Just as I thought, the Brown Honeymoon has begun. Already his budget is being presented as containing tax cuts - which, strictly speaking, it does, but it also contains tax increases, so in fact it is revenue neutral.
Nonetheless, the cut in income tax by 2% is a big headline grabber, and budgets are hardly known for their interest, so it is this that will stick. Brown has beaten Cameron at his own game, and I suspect this is the sign of things to come. The media, the public, and most importantly, the Conservatives, have all grossly misunderestimated Gordon Brown. The idea that he is a dour, boring Scotsmen couldn't be further from the truth: by all accounts of those that know him, he has an extremely sharp sense of humour and is a natural entertainer. And I'm not even a Brownite. Watch out, Boy Dave.
The devil is in the detail of course, and this annoys me. Basic rate of income tax down by 2% - on the face of it, excellent. But the 10% rate for those on very low wages is abolished, so we've got an effective flat tax of 20% - tax rises for many of the poorest people, who are now paying double what they were before.
On top of this, national insurance has gone up for the highest earners (the top band is for those over £35,000 a year I think, but don't quote me on it...) This particular tax rise seems to be a shifting of the burden of taxation from those on less to those on more, which in principle isn't necessarily a bad thing. But, taken with the fact that many people on the lowest wages will now be paying double what they were before, this is not.
The 2% cut in corporation tax is welcome, though timid. If we really want to compete, we need well below the 28% we shall now have. In Ireland, the corporate tax is 12.5%! The huge boom in employment and wealth in Ireland is a direct result of this, and the country is the home of European Microsoft among others. We are a far more globally influential country, and with China and India on the rise, we need to mark out some territory to keep our economy afloat: finance should be that territory. The explosion in the City in the Eighties should continue and spread throughout the country, and it should be Britain, not Ireland, that is the first call for all those companies around the world who want to have a share in the European market. Let's not forget, Europe has over 500 million of the richest, most intelligent people in the world. No matter how rapid Chindia is growing, global enterprise will not be able to resist such a juicy consumerate.
Unfortunately, we've then got a 2% rise in small business rates. This is ridiculous. On the one hand we're cutting corporation tax (not fiercely enough, but a step in the right direction), and on the other, we're increasing the burden for small businesses! People! Think! A business has to be small before it is large! This sort of tax is penalising the enterprise culture we desperately need. A disappointing move, the Gord giveth, and the Gord taketh away...
Overall, it's alright. While the economy is as stable as it is, you can't mark Brown too poorly: this sort of economic stability - and let's remember there have been some problems around the world that, partly by Brown's hand, we've been able to avoid - is something completely contrary to the days of Black Wednesday and double-figure interest rates. Full credit to Brown for his part in seeing those problems off. But I feel his Labourite instincts are pulling him back from turning our country into the best, most open and most flexible in Europe - for that is the market we must pierce.
Tax and spend for short term has won out over the past ten budgets instead of less tax and less spending for less tax and more spending in the future, and in this, Brown's eleventh budget, that fundamentally leftist attitude has prevailed again. Brown isn't a socialist, thankfully. But he's hardly been revolutionary and weather-making, when he really could - and in this 'increasingly globalised world' should - have been.
He's kept the ship afloat, and aside from the pensions deck (which is going to get flooded at some point), the economy isn't in bad shape. But the zeal isn't there...there's a feeling of staleness. Penalising the poor and small businesses was not the way to go...perhaps cutting some of that fat government was.
This budget won't bring about any Hibernic economic boom, but it was never intended to. What it was intended to do was to catch headlines and make the Cameroons look a load of fools. In that, he succeeded...and I'm pretty sure this is the face of things to come.
The clunking fist might just knock a few teeth out of Dave's smile, and that's always a good thing.
Published by The Culture Warrior
on Wednesday, 21 March 2007 at 13:08. Nonetheless, the cut in income tax by 2% is a big headline grabber, and budgets are hardly known for their interest, so it is this that will stick. Brown has beaten Cameron at his own game, and I suspect this is the sign of things to come. The media, the public, and most importantly, the Conservatives, have all grossly misunderestimated Gordon Brown. The idea that he is a dour, boring Scotsmen couldn't be further from the truth: by all accounts of those that know him, he has an extremely sharp sense of humour and is a natural entertainer. And I'm not even a Brownite. Watch out, Boy Dave.
The devil is in the detail of course, and this annoys me. Basic rate of income tax down by 2% - on the face of it, excellent. But the 10% rate for those on very low wages is abolished, so we've got an effective flat tax of 20% - tax rises for many of the poorest people, who are now paying double what they were before.
On top of this, national insurance has gone up for the highest earners (the top band is for those over £35,000 a year I think, but don't quote me on it...) This particular tax rise seems to be a shifting of the burden of taxation from those on less to those on more, which in principle isn't necessarily a bad thing. But, taken with the fact that many people on the lowest wages will now be paying double what they were before, this is not.
The 2% cut in corporation tax is welcome, though timid. If we really want to compete, we need well below the 28% we shall now have. In Ireland, the corporate tax is 12.5%! The huge boom in employment and wealth in Ireland is a direct result of this, and the country is the home of European Microsoft among others. We are a far more globally influential country, and with China and India on the rise, we need to mark out some territory to keep our economy afloat: finance should be that territory. The explosion in the City in the Eighties should continue and spread throughout the country, and it should be Britain, not Ireland, that is the first call for all those companies around the world who want to have a share in the European market. Let's not forget, Europe has over 500 million of the richest, most intelligent people in the world. No matter how rapid Chindia is growing, global enterprise will not be able to resist such a juicy consumerate.
Unfortunately, we've then got a 2% rise in small business rates. This is ridiculous. On the one hand we're cutting corporation tax (not fiercely enough, but a step in the right direction), and on the other, we're increasing the burden for small businesses! People! Think! A business has to be small before it is large! This sort of tax is penalising the enterprise culture we desperately need. A disappointing move, the Gord giveth, and the Gord taketh away...
Overall, it's alright. While the economy is as stable as it is, you can't mark Brown too poorly: this sort of economic stability - and let's remember there have been some problems around the world that, partly by Brown's hand, we've been able to avoid - is something completely contrary to the days of Black Wednesday and double-figure interest rates. Full credit to Brown for his part in seeing those problems off. But I feel his Labourite instincts are pulling him back from turning our country into the best, most open and most flexible in Europe - for that is the market we must pierce.
Tax and spend for short term has won out over the past ten budgets instead of less tax and less spending for less tax and more spending in the future, and in this, Brown's eleventh budget, that fundamentally leftist attitude has prevailed again. Brown isn't a socialist, thankfully. But he's hardly been revolutionary and weather-making, when he really could - and in this 'increasingly globalised world' should - have been.
He's kept the ship afloat, and aside from the pensions deck (which is going to get flooded at some point), the economy isn't in bad shape. But the zeal isn't there...there's a feeling of staleness. Penalising the poor and small businesses was not the way to go...perhaps cutting some of that fat government was.
This budget won't bring about any Hibernic economic boom, but it was never intended to. What it was intended to do was to catch headlines and make the Cameroons look a load of fools. In that, he succeeded...and I'm pretty sure this is the face of things to come.
The clunking fist might just knock a few teeth out of Dave's smile, and that's always a good thing.
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