The Labour Government

George Orwell, Animal Farm

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

When the electoral system gives any political party a massive majority, albeit on significantly a minority of the electorate voting for them, then we will get an effective dictatorship whose main concern is to get re-elected at the next election. Hence make life difficult for the general population to start with to build up a war chest for give away budgets leading up to the next election. Keep the big rich party sponsors happy meantime.
 
Churchlawtonblue said:
I don't see how this budget is going to grow the economy. At this stage it seems to have focused most of the tax rises on SMEs as feared. These companies already pay a far greater proportion of their profits as tax than the big corporations and typically have the smallest margins and the highest % of overheads and red tape. Many pay the higher marginal corporation tax rate of 26.5%? !


The large multinational companies pay no UK corporation tax with many having HQs in the ROI and Luxemboug in the EU alone. Many dont even pay UK VAT with electronic transactions going through Luxembourg.
That's not just the likes of Amazon and Starbucks but effectively all of the FTSE100. She has let them get off scot free again.

Really dissapointing from a Labour Chancellor. But that's what you get when big business has influence and the ear of politicians of all sides it would seem. Nothing changes.

It will also be interesting to see how these tax rises are passed on to consumers. Let's be under no illusion, most will have to be and how that affects inflation.
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We have little capacity to grow in the short term. Increased investment in capital projects and potentially having a healthier workforce will help growth in the medium term (you wouldn't believe how much my employer is paying staff to sit at home as it is taking months for people to be assessed / treated). Two issues the Govt are addressing. Whether it is enough, we don't know yet.
 
Manc in London said:
We have little capacity to grow in the short term. Increased investment in capital projects and potentially having a healthier workforce will help growth in the medium term (you wouldn't believe how much my employer is paying staff to sit at home as it is taking months for people to be assessed / treated). Two issues the Govt are addressing. Whether it is enough, we don't know yet.
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As always the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. The Chancellor and the Government will be judged on their ability to grow the economy. They have 5 years, fingers crossed she pulls it off. No growth and the country just slides into more debt to pay for these measures.
 
Churchlawtonblue said:
Long term yes, but infrastructure projects are a bit hit and miss. The big example today was a commitment to tunnel to Euston for HS2 and not end it at Oak Common. That project won't directly help 95% of the country.

HS2 is a mismanaged disaster. 120miles of track at a cost of £350,000 per meter length for a saving of about 15 to 20 minutes over current times. The only way that scheme was even going to benefit the country was to start it in Leeds and Manchester and take it to London and to build it on budget. The initial need was the extra capacity. None of that will ever come out of wasting so much money on such a short length of track.
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That's why they've agreed to explore a modified (slower) version of the bit from Birmingham to Crewe, because putting HS2 trains via Birmingham onto the West Coast Main Line near Lichfield made no more sense than when the last government agreed to extend that phase to Crewe (then scrapped it). Nothing about Northern Powerhouse Rail announced.
 
Vic said:
That's why they've agreed to explore a modified (slower) version of the bit from Birmingham to Crewe, because putting HS2 trains via Birmingham onto the West Coast Main Line near Lichfield made no more sense than when the last government agreed to extend that phase to Crewe (then scrapped it). Nothing about Northern Powerhouse Rail announced.
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It's the mismanagement of the scheme that cripples it. Same of all national infrastructure projects these days.
 
Churchlawtonblue said:
Long term yes, but infrastructure projects are a bit hit and miss. The big example today was a commitment to tunnel to Euston for HS2 and not end it at Oak Common. That project won't directly help 95% of the country.

HS2 is a mismanaged disaster. 120miles of track at a cost of £350,000 per meter length for a saving of about 15 to 20 minutes over current times. The only way that scheme was even going to benefit the country was to start it in Leeds and Manchester and take it to London and to build it on budget. The initial need was the extra capacity. None of that will ever come out of wasting so much money on such a short length of track.
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Totally agree HS2 was always a waste of taxpayers money. I responded to you initially though as you said you couldn’t see anything to promote growth from the budget, but there was
 
mosssideblue said:
Totally agree HS2 was always a waste of taxpayers money. I responded to you initially though as you said you couldn’t see anything to promote growth from the budget, but there was
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Long term yes. I'm very sceptical that they will be able to grow the economy in the short term especially by excessively squeezing SMEs?? . I think they are critical to the UK economy. They employ nearly two thirds of all working people.
 
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