Budget day is always busy for me.
I am heading for London this morning and will be at the BBC by 12, and will Tweet my Budget comments live as Reeves delivers her speech. I might also try to add some commentary here.
Radio 2's producers and I hope that she speaks for no more than an hour (and let's be honest, what has she left to talk about?) so that Mark Littlewood (formerly of the Institute of Economic Affairs) and I can join Jeremy Vine in the BBC Radio 2 studios to discuss what Reeves has had to say.
At 2, that is over, and whilst I might have another interview or two to do immediately, I also plan to record my immediate reactions to the Budget before heading back home. I will be taking a camera with me. Thomas will then edit that as I head home, maybe writing a post or two on the way. After that, we will record a longer reaction, which will be released on Thursday morning. Thomas will be on a late editing shift. And I will then be ready to make several podcasts on Thursday, for which I already have invitations.
After that, I might take a break for an hour or two. Deciding to write an Alternative Budget made the last two weeks much busier than usual, but I think it is a valuable benchmark for some of my thinking at present.
Then, we move on. This campaign is never-ending.
But one thing I already know. Yesterday, Rachel Reeves put out a YouTube video on the Budget. This is a screenshot:
After 18 hours, she had 187 views.
We got more than seven times as many viewers in the first half hour of this morning's video being live.
That is one small victory. We need a few more.
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Just for the record, I was not one of the 187.
I was…..
Good luck.
I did not know you blog was also a comedy channel:
“After 18 hours, she had 187 views”…. both an idiot and irrelevant – quite an achievment.
MP busts out with laughter.
She reissued it this morning.
45 views in 2 hours.
We gave 6,800 in the same time, just on this morning’s video
One of the things that has to be commented on is the absurdity of having a target of switching to all vehicles sold being EVs while planning to introduce a 3p/mile tax on them when those using public charging are already paying more per mile than petrol or diesel drivers.
That Labour seems intent on redefining the block on new North Sea exploration to allow new exploitation of existing oilfields clearly suggests that big oil has been shaping the agenda in both regards.
Rather than seeking jobs by raising oil deposits the environment can ill afford to be brought up, perhaps it should be investing heavily in new battery technologies, autonomous vehicles (which would improve accessibility as well as helping the switch to EVs), drones, etc.
One of the positives of the Motability announcement was that it is aiming to increase the number of UK-made cars it supplies. Government-supported schemes may do well to encourage such rebalancing, but it needs to make sure that the manufacturing in this country supports that, too.
At the moment we have cars by the likes of Tesla and BYD which are capable of significantly more advanced driver support in countries like China and USA, where the sensors are still present but the functionality simply disabled here. This harms advancement and adoption of these technologies here, and ensures that the UK remains behind other countries where it could be investing more in being a technological leader.
I am confused.
Might you make clear what you are arguing for? It is not apparent to me.
David B
If you are making arguments from an environmental point of view, surely you should be saying there must be greatly increased investment in public transport – trains, trams and buses all electrically powered – rather than more cars whether manually driven or automatic.
David L
Have a good day, hope you that you get to deliver.
Richard Littlewood is an odious little man backed by big American Billionaires
Mark…
I have a VW Touran from Motability.
I need to have extra things in my car due to my disability. I have a heated seat because I have severe pain in my back on journeys longer than a few miles (luckily doctor, dentist and optician are close to me). I need a car that’s big enough to take my wheelchair, while leaving seats free for when we give lifts to one of daughters/grandchildren.
So Reeves is going to charge VAT on the extra charges for Motability cars! At least I think that’s what she said. We’ve had a difficult morning with delivery problems and lack of news about blood results from my GP, both of which have left me extremely stressed. Right now I feel like lying on the floor, drumming my heals and screaming out loud like a toddler!
And she says she supports the disabled? On top of that I get a rubbish pension (didn’t work for long enough due to being ill and having to give up work), on the lower rate because I was born before 1953. Why doesn’t she raise that rate to be the same as those who retired after 1953? It’s the older pensioners who don’t get the money younger pensioners do – this seems grossly unfair to me, since we have just the same housing, eating and other costs as the younger pensioners do.
The Witch is still talking as I write this, and I hope she loses her job as soon as possible for her ghastly budget.
Aaaggghhhh!
Wishing everyone here a great day from Liverpool, where (to add insult to injury) it’s looking like it’s about to rain!
It looks as though the Motability changes are smaller than expected – thankfully.
Dear Maggie
I was up your neck of the woods t’other day – what a great city. My God, if you thought that London was the only city in Britain, then you would have to imagine Liverpool (and Leeds, and Newcastle, and Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast). The Walker Gallery – that staircase upwards!
But everywhere there were signs of public squalor despite obvious best efforts. Those who rule Britain, so parsimonious about the common wheal yet happy to help others grab as much as they can. You and we deserve better.