My immediate reaction is (and there will be more later on when I have read some more of the documentation) that this was a Budget in need of an election to give it any meaning.
There were no big ideas.
There were no big announcements not already trailed.
The claim that the 2p cut in national insurance is part of some bigger plan is, very politely, absurd when not long ago the Tories pushed it much higher. It is just a pre-election bung.
So, too, were the giveaways on capital gains tax on property sales and the grant of yet another tax subsidised ISA savings scheme for the wealthy (because they alone can use them to their limits).
The reform on child benefits was wrong. What was needed was the removal of the two child cap, not the lifting of the number who can claim the income at higher levels of income.
And as for the public sector productivity reforms: as I said on air, this means that 10 minute GP appointments will now last 7 minutes and school classes that lasted 40 minutes will now be 33 minutes long.
The claims for public sector investment were crass. Not only did they disguise the failure to provide any new real money for these essential services, but to suggest that a drone might be the first responder at a crime has to be one of the most stupid ideas I have ever heard. You can really see that working.
As for growth, in reality there was nothing to make it happen and all the claims for higher than expected growth simply reflect the inevitable statistical reaction to returning to anaemic levels of actual growth after we unexpectedly (as far as the government was concerned) slipped into recession.
And throughout all this the delivery was lacklustre, and the jokes unusually bad. Hunt seemed like a Chancellor who knew his time was up. No wonder he had invited his eldest daughter to come to the Commons to watch. This will be the last chance she ever has to see him do something like this. That was the only small mercy I could find in all this, even when he cancelled the non-dom rule. Given that I know all the rules to do this were discussed in the Treasury in 2011, the only thing that can be said about that now is that it was tawdry electioneering by a Party that knows its time is up.
It really is time for them to go, and everything about this Budget suggests that a May election is very likely.
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I also thought this was an electioneering budget.
The Rwanda plan defeated in the Lords.
New post Brexit ‘red tape’ and associated extra costs, next April.
Covid report due ‘early summer’.
Poor local May election results expected.
Best to go before they are noticed.
It will be all ‘we have a plan and it’s working. Don’t let Labour wreck it.’
I also though the predictions caused by various measures e.g. extra people in work etc, seemed to come from abstract graphs rather than the real world. “The OBR and Treasury discovered their inner Laffer Curve.”
Please spare us.
I heartily concur.
To put it in the vernacular, somebody was definitely ” ‘avin’ a laff!”
I just wish that certain sectors of the electorate would waken up to that fact. It was very encouraging to hear a BBC 5 Live! correspondent respond to the text of a listener clearly under the illusion of the mythical household budget by saying that many people now knew better, that one important point of view was a thing called MMT, and that a recent guest on the programme had been a certain Stephanie Kelton, who had written a book on the subject.
I was surprised and impressed.
My favourite response to the “household budget” hypothesis is to ask how that works for government, and wait for the answer.
So a dissolution date of 26 March for a General Election on Thursday, 2 May?
Can’t come soon enough.
I hope so
I’m not sure the GE will be held in May, but the Chancellor certainly signaled that it would take place before the end of September 2024, when he extended the Household Support Fund scheme in England until that date.
That I think means it will take place before mid-July, or we will be into the holiday season, and shouldn’t think they will want it in September as many OAPs will be away in the start of the cheaper holiday period.
“a drone might be the first responder at a crime”……somebody somewhere in gov has been watching too much FPV footage from Ukraine. Which leaves some open questions…
what sort of voice?
Dalek? (exterminate exterminate)
Borg? (we are the plods prepare to be assimilated – resistance is futile)
Dixon of Dock Green (‘ello ‘ello what’s all this then?)
& was this a Friday afternoon idea after a long & boozy lunch? Sounds like it.
As for the (no choice) election – I wonder if the tories will try to keep going a bit longer – on the basis of more independents organising to spoil the LINO party.
Robocop would seem an obvious choice.
Interesting that on Nihal Arthanayake afternoon show on 5 live, the reaction from voters across the political and social spectrum was a resounding thumbs down apart from former conservative leader of Durhum University Conservative Society.
It is also good to hear Nihal and his economist commentator call out how disappointing it was to hear Starmer’s fallacious use of the maxed out credit card trope.
Oh and IMHO the Non-Dom announcement was to remove a source of funding for Labour’s very weak proposals, so that the press can scream where’s the money going to come from. This is what happens when they start using the maxed-out credit card analogy, hoist by their own petard!!!
Not only was there no ‘Rabbit’, there wasn’t even a field mouse! I worry that a May election doesn’t allow enough time for Starmer and Sunak to get another ‘Spanking’ in the local elections first. I think it might take that public demonstration of utter disgust in both Starmer and the Tories to stimulate a big uptick in ‘Invisible Party’ (Greens) support, even lesser known left-leaning party support and a few strong independent candidates to thoroughly upset the applecart.
Perhaps that’s why Sunak might call the election on 2 May, the same day as the English local elections, to head off a big riddy* shortly before the General Election.
*for non-Scots – a riddy is a major embarrassment characterised by a very red face.