ROD LIDDLE
Hapless Reeves’ Budget will hurt the working man, reward idleness and wreck the economy for the next 5 years
Reeves' Budget will please only the bureaucrats who run the NHS and other vast public sector institutions
WELL, that’s the economy wrecked for the next five years, then. Cheers, Ms Reeves. Excellent work.
It almost eclipses your previous achievement of being 26th best at chess in Lewisham. Or whatever it was you used to brag about.
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But this Budget is seriously bad for Britain, believe me. Let’s leave aside for a moment the fact that Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves promised, every day, that there would be no tax rises under a Labour government.
Remember that? They both kept going on about how they were going to be “responsible”. And how they would protect the “working man”.
Trouble is, Starmer found it as hard to define what a “working man” is as he did to define what a woman was.
Anyway, having told us they would not raise taxes, they’ve dutifully gone ahead and increased the overall tax burden in the country by a staggering £40billion. That’s about £1,400 for every household.
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It makes no difference in the end if raising the tax burden is done truthfully by telling the public you’re going to put up taxes. That’s what decent Socialist governments would do.
Or if it’s done very deceitfully indeed by a government which has just presided over the worst first 100 days in office since the Second World War. Hell, I’d prefer the truthful version. But in the end, we still have to stump up the cash.
But that is very far from being the worst of it.
Because what Rachel Reeves delivered was a Budget which will not only hurt the working man, it will hurt in particular the aspirational, striving, hard-working men and women.
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It is a Budget which rewards idleness rather than vigour. A Budget which will please only the bureaucrats who run the NHS and other vast public sector institutions.
It is the private sector, where our country generates its income, which has taken the biggest hammering.
'We're all going to be worse off' Brits react to bombshell Budget - here’s what they REALLY think
James Vitali, head of political economy at Policy Exchange, said: “This Budget tilts resources away from the wealth-creating parts of our economy towards the public sector.
"It will be the working people who will suffer in the form of lower wage growth and higher tax bills.”
Exactly. Which is why the Office for Budget Responsibility — a neutral body set up to give independent advice to the Government — is warning that Reeves has buggered up our possibility of seeing real economic growth.
And the predictions for future economic growth have been suitably downgraded.
Attacks aspiration
God help you if you are a small businessman. I don’t mean a short bloke who works in an office. I mean the owners of businesses with 20 or so employees. The very lifeblood of our economy.
The rise in National Insurance payments will cripple them. Don’t take my word for it, though.
It will be the working people who will suffer in the form of lower wage growth and higher tax bills
James Vitali
The economist Justin Urqhart Stewart said: “We’ve seen over the past few years, the great success of Britain has been the growth of small companies and small companies employing people.
“And I’m afraid they will be hit by the National Insurance increase. Employing one or two people, actually that extra National Insurance will be the question as to whether you are going to take that on as an employer.”
He added: “The chances are, as a small business, you can’t.”
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But it is not just the employers who are taking a hit. The truth is this was a Budget which attacks any form of aspiration.
Anybody who is trying to better themselves and make improvements to their lives. They are the sort of people Labour hate.
Unfortunately, they are also the sort of people who keep this benighted country afloat.
So, imagine you’re living in social housing and you fancy taking advantage of the Right to Buy scheme so that you can get your feet on the property ladder.
Well, Reeves is making it more difficult to buy your home at a decent price.
Or imagine you’re sick of how useless the local schools are. And you scrimp and save every penny to send your kid to a private school. Well, Rach has got a surprise in store for you, too.
Out of spite she has removed business rate relief for private schools. And in the new year plans to whack a load of VAT on them.
So if your choice of private school hasn’t actually gone bankrupt by then, you’ll have to pay much higher charges.
You know, I’ve dredged through the Budget looking for stuff that might actually benefit the country. Here’s my list:
- She’s increased the minimum wage to £12.21.
- . . . er . . . that’s it.
This was the Budget of a failing government rewarding failure and punishing hard work and innovation.
In short, it was everything we might have expected from the hapless Chancellor. We will be paying the cost for years.
SOFTEN UGLIER TRUTHS
I THINK it would be better if a veil of silence was gently draped over Prof Daniel Hamermesh.
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And especially his latest research.
After careful analysis he has found that the ugliest people in the UK are the Welsh and Scots.
As I recently spent a long weekend in Fife and many years ago lived, briefly, in Bridgend, I can see no grounds whatsoever upon which to dispute these findings.
But this sort of research – Hamermesh calls it Pulchronomics – will only cause bitter resentment and unrest within the Celtic fringes.
Better to stick to the modern line. We are all very beautiful in our own way. Or that for Hamish and Rhiannon perhaps the radiance comes from within.
Something like that.
TIME TO BIN THE ADVICE
A BUNCH of councils are offering incredibly useful advice on how to bring up your kids not to be racist.
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Thank you, thank you, Leicestershire and Southampton (among others).
You might have thought that simply telling your offspring not to judge a person by the colour of their skin would be sufficient. And that in any case it is a job for the parents rather than the pencil-necked council culture czars.
But what does this advice include?
They suggest that when you play Monopoly with white children, give them more money and less time in jail than they deserve.
This will show them that they are privileged, white oppressors. God help us all.
You obsessive, witless, fascistic apes.
Just empty the bloody bins on time, mend the potholes – and shut up.
EASIER ON THE ELITE
YOU wouldn’t want to meet Labour MP Mike Amesbury on a dark night, would you?
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Not after he has had a few, at least.
He punched a bloke to the ground. Then continued punching him while he was lying there. Then returned to crow about the beating he’d doled out.
OK, he’s been suspended from the Labour Party. But why haven’t the police charged him?
Didn’t take them long to bang up those rioters who had in many cases only said something, did it?
And do you remember the horrible Labour councillor Ricky Jones?
He was the one who called for right-wing protesters to “have their throats cut” in August.
Why is he still at large? His court case is due in January?
Why does it take so long to bring justice to those in the ruling elite?
THE BBC news programmes are getting very worried that Donald Trump might win the US Presidential election.
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Turn on Newsnight and you can see Victoria Derbyshire seething with fury. And so we are treated to every gaffe made by the Trump campaign team.
Victoria turns to an expert and asks something like: “Please tell me that this means Trump is done for?”
Fraid not, Beeb. Fraid not, David Lammy. Fraid not, Sir Keir.
COMPO TO UK?
I WONDER if Barbados should pay the UK compensation rather than the other way around?
Slavery is a terrible thing. And it is to our credit that we led the way in trying to end it.
The practice continues, of course, in Africa, Asia and beyond.
But however bad slavery was – and it WAS – the people of Barbados are far better off today than they would have been if their ancestors had stayed in Africa.
Much, much, higher standard of living. Much longer life expectancy.
It’s OK, Barbados – you can pay by instalments. No rush.
Why’ve I been funding these?
A PALLIATIVE care nurse has been revealing people’s death-bed regrets.
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The things people near the end of life say they wished they had done.
A lot of people regret working too hard. Some regret not spending more time with their families.
My big regret would have been giving too much money to charity.
I mean, I haven’t given that much. But if you add it up over the course of a lifetime it is quite a few bob.
It’s mostly gone to bloody donkeys, who never say thanks.
Money which I could have spent buying myself alcohol, cheese, Raisin & Biscuit Yorkies, pies, Heinz Toast Toppers, Cadbury Crunchie ice creams, Marks & Spencer “Best Ever” prawn cocktails and sausages.
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...I could’ve been buying these
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