current proposals with a lower annual allowance which the pensions industry has been lobbying for as a simpler alternative.

from MacroScope:

‘Ken Clarke for Chancellor’ is no joke

Ken Clarke shouldn’t underestimate how strongly the city economists polled by Reuters last week want to see him serve as Britain’s finance minister next term.

The Conservative shadow business secretary and one time ex-Chancellor gleaned a few laughs from Thursday’s BBC Question Time audience when asked about the poll, saying: “There’s a limit to how much of a glutton for punishment you’re going to be.”

But economists would dearly like to see the 69-year-old’s appetite for punishment return soon. No-one came close in the Reuters poll to touching Clarke for popularity. Some 16 out of 29 economists picked him as their first choice for Chancellor.

This was more than twice the number of economists who want to install second-placed Vince Cable, the experienced Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman whose quick wit has made him a public favourite.

For Clarke to serve, Conservative leader David Cameron would first have to dump the party’s likely choice for finance minister George Osborne – a decision that would mean Cameron had gone “slightly off the rails”, according to Clarke.

On Question Time, Clarke was loyal and wholesome in his support for Osborne, who fared poorly in the Reuters poll. He finished fourth from the five choices on offer and behind the current Labour incumbent, Alistair Darling.

from The Great Debate UK:

Send your questions to George Osborne

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne will set out the Conservative Party's strategy for rebuilding the UK economy in an exclusive Thomson Reuters Newsmaker at 11 a.m. on Monday, October 26.

We will bring you full coverage of Osborne's speech, including a live video feed and blog, after which we will conduct a short social media interview with him.

We want you to send us your questions to put to him.

This is your chance to grill the man who, according to the latest opinion polls, looks set to inhabit Number 11 Downing Street after the upcoming general election.

Be it on bankers' bonuses, tax havens or the Conservative Party's plans for leading us out of a recession, send us your questions now using the form below or via Twitter using the hashtag #askosborne.

from The Great Debate UK:

Send your questions to Alistair Darling

Do you have a question you would like to ask Chancellor Alistair Darling? Now is your chance.

At 1:30pm British time on Wednesday, October 21, Reuters is hosting an exclusive Web 2.0 interview with Darling and we want you to send us your questions to put to the top man from the Treasury.

From the crippling global recession to the debate over bankers' bonuses, it has been a tumultuous year at Number 11 Downing Street. You may want to quiz the Chancellor on one of these topics, ask him about the government's plans to prevent another downturn or how Labour plan to defy the polls and win the upcoming general election.

During the interview we will put as many of your questions as possible to the Chancellor and will be running a liveblog of the event, much like we did during this social media interview with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

Leave your question in the comments box below or via Twitter (using #askdarling) and join us on Wednesday for our Web 2.0 interview with the Chancellor.

from The Great Debate UK:

Apocalypse Now: A return to high borrowing, high taxes and weak growth

--Gerard Lyons is chief economist at Standard Chartered. Any opinions expressed are his own. --

Britain is clearly a Jekyll and Hyde economy. Or that at least is what the Chancellor would like us to believe. The bad news we are now seeing in the economy, public finances and across parts of the financial sector will not last. We are in the Mr Hyde phase. But, don't worry, we will soon be back to the normal Dr Jekyll soon.

The Chancellor believes the recession will end by year end. That is credible. But then he believes recovery will be rapid, and after contracting 3.5 percent in 2009 we will see growth of 1.25 percent in 2010 and 3.5 percent in 2011. This is fantasy, particularly as this rapid rebound is expected to occur not only as the legacy of the debt bust lingers on, but also as fiscal policy is tightened aggressively through significant tax hikes, largely on those on high incomes.

Strong growth, tax increases and efficiency savings are, the Chancellor believes, about to reduce the budget deficit by half over the next four years. I have my doubts. The legacy of this borrowing binge will live on for much longer.

What we saw confirmed today was the UK was returning to high borrowing, high debt and - in our view - much weaker growth than the Government believes. Add in the higher regulation that is likely to hit, and one wonders how the UK will prosper as the shift in the new world economic order, which is already underway, gathers momentum. As we see a further shift in the balance of economic and financial power from the West to the East, to those economies with low taxes and which save and invest, how will the UK be able to prosper?

There were three areas to focus on in the Chancellor's Budget speech:

from The Great Debate UK:

Little room for manoeuvre in budget

--Gerard Lyons is chief economist at Standard Chartered. The opinions expressed are his own. Lyons will also blog his post-budget thoughts on The Great Debate.--

The outcome of this financial crisis depends on the economic fundamentals, the policy response and confidence. Chancellor Alistair Darling presents this Budget in an environment where the fundamentals are poor, confidence has been shot to pieces and the credibility of policy and his ability to spend any more is being widely questioned.

There are three key areas to focus on in this Budget. First, the Chancellor's economic assessment. Second, his fiscal sums and how he can afford any further help to the economy. Third, his longer-term ambitions, aimed at reducing the budget deficit without killing the recovery whilst winning over the electorate and the markets. It is often said bad things come in threes. On the eve of his Budget, Darling will know that only too well.

First, the economic outlook. The Treasury often views The City's forecasts as being too pessimistic about growth and too optimistic on the budget deficit. This time, the market's growth expectations are terrible, and rightly so. People and companies have cut spending agressively, and the economy looks like it will decline anywhere between 3 percent to 4 percent this year.

Last August, on the eve of the collapse of Lehmans we expected the economy to collapse 2 percent this year. At that time the consensus was expecting growth close to 1percent. Now the market has not only caught up with reality but is erring on the side of caution.

Despite recent talk of green shoots, the economy is still declining. By year-end we may have hit bottom, but in his Budget the Chancellor may have to make clear the recovery, when it comes, will be gradual and drawn out. To be sustained that recovery needs to be built less on debt, borrowing and housing. The problem, of course, is new measures may be announced that do little to ensure a balanced recovery.

from The Great Debate UK:

A short circuit for electric cars

-- Neil Collins is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own --

LONDON, April 16 (Reuters) - Poor old Alistair Darling. The Chancellor is girding himself to deliver a truly ghastly Budget, and lined up a crowd-pleasing headline-grabber to distract attention from the financial horrors ahead.

Then his colleague transport minister Geoff Hoon goes and grabs the headlines for himself, revealing plans to bribe motorists to ditch the gas-guzzler for an electric car.

From 2011, buyers are promised 5,000 pounds towards the cost. Smug drivers pottering along in a subsidised electric car, powered by juice generated from subsidised wind farms, can feel in perfect harmony with nature.

This is an illusion. Carbon dioxide, which is all modern conventional cars emit, is generated by electric cars too, but it's out of sight and out of mind at the power station. In terms of the total energy needed to propel the occupants around, there is no saving from going electric.

There are other snags. Sales of the G-Wiz, a toy car which will still cost 4,000 pounds even with the subsidy, are unlikely to be helped by this*. Drivers will be reluctant to venture far from the comfort of a friendly power point, for fear of being stranded. The exotic metals in the batteries present a sitting target for thieves. If enough people go electric, the concessions like avoidance of parking and road use charges will quickly disappear.

Subsidies distort behaviour, and today's subsidy is tomorrow's tax loophole. Cars use valuable public space, and energy of all kinds is going to get more expensive. If Darling has any strategic sense, he will take advantage of the low oil price to raise the tax on road fuel.

You know things are bad when..

• You know exactly what the population of Iceland is and can also pronounce the name of its prime minister.
• Even the word ‘crisis’ seems to have lost its currency.
• Countries pop up for sale on eBay for 99p and get few offers.
• Posters on BBC messageboards stop discussing the undulating pitch of Robert Peston’s voice and listen to what he’s actually saying.
• The speech bubble on Page 3 of the Sun is given over to discussing the credit crisis.
• Financial market updates displace stories about Jade Goody on the tabloid front pages.
• Bad news stories from government departments are rushed out day after day and not even the Opposition seems to notice.
• Estate agents finally admit house prices have fallen but tell you now is a really great time to buy because the market is stabilising.
• People marketing get-rich-quick property seminars don’t get taken seriously any more.
• The Chancellor, writing in the Financial Times, says that “now, more than ever, we need new ideas”.
• Your primary school-aged children know that credit crunch is not a type of biscuit and that IMF isn’t just a fictional organisation in Mission Impossible.
• You go for a while without noticing one estate agent’s mini and then you see a whole bunch of them on the back of a car transporter.
• A pensioner on the evening tube train from Canary Wharf gives up her seat to a banker because she reckons he might need it.
• The Ivy rings to ask if you’d like a table tonight or any night.
• There are no spare trolleys when you turn up at Aldi to do your weekly shop.

Do you have any better suggestions? All contributions welcome – please send in your selection.