Can I have a Budget rant please?

[jeffie]

I think I'm more annoyed about their plan to put the hunting ban to a new vote and allow the use of packs of Dogs. It's 2015 and they want to go back to ripping defenceless animals apart, you'd think they would have better things to worry about and would just leave it be.

 

This, how about some bloody Tory hunting!

[Badlands]

Am I the first person to mention increasing the threshold of IHT? That sickens me to the stomach. 

[jeffie]

For anyone who thinks £9 an hour in 2020 is basically the same as £7.48 this year, you do not understand inflation at all.  Currently little more than 0% which means that £9 in 2020 will certainly be worth more than £8 in today's money which is more then the living wage foundation say is needed (currently £7.85).  Such an increase in minimum wage has to be introduced gradually to allow businesses to keep up, but if stuck to, this rise is (from about £6.50? pre-budget) will make an incredible change to a lot of people.

 

I know its cool to bash the Tories (and I've never voted for them) but this is one of the best policies they've ever enacted.

 

That said, I am fully aware of its failings - it doesn't consider London residents, it doesn't include people under 25.  And the benefit cuts are appalling because they're happening right now, when the rise to the living wage will take 5 years to fully kick in. 

 

No it won't and no it isn't.

[frostypaw]

For anyone who thinks £9 an hour in 2020 is basically the same as £7.48 this year, you do not understand inflation at all.  Currently little more than 0% which means that £9 in 2020 will certainly be worth more than £8 in today's money which is more then the living wage foundation say is needed (currently £7.85).  Such an increase in minimum wage has to be introduced gradually to allow businesses to keep up, but if stuck to, this rise is (from about £6.50? pre-budget) will make an incredible change to a lot of people.

So £9 in 2020 (five years from now) is greater in today's money than today's living wage of £7.85 so everything will be good in 2020?

What will the living wage be in 2020? Do you think it will stay the same, or considering how living expenses are rising faster than wages and inflation do you think it might be higher than that?

This is the perfect case in point of how clever this budget has been - look how pretty and shiny it looks - then you work it through and no wait... it's not so good. But then there's more..

They're also losing their tax credits and allowances - so while they were no better off or slightly worse off they're now much worse off... and then they're expected to house their kids for longer, so worse off and then those kids have to pay more for their education, and more for their pension so they're much worse off...

All this for a government to avoid £93billion of welfare cuts so they can give big business a £12billion break this budget, which is fair enough.

No wait. Sorry. I got that wrong - those figures are the wrong way around. My bad. All so we can give big business an extra £93billion and pay £12billion less to take care of the less wealthy. Is that fair enough?

Edited July 10, 2015 by frostypaw

[DGrant261]

The fact that the ability to now set tuition fees above the £9,000 'cap' has passed with nothing to stop it makes me so so sad for our country. This is the harshest most right wing government we've ever had since she who should not be named and yes they got in with a 29% mandate due to a fundamentally unfair system but nobody is stopping the pain they re inflicting on the poorest in society. The student loans isn't the 'worst' measure but when compared to all the was done trying to stop government the last time they tried to the fact it past with no intervention just shows how deflated we all are and how little is being done to stop the twats in power. Osbourne inflicts such cruel hardship that has nothing to do with economy growth or prosperity (The imf have even confirmed it's counter productive) just to further their own archaic agenda and no one is standing up to him. 

[Spindles]

People just need to wake up to the fact that the vast majority of us are, throughout our lives, farmed like cattle by a powerful elite we have no hope of ever joining.

[PabloCoke]

Raising the minimum wage and then cutting corporation tax to "pay" for it. So loads of small businesses just had their wage bill hiked and got no help to pay it. Great for tesco but shit for small independent businesses

[DGrant261]

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/11709513_10152899503481176_2841550648216869654_n.jpg?oh=5c37cf3d8e14c6648a00a9b6fc4b2567&oe=5627F30D

 

...and they wonder why nobody buys their shit anymore

[jeffie]

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/11709513_10152899503481176_2841550648216869654_n.jpg?oh=5c37cf3d8e14c6648a00a9b6fc4b2567&oe=5627F30D

 

...and they wonder why nobody buys their shit anymore

 

Except they do, that's one of the main reasons why the bastards got in again.

[frostypaw]

Have we reached the point yet were us embittered lib demmers get to do the "i told you so" dance?

[DGrant261]

Except they do, that's one of the main reasons why the bastards got in again.

 

I really don't think papers influence it anymore. People just choose to read what they agree with. Selfishness and greed would've won regardless of what the people at the Daily Mail chose to say about them. 

[PabloCoke]

Have we reached the point yet were us embittered lib demmers get to do the "i told you so" dance?

No, lib dems did this by letting the Tories in last time and not challengimg the labour crashed the world economy bullshit. In fact the lib dems bought into it whole and were still peddling this lie in the last election.

[PabloCoke]

I really don't think papers influence it anymore. People just choose to read what they agree with. Selfishness and greed would've won regardless of what the people at the Daily Mail chose to say about them.

The papers still influence the vote, that's why they still exist.

[tweed1981]

For anyone who thinks £9 an hour in 2020 is basically the same as £7.48 this year, you do not understand inflation at all.  Currently little more than 0% which means that £9 in 2020 will certainly be worth more than £8 in today's money which is more then the living wage foundation say is needed (currently £7.85).  Such an increase in minimum wage has to be introduced gradually to allow businesses to keep up, but if stuck to, this rise is (from about £6.50? pre-budget) will make an incredible change to a lot of people.

 

I know its cool to bash the Tories (and I've never voted for them) but this is one of the best policies they've ever enacted.

 

That said, I am fully aware of its failings - it doesn't consider London residents, it doesn't include people under 25.  And the benefit cuts are appalling because they're happening right now, when the rise to the living wage will take 5 years to fully kick in. 

Inflation is low now, yes, but it will not stay low. If its still at 0% by 2020 we will all have bigger problems, its likely to be back up around and above 2% well before 2020.

[frostypaw]

No, lib dems did this by letting the Tories in last time and not challengimg the labour crashed the world economy bullshit. In fact the lib dems bought into it whole and were still peddling this lie in the last election.

Yeah there was a lack of bollocks in challenging the ongoing narrative there - I'll give you that. But only the Greens had the guts to really express any of that and most of it still shocked the shit out of the nation.... It's a hard sell explaining the real economics of the situation after everyone's cut their own noses off to save it

Still if they'd done anything else we'd just have ended up with pure tories in charge and five extra years of being assraped wholeheartedly

Edited July 10, 2015 by frostypaw

[DGrant261]

The papers still influence the vote, that's why they still exist.

 

They exist to mke profit. And in order to do so they follow a political viewpoint that is either one they've held as their 'selling point' through the years or follow popular public opinion to try and appeal to larger audience (Eg. The Sun). Course they're gonna chance the mind of a small number of voters who believe everything the Daily Snail tells them but I really don't think they can win you an election anymore. 

[maelzoid]

Raising the minimum wage and then cutting corporation tax to "pay" for it. So loads of small businesses just had their wage bill hiked and got no help to pay it. Great for tesco but shit for small independent businesses

 

 

It might well be shit for some independent businesses, but frankly I have no sympathy for any company that cannot pay a living wage to its staff. It's called exploitation. 

 

I cannot believe anyone is seriously unhappy about a rise in minimum wage that equates to over 6.7% per year for 5 years when inflation is currently at about zero.  I accept there is so much else wrong with the recent budget, but to complain about this?

[frostypaw]

It might well be shit for some independent businesses, but frankly I have no sympathy for any company that cannot pay a living wage to its staff. It's called exploitation.

Too right, worked for such companies myself. Shocking what they were getting away with at their staff's expense.

I cannot believe anyone is seriously unhappy about a rise in minimum wage that equates to over 6.7% per year for 5 years when inflation is currently at about zero.  I accept there is so much else wrong with the recent budget, but to complain about this?

I don't think anyone is, but it's just the sugarcube the poison's been dropped on.

[eFestivals]

I don't think anyone is, but it's just the sugarcube the poison's been dropped on.

 

Yep, but we did know the tories would be c**ts, and they'd said they were gonna cut from welfare and tax credits was the only real option - so to have it sweetened a little isn't such a bad thing.

 

Ad while I don't like the immediate impact onto people, i'm very pleased to see tax credits start to be torn down - because that and the corporate welfare behind it has been a big part of what has depressed wages for the last decade+... and now employers are going to be back on the hook for those low wages, and workers better empowered against their bosses.

[frostypaw]

Yep, but we did know the tories would be c**ts, and they'd said they were gonna cut from welfare and tax credits was the only real option - so to have it sweetened a little isn't such a bad thing.

 

Ad while I don't like the immediate impact onto people, i'm very pleased to see tax credits start to be torn down - because that and the corporate welfare behind it has been a big part of what has depressed wages for the last decade+... and now employers are going to be back on the hook for those low wages, and workers better empowered against their bosses.

That's the bit I liked that made me wonder if their hearts are indeed in the right place - the welfare state has been the prop allowing employers to pay ridiculously low wages and know the taxpayer will pick up the shortfall. Closing that loop can only be a good thing - but with a three/five year shortfall in how that's working out there's going to be a very very painful patch for the poor to live through.

Probably enough of a gap for employers to depress the wages of the next rung up enough to avoid it affecting the top end's wage rises

I don't trust them one jot, in case that's not clear.

[Bradders]

I think the worst, and begrudgingly I have to say most clever, part of the budget was renaming the Minimum Wage the Living Wage. It isn't a living wage now and definitely won't be by 2020 especially with Tax Credits removed. Calling it a Living Wage confuses the campaign by the Living Wage Foundation to get an actual living wage. People will see the raise and the new name and assume he has actually introduced a living wage, but he just hasn't! Even one of my most politically aware friends thought the government used to set the living wage and had now changed the law to make that compulsory.

[maelzoid]

I agree, but the living wage is now different to the minimum wage in that only over-25s get it, so it needs to be specifically different, but co-opting the phrase 'living wage' is decidedly devious.

 

yet again, the youngsters get shat on, with this as well as the continuing lack of funding for students and now less benefits for under 21s.

 

A big problem is that this demographic just don't vote enough (this time 43% against a national average of 66%).  Is it a surprise that pensions are ring-fenced when pensioners turn out at 78%?

 

https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3575/How-Britain-voted-in-2015.aspx?view=wide

[pie_and_a_pint]

Have we reached the point yet were us embittered lib demmers get to do the "i told you so" dance?

I was wearing a tshirt saying 'I told you so' on Wednesday. It seemed appropriate.

[the wonderwhy]

 

A big problem is that this demographic just don't vote enough (this time 43% against a national average of 66%).  Is it a surprise that pensions are ring-fenced when pensioners turn out at 78%?

 

https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3575/How-Britain-voted-in-2015.aspx?view=wide

 

It works both ways though, you can't expect young people to be engaged when governments keep screwing them over, then the opposition parties don't offer an appealing alternative. 

 

Part of the reason I was planning on spoiling my ballot right up until I actually got to the polling station (I eventually voted Labour) is because there wasn't really a party offering any decent policies for young people. Except maybe the Greens. 

[GlastoSimon]

Re: tuition fees, there are a couple of things which will happen. As was pointed out earlier, it won't make the government enough money as it is supposed to currently. The universities already seem to be overspending as if this money is guaranteed, and it is only until the graduates from the '9k a year group' start failing to get £40k a year jobs that we'll see the true effects.

 

The government will therefore lower the starting point at which people start repaying (from £21k now to at least sub £20k), and the rate of repayment will also be increased. Along with the upcoming increases in tuition fees to 11/12k a year (let's not kid ourselves, it will happen), could be potentially disastrous. 

Edited July 10, 2015 by GlastoSimon