Iain Dale 4:49 PM
1. Iain Martin "disgraceful"2. Toby Helm "it was a political budget"
3. Conor Ryan "is tax rise good politics?"
4. John Redwood "the Damian McBride Memorial Budget"
5. Lobby Dog "rabbit, rabbit, rabbit"
6. Tim Montgomerie "new labour is D.E.A.D"
7. James Forsyth "tories should laugh at the 50p rate"
8. Matthew Sinclair "it will punish the poor"
9. Tom Harris "I have nothing to say on the budget
Correction. He now has. HERE. Tepid praise.
10. Nick Clegg "it's a pick n mix budget"
11. David Cameron "Labour's economic competence has died"
12. Caroline Lucas "it's a missed opportunity"
13. Andrew Neil "worse than we feared?"
14. Paul Waugh "hot to soak the rich"
15. Danvers Baillieu "the top rate of tax is 60p, not 50p"
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I'll be doing two hours of radio tonight...
11-12 Radio 5 Live on the Richard Bacon programme
12-1 TalkSport with Ian Collins
11-12 Radio 5 Live on the Richard Bacon programme
12-1 TalkSport with Ian Collins
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Budget: Instant Reaction
Iain Dale 1:47 PM
I have rarely been so angry after a budget speech. I’m fizzing. This was a cheap budget delivered in a manner unworthy of a man with the title of Chancellor of the Exchequer. There was no strategy, just a series of cheap and recycled announcements. It was a political budget in that he shamelessly appealed to the Labour Party’s happy little band of envy warriors.
Remember Peter Mandelson proclaiming that he didn’t mind if people got filthy rich under Labour? Well, those days have well and truly gone. The 50% tax rate announcement was purely designed to give a signal to the Labour left that he’s happy to make the pips squeak (copyright Denis Healey 1977). What other explanation can there be? It will raise very little extra money and help reduce incentives. A 50% tax rate will encourage entrepreneurs to invest money anywhere other than this country. There is, of course, another benefit. It puts the Tories on the spot. Will they now vote against the 50% rate? In my view they must, but they would do it in the full knowledge that Brown would accuse of them of sticking up for their "rich friends".
But the real scandal is the amount of borrowing - £606 billion over the next four years – which the Chancellor announced. Truly scandalous. He said we would borrow £175 billion in this calendar year. Judging by the record of previous government forecasts, the figure is likely to be far higher than that. It will take decades to pay this back.
And to believe that we will have a 3.5% growth rate in 2011 is fantasy. You can’t go from negative growth to that level of growth in a few months. And if he’s wrong, tax receipts will be lower and borrowing will rise even further.
There was no attempt to haul in public spending, and frankly that’s the only way to reduce borrowing if tax receipts are also in the doldrums. To say you will save £50 billion without anyone noticing and no programmes being axed is something which most people can see through.
The car scrappage scheme is a joke. All it will do is help the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes. I could see the point of it in Germany, but not here. It may help a few car dealers, but that's about it. Why not introduce a scheme to help local newspapers, or newsagents, or shops, or indeed everyone? Why just cardealers?
This was a cheap budget from an expensive Chancellor. It was a missed opportunity to set a new direction for the country. All it did was announce a series of wholly unrelated initiatives, some of which may be of limited benefit but most of which no one will notice.
It is a budget which has helped Labour lose the next election.
UPDATE: 77% of Sky News viewers feel worse off after the budget.
64% are against the 50% rate.
UPDATE 2.10pm: From Robert Peston...
Remember Peter Mandelson proclaiming that he didn’t mind if people got filthy rich under Labour? Well, those days have well and truly gone. The 50% tax rate announcement was purely designed to give a signal to the Labour left that he’s happy to make the pips squeak (copyright Denis Healey 1977). What other explanation can there be? It will raise very little extra money and help reduce incentives. A 50% tax rate will encourage entrepreneurs to invest money anywhere other than this country. There is, of course, another benefit. It puts the Tories on the spot. Will they now vote against the 50% rate? In my view they must, but they would do it in the full knowledge that Brown would accuse of them of sticking up for their "rich friends".
But the real scandal is the amount of borrowing - £606 billion over the next four years – which the Chancellor announced. Truly scandalous. He said we would borrow £175 billion in this calendar year. Judging by the record of previous government forecasts, the figure is likely to be far higher than that. It will take decades to pay this back.
And to believe that we will have a 3.5% growth rate in 2011 is fantasy. You can’t go from negative growth to that level of growth in a few months. And if he’s wrong, tax receipts will be lower and borrowing will rise even further.
There was no attempt to haul in public spending, and frankly that’s the only way to reduce borrowing if tax receipts are also in the doldrums. To say you will save £50 billion without anyone noticing and no programmes being axed is something which most people can see through.
The car scrappage scheme is a joke. All it will do is help the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes. I could see the point of it in Germany, but not here. It may help a few car dealers, but that's about it. Why not introduce a scheme to help local newspapers, or newsagents, or shops, or indeed everyone? Why just cardealers?
This was a cheap budget from an expensive Chancellor. It was a missed opportunity to set a new direction for the country. All it did was announce a series of wholly unrelated initiatives, some of which may be of limited benefit but most of which no one will notice.
It is a budget which has helped Labour lose the next election.
UPDATE: 77% of Sky News viewers feel worse off after the budget.
64% are against the 50% rate.
UPDATE 2.10pm: From Robert Peston...
Actions have consequences...
Gilt sales this year are forecast to be £220bn - way above all market forecasts. There will be a big gulp from investors. Why is the Treasury's borrowing need so much greater than was expected? Well, the cost of bailing out the banking system appears to have been greater than expected.
I'm not surprised that sterling is now falling. Questions will also be asked again about whether the UK will retain its AAA credit rating. If that were lost, the cost of selling all this debt would rise.
And then there will be the emotional reaction of bankers to the news that their take-home pay is being cut significantly by the new 50% top rate of tax and a reduction in relief on pension contributions for high earners.
There'll be gloom in the City tonight.
Budget Open Thread
Iain Dale 11:45 AM
Please use this thread to post your comments on the budget. Comments will be approved more or less in real time.
If you want to follow the Sky News Unplugged coverage, which I am contributing to clickHERE. There's a live CoverItLive blog throughout the Chancellor's speech.
There's a twitter thread with the hashtag #budgetunplugged.
If you want to follow the Sky News Unplugged coverage, which I am contributing to clickHERE. There's a live CoverItLive blog throughout the Chancellor's speech.
There's a twitter thread with the hashtag #budgetunplugged.
It's Public Borrowing, Stupid
Iain Dale 9:22 AM
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I'll be commentating on the budget from 12 noon until 3pm on Sky News Unplugged with Martin Stanford, (alongside Alex Hilton) should you wish to press your red button. There will be a CoverItLive chat throughout the Chancellor's speech. But I will also be updating this blog as well. Somehow!
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Public borrowing in March was £38 billion - the highest on record. This takes borrowing for the current year to £90 billion. There is nothing more important in the budget that getting a grip of the public finances and getting borrowing under control. All other political and economic priorities must be set aside. We mustn't just get a grip, we need to be seen by the international money markets to get a grip. Borrowing for 2007-8 was predicted to be £38 billion. It will actually be four times that. The IMF thinks the bank bailout cost £200 billion, and has shamefully acceded to Brown's pressure to remove the table from its report. This is it.
Hattip: Burning Our Money
There is no point in putting up taxes which will stifle any green shoots which might be on the far distant horizon. But equally, tax revenues need to be kept up in order to avoid extra borrowing. So if there are any tax rises in the budget, they need to be highly targeted. I suspect it is the middle classes who may well be hit. Expect higher than average hikes in duties. With unemployment jumping by more than expected, there will be a lot of pressure on Alistair Darling to introduce high impact measures to tackle it. He would be right to do so, but only if they have real impact and are not just gimmicks.
Here are a few things which the Chancellor could do, but I don't expect him to.
1. Announce real cuts in public expenditure of at least 5% each year for the next five years.
2. Abolish RDAs and all the other regional quangos.
3. Announce a sell off of many of remaining government assets, including surplus land.
4. Put VAT up to 20% but in return, increase the income tax threshold for low earners.
5. Cancel the planned rise on the top rate of tax to 45p because most people agree it won't raise extra revenue.
6. Introduce measures to encourage small business start-ups including a tax holiday for the first two years.
7. Introduce new measures to help people back into work.
And as always with a Labour budget. Don't rush to judgement on it immediately. Wait 24 hours until you've read the small print. It's then that they usually unravel. Remember 10p tax?
I'll be commentating on the budget from 12 noon until 3pm on Sky News Unplugged with Martin Stanford, (alongside Alex Hilton) should you wish to press your red button. There will be a CoverItLive chat throughout the Chancellor's speech. But I will also be updating this blog as well. Somehow!
**********************************************************************************
Public borrowing in March was £38 billion - the highest on record. This takes borrowing for the current year to £90 billion. There is nothing more important in the budget that getting a grip of the public finances and getting borrowing under control. All other political and economic priorities must be set aside. We mustn't just get a grip, we need to be seen by the international money markets to get a grip. Borrowing for 2007-8 was predicted to be £38 billion. It will actually be four times that. The IMF thinks the bank bailout cost £200 billion, and has shamefully acceded to Brown's pressure to remove the table from its report. This is it.
Hattip: Burning Our Money
There is no point in putting up taxes which will stifle any green shoots which might be on the far distant horizon. But equally, tax revenues need to be kept up in order to avoid extra borrowing. So if there are any tax rises in the budget, they need to be highly targeted. I suspect it is the middle classes who may well be hit. Expect higher than average hikes in duties. With unemployment jumping by more than expected, there will be a lot of pressure on Alistair Darling to introduce high impact measures to tackle it. He would be right to do so, but only if they have real impact and are not just gimmicks.
Here are a few things which the Chancellor could do, but I don't expect him to.
1. Announce real cuts in public expenditure of at least 5% each year for the next five years.
2. Abolish RDAs and all the other regional quangos.
3. Announce a sell off of many of remaining government assets, including surplus land.
4. Put VAT up to 20% but in return, increase the income tax threshold for low earners.
5. Cancel the planned rise on the top rate of tax to 45p because most people agree it won't raise extra revenue.
6. Introduce measures to encourage small business start-ups including a tax holiday for the first two years.
7. Introduce new measures to help people back into work.
And as always with a Labour budget. Don't rush to judgement on it immediately. Wait 24 hours until you've read the small print. It's then that they usually unravel. Remember 10p tax?
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