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Fantasy Budget – your spending plans
Tuesday 21st April 2009, 8:55AM BST.
Chancellor Alistair Darling will set out his spending plans in the Budget at 12.30pm – but what would you do if you were him?
The fact is, it’s not looking too pretty out there at the moment. Despite predictions, no-one knows for certain when the recession will end, and as a result the country’s economic problems are mounting.
According to some forecasts, unemployment will rise from two to three million this year – that’s one in 10 of the workforce.
More unemployment means the state has to spend more on those who are out of work – while taking in less tax revenue.
Meanwhile, people are not only worried about their jobs; they’re worried about their homes, the value of their savings and the fear of inflation. As a result, they’re not spending.
The effect of this can be seen in car dealerships and building firms across the land.
And after the bail-out of the banks, the country is left with a huge financial black hole that will take years to sort out. We’re not bankrupt, but the scale of Government debt is frightening.
On Monday, it was announced that the Chancellor will set out a public spending cut of £15 billion.
So, imagine you are in the Chancellor’s lovingly-polished brogues today. What would you be preparing to tell MPs this afternoon?
Would you be preparing to clobber drinkers and smokers? Would you be announcing tax hikes, or would you be preparing to do the opposite? Would you be planning to spend your way out of recession, with public works, more social housing and increased support for manufacturing, or would you let economic nature take its course?
Tell us your fantasy Budget – and we’ll see if we can come up with better ideas than the people in charge.
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My Budget would be
1) Cut tax for married persons and families
2) Increase tax for single persons
3) Stop paying benefits instead a voucher system for food and energy will be introduced
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‘what would you do if you were him?’ – Dye my hair & eyebrows loose the accent and tell everyone I was popping down the offie. Making sure I had my passport. This budget is going to be a hidden horror with a sugar coating. Expect blather about fantasy home building and an army of loft insulators..heading our way soon.
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tax cuts for people with small green cars and cyclists
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Stop giving benefits to all and sundry, stop giving family credit (or whatever its called) if you want a kid then pay for it yourself. Tax the rich more and stop penalising the poor. No free housing/benefits for chavs just because they managed to get up the duff..
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Devolve England from Scotland and Wales.
for too long the English tax payer has had to subsidise the Scots and Welsh.
Initiate a building programme, to restore Offas Dyke and Hadrians Wall.
Introduce border controls on both.
Impose resettlement taxes on Scotts and Welsh living or working in England.
Stop English hospitals providing health care to Welsh and Scottish patients.
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“1) Cut tax for married persons and families
2) Increase tax for single persons”
Tongue in cheek I trust Son of Destiny. I’m single – no kids, so why do I have to pay for schools and child benefits?
If I was AD I would certainly kick the Jeremy Kyle watching plug-hole circlers off their sofas and tell tehm to stop whinging about all the immigrants taking their jobs. It may come as a shock but some ‘trades’ {bricklaying for eg} are massively over valued, as our Polish friends have helped to point out.
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I’m sick of hearing about families. Surely we’re all citizens and should be treated as individuals rather than excluding single people?
I’d put fags up to £10 a packet and put a huge tax on supermarket sales of alcohol. Off licences would be strictly controlled. 4×4 vehicles would also be clobbered – I’d also ban them from car parks due to their excessive size.
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It is our Gord who decides what is in the budget
Darling is just the the messenger and flack taker
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rpt Barrington-Black – I would be grateful to see Wales devolves from England. We could then tax all of the English for water which they take from the River Hafren (Severn).
and merc – regarding single persons paying more taxes. Its a logical idea, single persons cost more to society than married families. They consume the same as families living together in terms of energy.
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Single people consume the same as families living together in terms of energy?
How do you work that one out, then? Do single people use as much water as a couple? Do single people eat as much food as a couple? Exactly what planet are you on?
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If I was AD first of all, I would cut the amount of expenses claimed by MP’s and also the like of the BBC etc. I would stop wasting money on so called art like a pile of bricks etc. Then the CEO and Managers of councils and the NHS and other people like them would have a cap put on their earning.
I would use the savings to help fund the emergency services at grass roots level, Any excess would then be use to provide tax cuts.
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9 above Y Mab Darogan said: Apr 21st, 2009 at 12:44
rpt Barrington-Black – I would be grateful to see Wales devolves from England. We could then tax all of the English for water which they take from the River Hafren (Severn).
So are you saying the only contribution that Wales makes to the UK is water?
Strange I thought it was also a lot of hot air and whingeing.
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I would make all the unemployed that receive benifit payments, work for their money by doing some sort of community work, the hours would be reflected by the amount they were paid. after all why do we pay people to stay at home, then spend more on street cleaners and gardeners. I think the tax on vehicles are fair because the less fuel efficient the more fuel used so more tax you pay at the pumps, also road tax is more.
I would stop giving away our money to other country’s until we are back on our feet. (charity begins at home)
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Well, judging from the fact that today, Brown has announced a distraction and red herring in the form of a review of MPs expences which a short time back he said would take some time and he would not implement it for some weeks, the budget is going to be a real humdinger.
This shallow man thinks that our minds will be more on his “expences promise” than it will be on his budget. I emphasise “HIS” not Darling’s.
Suddenly as well of course, he has set a limit of July 1st to report on the review. I wonder what induced him to change his mind, yes, you guessed, the budget.
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rpt Barrington-Black – comment 12 above shall we compare what England and Wales have offered the world then.
Wales
Katherine Jenkins and Charlotte Church
England
Lilly Allen and Amy Winehouse
mmmmmm I think I’m glad I’m welsh
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rehouse the homeless in buckingham palace!
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Stop taxing road fuel. It is a tax on rural communities and has little effect on urban dwellers.
Tax children, there are too many of them.
Subsidising Wales is OK it is not a bad place to visit.
Try to avoid wars, they are not good for the economy.
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Stop financing the Royal Family and all the hangers on, scrap the Premier League and stop the FA peddling the National Team TV coverage to the highest bidder with no consideration to the fans! oh and make rpt Barrington-Black an honary Welshman :-)
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Investing in wind, renewables, energy conservation and massively expanded recycling will create more jobs (vital during the economic downturn), cut our carbon emissions and set our economy on a new and sustainable course.
If we want to create jobs and a sustainable economy, then we need a Green New Deal in Shropshire ( see http://www.shropshirestar.com/2008/07/21/experts-call-for-credit-and-climate-crunch-action/ ).
Compare these countries.
South Korea is investing £23bn in a green stimulus package, thereby attempting to create more than 940,000 green jobs.
According to the bank HSBC, 81% of the £23bn is going into green projects.
81%.
If only we had a radical, visionary government.
Unfortunately Brown is not so green.
In the UK only 7% of our stimulus has gone into boosting the sustainable parts of our economy.
Yes, 7%.
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40p on fags, 2p on beer, 40p, on spirits.10p wines
car tax up 10%, a new caravan tax £140, income tax unchanged for income under 25k, 40p up to 100k,50p over 100k. public spending reduced by 50 billion over next year
petrol/ diesel unchanged. trident scrapped, identity cards scrapped, er thats it
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Are Charlotte Church and Katherine Jenkins the best Welsh achievers of all time? Say no more!
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Annie – I would’nt say they were the greatest just better than Lilly Allen and Amy Winehouse.
The greatest modern day Welsh person just look at the following
Some possibilities; Tom Jones (singer), Aneurin Bevan (politician), Lloyd George (politician), Gareth Edwards (Rugby player), Ryan Giggs (footballer), John Charles (footballer), Duffy (singer), Catherine Zeta Jones (actress), Anthony Hopkins (actor), Richard Burton (actor), T.E Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”), Neil Kinnock (politician), Dylan Thomas (poet), Gwynfor Evans (politician), Ivor Novello (composer etc.), Joe Calzaghe (Boxer), Christian Bale (actor), Ioan Gruffydd (actor), Rhys Ifans (actor), Griff Rhys Jones (comedian), Max Boyce (comedian), Timothy Dalton (actor), Charlotte Church (singer), Aled Jones (singer), Dusty Springfield (singer), Kelly Jones (stereophonics, singer), Katherine Jenkins (opera singer), Shane Williams (rugby player).
however the greatest Welshman is Owain Glyndwr who successfully defeated the English in the years 1399 to 1412. A small country the size of Wales held off the mightiest medieval power for nigh on 13 years.
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As someone with a bit of Welsh blood in me I can concur proudly;
Tom Jones – Virtually Permanent Resident of Vegas, Lloyd George – Mancunian by birth, Ryan Giggs – Mancunian by choice of residence, Catherine Zeta Jones – annexed by American elder swordsman, Anthony Hopkins – American by choice, Christian Bale – American Resident,
T.E Lawrence (”Lawrence of Arabia”) – hardly modern day & largely non-UK resident, Ivor Novello – hardly modern day….I could go on, but I don’t know who many of these people are.
Please be careful compiling these lists – We have it rough enough without adding grist to the haters mills!
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bring back hanging to save on prisons, bring back weekly rubbish collections to save on rats and fly tipping, bring back ken clarke to sort out this mess and get rid of labour, get out of the EU to save us £30 billion a year on red tape, get a conservative government now
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Children! children! Wandered off the thread haven’t we?
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possibly one of the greatest welshman of the 19th century was david davies of llandinam. he with shropshire draper and entrepreneur thomas savin built and developed the cambrian railways system.
in addition davies built barry docks to export the coal he mined in the rhondda valley through his ocean collieries. known as davies the coal, and a man above men. in addition he was mp for cardigan boroughs and helped found aberystwyth university.
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tory boy i feel bound to agree with one of your comments, is this a record. bring back ken clarke. yes i agree with that, a pity your party didn’t think of that in 1997.
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Tory Boy… get a life!
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This thread started as a Fantasy Budget, so here goes in the hope that local job-creation might interest people more than famous Welshmen.
More than 2,400 jobs have been lost in Shropshire in the last eight months ( http://www.shropshirestar.com/2009/04/22/budget-county-job-losses-mount/ ).
The Budget should have focused on creating thousands of new jobs in innovative, forward-looking and strategically important industries to put our economy on a sustainable path.
The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) advised the government to adopt a £30bn stimulus package which the SDC calculated would create 800,000 jobs nationwide.
These jobs could have been created by investing in insulating buildings, in solar energy and other renewables, in upgrading the electricity grid, in public transport and in new skills training.
Sadly for all of us, Mr Brown ignored this advice.
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Of the thread a little but!!
GORDON BROWN IS MY SHEPHERD, I SHALL NOT WORK.
> >
HE LEADETH ME BESIDE THE STILL FACTORIES.
> >
HE RESTORETH MY FAITH IN THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY.
> >
HE GUIDETH ME IN THE PATH OF UNEMPLOYMENT.
> >
YEA, THOUGH I WAIT FOR MY DOLE,
> >
I OWN THE BANK THAT REFUSES ME.
> >
BROWN HAS ANNOINTED MY INCOME WITH TAXES,
> >
MY EXPENSES RUNNETH OVER MY INCOME,
> >
SURELY, POVERTY AND HARD LIVING WILL FOLLOW ALL THE
> DAYS OF HIS TERM.
> >
FROM HENCE FORTH WE WILL LIVE ALL THE DAYS
> >
OF OUR LIVES IN A RENTED HOME WITH AN OVERSEAS
> LANDLORD.
> >
I AM GLAD I AM BRITISH,
> >
I AM GLAD I AM FREE.
> >
BUT I WISH I WERE A DOG
> >
AND BROWN WAS A TREE
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Capt Chaos, above your cut-and-pasted poem, lambasting Brown for job losses, there is a suggestion (#29) on one way out of this crisis, which would create thousands of new, sustainable jobs in green industries.
I think massive investment in forward-looking, sustainable industries is the way to tackle the downturn, deal with climate change and to create thousands of jobs.
Shropshire has shed more than 2,400 jobs in the last 8 months.
What do you or any other superheroes out there think?
Or is the point of this thread not to be constructive?
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If Wales is so fantastic… why is Ymab living in England and commenting on an English papers website ? Also, how many of thoes “great” Welsh people that are still alive still live in Wales ?
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In February 2009, 2.1 million UK citizens had no job.
To some on this thread, this human tragedy elicits barely an acknowledgement, let alone a shrug.
2,400 jobs have gone in 8 months in Shropshire.
A Green New Deal (see new economics foundation website) could get hundreds of thousands of these people back to work if we had a government which was visionary and radical enough to think big and to think long-term.
Right-wing bloggers on this thread attack unfortunate people who are forced to claim the dole, often through no fault of their own.
It is time for ordinary people lucky enough to still be in employment to stand up to these anonymous cowards and demand aloud why our government is not being bolder.
It is costing £76bn to replace and maintain the Trident nuclear weapons system.
Compare this with the tiny amount that Gordon Brown is spending on green projects ( £1bn on climate change including £435m on energy efficiency and £525m on offshore wind ).
If we are interested in creating jobs now, then the amounts invested in this sector should be 10 to 15 times higher, because the green sector is comparatively better than fossil fuels and nuclear at creating more employment.
It would be interesting to hear whether there is anyone else out there who thinks that job creation is the biggest challenge for this country at present, who knows we are being left behind by the South Koreans and other countries in the race to go green.
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