Why the Net has the advantage in the ‘Undies world’
- Shopping blogger Emma Iannarilli
Budget – Labour hits the well-off
Wednesday 22nd April 2009, 2:18PM BST.
Chancellor Alistair Darling today announced a “soak the rich” Budget by forcing the wealthy to help Britain escape the worst economic depression since the Second World War.
He also hit drinkers, smokers and motorists with increased duties on alcohol, cigarettes, petrol and diesel in a bid to boost Treasury coffers.
But there also good news for motorists when the Chancellor finally succumbed to pressure from the motor industry for a car scrapping scheme, which will offer a discount of £2,000 on new cars until March 2010 provided the vehicles jettisoned is at least 10 years old.
The Chancellor revealed shocking figures for the amount the country will have to borrow to stay afloat over the next two years. He predicted borrowing levels in total for the next two years of £348 billion. It means Britain’s total net debt has now risen to around three quarters of a trillion pounds, the equivalent of more than half of what the UK produces in total in a year.
Mr Darling’s tax bombshell was specifically targeted at high earners. He proposed raising income tax for anyone earning more than £150,000 a year to 50p in the pound from next April – a year earlier than the 45 per cent new rate he announced last December. Pension tax relief will also be restricted for those earning £150,000 and people earning more than £100,000 with also lose their personal tax allowance.
Alcohol duty will rise by two per cent from midnight and taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products will go up by the same amount from 6pm.
The Chancellor revealed a 2p increase in fuel duty in the autumn, followed by 1p plus inflation from next April for the next four years.
State pensions will rise by at least 2.5 per cent this year and the winter fuel allowance will remain at £250 this year.
The child element of the child tax credit will go up by £20 from next April, and statutory redundancy pay will rise by £30 to £380 a week.
Sponsored Links
Business Awards
Book a Business Awards table
Join our celebrations of the region's best in business on Thursday March 22 - book your table now
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
So those who work hard all their life have to taxed to hell, those who drive won’t be able to afford to go to work or go out any where. Rip off UK next we will be TAXED FOR THE AIR WE BREATH….
Report abuse
i’m sure this higher new tax rate, for those on 150K, won’t effect many E&S readers
Although we might not be able to say the same for those who work at the E&S. I base this on the shock horror probe headline.
Tax as to come from somewhere & where better than those who can afford to pay it.
Report abuse
crikey it sure will hurt all those `honourable gentlemen` where it hurts.
Report abuse
One only has to look at the Budget a couple of weeks ago in the Irish Republic to see how worse it is for them. By comparison we have got off lightly at the moment.I am glad we are not in the Euro. By the way the Express and Star likes to dramatise everything just a little too much. That’s the media today unfortunately.
Report abuse
It may seem we’ve got off lightly but we haven’t.
The government are well aware of a looming election next summer. Therefore they’re choosing short term gain for long term pain.
Minimal pain and cut backs now….conveniently all the pain and cut backs will fall under the next government.
Wait for NuLabour to deny all responsibility in 18 months time for the mess we’re in. What a great legacy.
Report abuse
Sure keep on taxing the working man, people like my husband who have worked their way to the top by slogging his guts out for the same company over the last 36 years. with no time off sick (could not afford the prescription charges anyway) just to provide the dolites with enough money for their luxuries. and before you start moaning over the immigrants we have 5 families nearby all in private rented houses, all with 3 or more kids , all out of work for a minimum of 7 years and all happy to tell you they are not going to work for the forseeable future, because they could not afford the rent or poll tax on their properties, everyone of these are british born and bred. no I’m not defending them but I’M SICK TO DEATH OF KEEPING SCROUNGERS WHATEVER THEIR NATIONALITY.
Report abuse
Well said 2, 3 and 4.
You’re never going to read in the E&S that the level of public debt as a proportion of GDP was actually higher, at 7%, under John Major than it’s ever been under Blair or Brown.
Not a lot of people know that, because they are blind with their love for David “New Labour” Cameron.
Report abuse
12.48: Under 25 long-term jobless will either be offered a job or extra training from January.
What!!!!!!!!
people that will not work should be made to do sweep streets clean canal banks etc…. for 30 hours per week if they complete 30 hours per week then they get the income support or whatever its called if not the money should be cut….
I appreciate there are people that cant work I have no problem with the genuine cases but I know of at least 5 people that scam the system (and yes I have reported them although as far as I am nothing has been done)
sick of working paying all my taxes etc….. for all these scrounging good for nothing layabouts living off handouts!!!
Report abuse
2. 3. 7.
Your attitude is typical of what is wrong with British society.
Those of us who have worked bloody hard to qualify to work in difficult jobs which are usually beyond the capabilities of most good people, are now to be penalised.
Now have to pay more tax than those who revel in the glory of a socialist maxim which has throughout the years helped to bring this once productive country to its knees. Labour, Blair and Brown are responsible for a large percentage of the effects of this recession, and now the minority of high earners are being asked to bail them out?
Victimisation of a minority is hardly the message of New Labour, surely?
Report abuse
Is it me or is the whole country thinking what was the point of v.a.t being reduced (i’ve never seen any differance to my weekly spending) this budget just looks like a re-embursement of any money the Treasurey has lost due to the v.a.t cut, what a joke!!!
Report abuse
Yes David you are correct, but lets wait untill another 5 years after the tories have ruled us again and see what the excuse is for them. Will it be something like this- We are still recovering from the labour governments incompetance or-it will take longer than we first thought. I wonder where we have heard all this from??? They are all the same as each other and the tories couldn’t do any better.
Report abuse
Rip off UK next we will be TAXED FOR THE AIR WE BREATH….
I already am since I pay a 8% climate levy charge on my business gas bill.
Report abuse
Whoopy….
Why the focus on the 50% tax rate that will generate a grand total of 2 billion quid. Peanuts when you weigh up the fact that there will be a 170 billion pound deficit by this time next year.
what difference is it going to make to anyone earning that amount of money anyway. This tax bracket equates to a mere 2% of the population, if you think it makes a difference otherwise you are clearly part of the 40% of tory supporters who believe that they will somehow be earning that amount of money by this time next year if they get into power.
Im dissappointed in this budget, it has no substance! what upsets me most is that the daily mail readers are going to have there wish granted that tories will regain power.
For me, voting either of them would be insane, and firmly believe that although there not in contention the lib dems have been pretty spot on with all policies, taxation, war, nhs, pfi’s, housing etc etc. We need radical change and voting tory is not the answer!
Report abuse
chris g
nice comment you made there about the dolites
i myself am a dolite with 2 children and a partner who is a fulltime parent
i myself am on the dole and have been for nearly 7 months
why ? i hear you ask . simple the government make it easy for me to be on the dole
and i am better off for it why shud i go to work and earn less money than wat i get on the dole
i have a friend who works his nuts off for 7.50 an hour and he takes home less than wat i get on the dole
it is the governments fault for paying us so much for doing nothing
and hes jus given us a a pay rise in the budget by 30 pounds a week in the child tax credits thank you mr darling thats appreciated
i must add that i hate being on the dole
i had a job where i worked hard and i worked long hours i used to work 80+ hrs a week and was paid well for it but unless i can get a job like that again im not going to go back to work
Report abuse
150 grand a year thats 3 grand a week.i am sorry but if i was getting 3 grand a week they could take 80% how can they sleep at night taking 3 grand a week wages when us poor people dont know where the next meal is coming from.
Report abuse
‘From January, people under the age of 25 out of work for 12 months will be offered a place in training or employment.’
- WHAT JOBS? YOU’VE DESTROYED OUR INDUSTRY AND OUT FUTURE. ARE PEOPLE ON THE DOLE GOING TO JOIN IN YOUR £1BN GLOBAL WARMING SCAM? GONNA TRAIN THEM TO KNOCK ON OUR DOORS AND DEMAND NEW TAXES FROM US? THIS DAMN GOVERNMENT AND IT’S DAMN LIES MAKE ME SICK.
Report abuse
Labour isn’t just hitting the well-off..this entire region is suffering the worst of this recession, so what have they done? Robbed Peter to pay Paul; shoved skilled people on dead-end schemes in order to milk the unemployment figures; raised tax on the false pretext of climate change..destroyed currencies. You vote these people in, you know what you have to do to get them out.
Report abuse
Chris g, I am an unemployed ENGLISH man and I don’t appreciate being stereotyped by people like you. You think it’s easy being on the dole? Try it some time. I’m sick of being used as a scapegoat for other people’s bad handling of the economy and for other people’s stupidity/ignorance in general.
Report abuse
These taxes are just extortion rackets we are forced to pay by the gangsters in Government. Time to say enough is enough. The Government make mistakes and it is the working class that end up paying for those mistakes by losing our jobs. These idiots in power that make all these wrong decisions, time and time and time again don’t even get their pay cut. The rich get richer, poor get poorer!
Report abuse
They should just stop taxing the people earning below 20 thousand a year altogether. In the same way they are increasing taxes for people earning 150 thousand a year, they should increase the taxes even further on people earning a million plus a year and so on.
Report abuse
It might be the in thing at the moment to kick the rich but Labour seems to forget that the rich actually create enormous wealth and employment. Whilst there are wealthy tax shirkers out there, it is also important not to kick them all too hard otherwise they will take off and relocate their businesses elsewhere. We are in a major recession and the only way out is to create wealth and encourage entrepreneurs to start businesses.
Historically, Labour governments always tax and spend; consequently they end up bankrupting the country. It will remain to be seen if Mr Darling is right, if he has got his figures wrong (he has in his previous budgets) then Labour deserve everything they get at the next election.
Report abuse
sorry connor davies. your figures are total rubbish. public debt as a proportion of gdp is currently about 47%. by 2014 it will be about 80% – assuming the chancellor’s stupid forecasts are correct. this government will borrow more money in the next 5 years than all prior governments put together.
if public debt was 7% of gdp there would be no problem at all.
Report abuse
Connor- are you having a laugh?
Public debt as a percentage of GDP is now at 50% and rising. It has DOUBLED under NuLabour. It is likely to hit a dangerous level of 75% in the next 5 years.
Where do you think all the money has come from to pay for all those consultants, madcap IT schemes, ID cards, NHS managers and admin (not nurses)?
By the way….that 75% doesn’t even factor in the unfunded pensions deficits for the public sector (a ponzi scheme in itself) nor the PFI debts that have been hidden off the balance sheet.
No doubt you know all this….but didn’t want to mention it.
As for peoples’ blind love of David Cameron, I think it is has become more a blind hatred of Labour, their waste and their greedy expenses claims.
I think we’ll see that next year when people tick the box ‘anyone but Labour’.
Report abuse
this government has lost the plot raising fuel price again is a absolute disgrace! stealth taxes is all this shambolic government is good for ,what happened to the petrol strikes we need that again but ten times worse bring britains roads to a stand still, unite and fight.
Report abuse
Christ! Connor Davis who the hell are you working for…. No let me guess… the labor party. Keep the red flag flying is that what you are saying.. dream on.
Report abuse
I think you have your figures completely wrong. Like Alistair Darling?
Debt – Doubles to 79% of GDP by 2013
Deficit – Rises to £175bn for two years before falling to £97bn in 2013/14.
Yes, that’s right. Debt will be 79% of GDP by 2013. The worst it has ever been. I’m sure you knew that No. 7 but forgot to mention.
Report abuse
Its totally understandable why the wealthy take their money out of the country and opt to live in a tax haven. Why loose over 50% of your hard earned money?
Report abuse
Number 7 (Connor Davies)
I am just about sick of hearing the usual dross about how the left are doing a better job than the right!
The fact remains that Brown and Darling have systematically abused all British citizens using the medium of money and self respect. They are draining society of both!
The Conservatives are forever trying to make wholly necessary savings and Labour come along and blow a massive hole through the middle of it with their “spend spend spend – borrow borrow borrow” policies! The Gordon Brown Legacy of the HIGHEST LEVEL OF NATIONAL DEBT…….EVER will force this great nation into the doldrums for many years to come.
Then what will happen?
The Conservatives will be held to task by the nation for making the hard decisions that Labour refused to make.
This is the mindset of Brown and Darling;
If you have a hole in your bucket and your very expensive water is dripping away, the best way to fix it is by drilling an even bigger hole!
I feel robbed by this budget and I feel robbed by this government!
Report abuse
Won’t somebody think of the children!
Report abuse
It is time to stick 2 fingers at the taxes the Government force upon us. We need a new system of elections/voting. If the elected Government are not doing as they promised, we should be able to take our vote back immediately, none of this 4 years of suffering nonsense.
Report abuse
Off with Brown and Darlings heads. More sufferation for the working class/unemployed, these people have no moral conscience, no more accepting the trash they throw at us and expect us to eat. Rise up and rebel!
Report abuse