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Comments

[John Stirman]

So! What help for the pensioners?
As usual keep feeding the fat Pigs.

[Ian]

Well it seems like the Labour party are in panic and failing to deliver their promises again. I will be worse off and struggle to see why cutting vat will encourage spending and will simply cost retail companies thousands if not millions in changes to pricing within shops and stores. Meanwhile people who evade vat and the black economy will thrive. Concentrate on the benefit fraudsters and crooks who are trafficing goods and drugs. Also the super rich who are avoiding tax in offshore accounts and complicated trust schemes.

[John Smith]

So many things have been left untouched .
Why did we not use this opportunity to bring the banks and utility companies into the real world ?
And into line .
They have so much public money yet their arrogance is breathtaking .
A real missed opportunity .

[Peter Shearn]

A very bold move indeed.
Will prices drop nationally by 2.5% (or whatever the backward calculation works out at)? I doubt it myself.
Will the costs of converting VAT levels and re-pricing goods be prohibitive?
Will the smell of outright panic from the government make everyone even more jittery?

Let us hope the people and UK plc genuinely benefit.

[John Portwood]

This is a massive gamble - if there are no 'green shoots of recovery' what does the Government do?

I don't think VAT reduction will affect spending - however giving benefits to the poorer will.

However what happens in 2011 #assuming everything works out - and that is unlikely given previous forecasts# - when National Insurance contributions goes up - this will take more money straight out of the economy and kill any consumer-led growth.

I think any help for businesses in administration #not free I gather as interest will still be charged# should be appreciated and it may help some survive. Of course the question is: How many businesses will struggle on deferring VAT/ TAX payments and then fold - leaving the Government with bad debt instead of revenue?

[John Ball]

This nonsense reminded me of Labour budgets under Wilson.

Dare I suggest that Brown is trying to bribe his flat hat supporters with their own money?

[dave]

Would love to participate in answering your questionaire however I can't select none of the political parties when it comes to who do I trust to run the economy.

[Richard Kirton]

Those on Pension Credit receive higher benefits than those who have worked all of their life and receive the just state pension. How can it be right to pay tax after just £6000 of earnings yet somebody on Pension credit receiving free rent and council council pay no tax at all and this income is around £15000 a year. The British Tax System is unfair and needs a radical change.

There is no incentive for those in average jobs to do well or do things right in this crazy society.

Why save, buy a house or worry about a pension. You might just as well have kids, demand a council house, spend every penny that you get and let the state pay for everything when you retire

[Beryl Kirton]

I see this as just giving more money to those who have paid in less to the system. How can somebody who has paid and worked in this country all of their life end up at retirement qualifying for less. Typically Britain has always paid the most to those who have paid in and worked the least.

A punitive tax system that benefits the idle.

[M]

There seems to be a lot of people complaining, but no one has a solution. I am sure that the government is doing what it can, but I think they have been too reactive or the BOE has been. Maybe too little, too late. I would like to see small-medium businesses given some sort of help so they don't have to lose staff. I think lot of public sector non jobs should go and some of these govenment funded quangos.

[will]

the country is on the road to bankruptcy and labour is pursuing a policy of scorched earth. is it any surprise that they have timed the tax rises for after the next election even tho they belive that the ecconomy will be grown again by june next year.
whats worse is that the "fiscal stimulus" or bribe in english, wont effect the ecconomy, how is a 2.5% cut in vat going to help when companies are already offering massive discounts to try to get customers through the door? labour are going to spend 1% of our gdp trying to revive the ecconomy, yet the ecconomy is predicted to decrease in size by at least 1.5%, so how exactly will that get us back into possitive teritory? even labours spending is stupidly targetted, public spending is dead money as soon as the construction has finished, you spend £1million on a school refurb and you employ a few builders, but once that refurb has been done the building is completely ecconomically inactive.
is it not also hillarious that labour think that they will get people into jobs by promising employers that it will cost them more to employ people in the future. it is another case of them saying they are contemplating cutting stamp duty, so obviously people waited for the cut in stamp duty to kick in to start buying houses. do they really think it will be anything diffrent in regard to the National Insurance hike? do they really think businesses are going to take on new employees in the knowledege that every new employee will add at least £100 extra to their tax bill. businesses are more likely to lay people off in anticipation of the tax rise.

if this is no more boom and bust. can we please go back to it?

[Giordano Bennetti]

The VAT changes will actually cost a lot of money to small and big companies alike as they try to implement the changes into their software. One week's notice is ridiculously short - particularly when compared to the other changes that will take place next April or in the (let's hope very unlikely) chance of Gordon winning a General Election.
Will it help blunt the recession? Maybe a bit.
Will it be worth the tax increases to come?
Who knows. Darling and Brown certainly don't know - but they have nothing to lose by being seen to try something.

[Cobbler]

When the labour government was first elected disaster was inevitable, as in Harold Wilson's reign.

[Rob]

Its too little too late, on borrowed money that we will all have to pay back later because Gordon jilted Prudence many years ago & spent the lot! As in USA its overdue time for a change...

[Clive Dudley]

As a retailer, I cannot see the 2.5% VAT reduction having any effect. All my stock items (furniture) are sold at price points. So, if I sell something at £99.95, with the new VAT rate it ought to be £97.82. That won't encourage anyone to buy! And I would have to have all new tickets produced. More expense!

[Rob Lane]

Too little,too late.No doubt we will all end up paying for this cockup.

[Michael Izza, Chief Exec, ICAEW]

Today’s Pre-Budget Report will be judged on whether it helps rebuild business and consumer confidence. Changes to tax time-to-pay arrangements, the extension of loss relief and the freezing of corporation tax for small businesses will have a positive impact in terms of cash flow, the biggest priority for most companies. Only time will tell if the measures announced today will help British businesses through what could be a very deep and damaging recession.

[Gail]

A lot of it is too little, too late. Having been seriously implicated in allowing the situation to occur, now try to be the rescuing hero. Why wait to implement the higher tax band? Where is the legislation to limit the power of the financial world,and ensure the gifts the government have given them (from my money, permission not given)are passed on. My mortgage rate remains the same, my savings have all dropped dramatically!

[peter]

Too little too late. The cut in VAT will not be passed to consumers, instead business will pocket the difference to increase their own margins. People will still hang on waiting for prices to drop, causing deflation. The Chancellors suggestion that the recession will ease half way through 2009 is pie in the sky. This is the same Chancellor who much earlier insisted that the UK would avoid a recession, was in a much better financial position than other EU countries to weather any storm and he did not need to raise extra taxes to combat a downturn. All hopelessly wrong and inaccurate. Those of us still working in 2010/11 will see a huge increase in direct and indirect taxation. But Darling wont need to worry because he and Brown will not be around to explain why.

[simon gill]

another sham

[Darren Ward]

I don't actually condone the act of trying to get people to spend more money - not that this PBR will.

I can appreciate the measures to help with mortgage difficulty, but more should be done to help businesses.

Forcing the energy companies to cut fuel costs will not work. This doesn't mean they shouldn't, but, doing it off their own backs is preferable.

Let's not forget, this Govt. could do more for the man in the street by cutting the excessive fuel duty, which would reduce overheads, food costs and probably put more in the pocket than anything in the PBR.

While we're at it, reinstate the 10p tax bracket. My household lost out, but will not benefit from the pathetic attempt to put it right.

[Ali Murray]

How pathetic are we in this country? Lots about tax & spend. Nothing about our wealth waning & moving East - sometimes in spikes as recently. We need to be talking about how to be clearly the BEST. Lets really get educated not the tokenism & spin we use to gloss over our problems. Lets start by banning any restrictive practice in government or government contracts. Wealth = PRODUCTIVITY & STRATEGY

[Roger]

The PBR encourages more borrowing by those who put the banks in trouble in the first place. There is no encouragement to save for pensions or a rainy day. Just spend, spend spend and the Government will reward your profligracy with Tax Credits unavailable to the honest provident person.

[Dek Crossingham]

Brown and his Darling are second rate actors trying to be a first class act.
Guess what? Nobody with one more brain cell than an amoeba is buying tickets!

[John Barnes]

Darling needed to take lower paid out of tax altogether and cut much of the waste in public spending if he was to get spending plus confidence. That wd have helped lower interest rates to work. This is a badly structured package and we will have to pay for it, crippling growth as we emerge from the recession. Not very bright.

[Simon]

As a middle income worker with a family and a wife on a low income, I will, as usual under this dreadful government, be worse off because of the rise in National Insurance contributions. The temporary drop in the VAT rate will make no difference to us because our entire earnings are spent on mortgage, fuel and food. There is nothing left with which to buy VAT-rated goods, and no prospect of replacing the rattly old car which I need for my journey to work, and which will attract higher road tax in future. This government has been fleecing the working people of our country for years; its wild spending programme has come unstuck and the same old suckers are forced to foot the bill.

[RICHARD A YOUNG]

To much money is being taken out of the system by those who have not
contributed to it. Until this is
stopped, nothing will improve!

Those who work are constantly paying
for those who think everything in
Britain is free, and, that they are
entitled to it!

[Dave bridge]

Brown is a master of giving you penny's while he takes pounds through the back door

[DeeDee99]

Darling is gambling on a short-term boost to the economy - with huge pain to follow in a couple of years when things (hopefully) start to improve.

His insistence that the UK is well-placed to weather the recession is complete rubbish. The man sitting to his left, who was Chancellor for 10 years, is responsible for leaving the UK in the worst possible position to get through it. We are heading for the worst debt levels EVER - after a period of 16 years' uninterrupted growth. Disgraceful.

The content of the PBR: particularly the rises in benefits coming into force in January is the clearest possible indicator yet that (despite all the denials) Gordon is planning a Spring Election. I had been expecting June 2009, but he will now go sooner. Probably April - hoping that the worst of the recession won't have hit because of the short-term boost he's given it.

It is now time for the Tories to come up with an honest and credible explanation of what they would do differently, and why. The British people are not as stupid as Labour thinks. They can see what Gordon has in store, if he wins a General Election.

[Peter Whateley]

A two and a half percent cut in VAT will not start a stampede for the high street. If it does then increased sales of flat-screen tvs made in the Far East will not benefit GB economy.
I think all political leaders are gambling on losing the next election.

[Russ]

This will cost my business money the changes in the VAT flat rate amounts will cost 0.45%, so thats really going to help!

2.5% drop in VAT is so small as to not affect my purchasing, even if retailers choose to implement it which I doubt. They are currently dropping prices by 20% and people arn't buying so 2.1% (which is what 2.5% vat equates to) off the gross price is nothing.

[Jeremy James]

Afraid Darling's mountain produced a series of mice. Never seen an Osborne speech before - thought he did exactly what the opposition should do, eviscerated the government. I suspect this is the true beginning of the end of New Labour.

[tom]

I think Mrs Darilng have done the best work for the U.K.society

[Bernard Mahan]

The government have yet again demonstrated that they no nothing of business or even consumers.
A 2.5 per cent reduction in VAT is not going to make us all rush out and buy. Apart from the cost to those businesses who do pass on the reduction it is most unlikely that prices will actually come down. Many retailers who sell at an inclusive price, where the VAT element is not obvious, will merely pocket an a little extra profit in the same way as did the banks when the bank rate was reduced.

[Mark]

Smoke and Mirrors yet again. We need to tighten belts and live within our means. This is just aimed at gathering votes but I trust the voting public will see it for what it is........dearer petrol, beer, fags and so on..........hey ho.....and it is still bloody grey and dreary outside.

[Claire W]

Crazy, crazy, crazy. The sooner this inept lot goes, the better.

[paul melville]

I believe with rising unemployment now and most certainly post the NIC willtheir move people to save their money for the uncertain times ahead.

[Mike]

Borrowing and low interest rates got us into this fiasco. How come more of the same will get us out? The G20 worries me, other than a change of US president (in January) the participants are the exactly the same people who allowed this to happen, and they can fix it! Talk about lions led by donkeys! The IMF, OECD and now the German chancellor thinks Gordon Browns' ideas are wrong, just watch the pound fall.

Its a complete waste of time; the best solution would have been to take the money being used to bail out the banks and divide that equally amongst every tax-payer in the country; so those on benefit and working illegally would get nothing, whilst those that work legitimately would (deservidly) benefit. They could do 1 of 3 things with the windfall.....
1. Spend it ......helping to kickstart the economy.
2. Reduce personal debt ..... therefore giving them more money to spend and kickstart the economy
3. Save it.

[Penny Sutton]

This government is suffering from financial Munchausen's syndrome by proxy. First you injure the patient and then run around "helping" it!
Surely we are only making this situation a hundred times worse than it is already? A little bit of medicine now or major surgery in 5 years perhaps?

[Wildwood]

The Conservative response to this crisis and their comments about the Chancellors announcement were childish and irresponsible. Whilst the measures seem not address the heart of the crisis, at least the government is facing up to the problem. Vince Cable's response was far more constructive by wanting to regulate the banks and get them lending again. However it's a shame we still live in an economy where growth and constant use of finite resources is the only way forward, something will eventually have to give and change and none of the parties are facing up to the changes needed for a future for our grandchildren. We have to live within the planets means

[Terry]

Dose any body remember Argentina and the way they tried to sort there Fiscal problems, It is the same principles that Brown is embarking on God help; us all

[David Meyer]

Just when the economy is predicted to emerge from recession (in Mr Darling's rose-tinted judgement), the Chancellor plans to hit us with a tax increase.

All this PRB does is prime the economy for a minor pre-election bounce and lays the foundations for the next bust.

Madness!

[Paul Savage]

Another non event from the shambles of New Labour. VAT down 2.5% fantastic. 15p off a bottle of wine will solve all problems. They're weak and stupid but why do they have to keep proving it?

[Andrew smith]

Complete rubbish, how exactly can we expect Darling and Brown to sort out the country when it seems Brown can't even let Darling run the Treasury. This pre-budget is short sighted, doesn't really help anyone past 2011 and provides a bad example to the nation who have fattened themselves too long on cheap credit by using the country's credit to sort them out.

[MARK]

what exactly are VATman and dobin giving away? this tax cut will not benifit myself as i have no spare income to splash out on extras in the shops!!! but i will end up paying for this in the future when income tax is raised. BANG! POW! SPLAT! right below the belt.

[Rosie Cotton]

George Osbourne was superb in direct contrast to the, eh, right honourable ladies and gentlemen on the other side of the house.

Mandelson: Try as you might you can't bring Cameron or Ozzy down, can you?

What's Plan B, then?

[serry]

The pensioners, people on benefits or with children, self employed etc are all getting something from this. As a single working person with no children at home, as usual I get nothing, and, in fact, will be worse off eventually as I'll have to pay higher national insurance, and my glass of wine will also cost more. If they wanted to help everyone, they should have legislated to make the utilities reduce their charges by 2/3rd as the oil price per barrel is now 1/3 of what it was when they found it necessary to increase the charges!

[MKanji]

The Banks get into trouble and get £37 billion in bailouts - and the rest of UK plc gets £20 billion - its obvious the 'stimulus' is not enough - and Darling, just to you know, your 2.5p won't make an iota of difference!

[Carrie]

Pointless, and expensive.

I can't see how this is going to help the economy at all.

And, it all has to be paid back in spades.

Cutting back on civil servants would help.

[A SMITH]

THey should have scrapped stamp duty and HIPS and used additional borrowing to further ease credit problems. The housing market and capital transactions are. Get that moving and everything else will follow. The rest is just tinkering round the edges but that has always been Brown's way.

A Smith

[John Gentle]

Although there is a large global element in this crisis, the UK economy has been desperately weakened by this profligate Labour government. The economy is carrying a desperate amount of public sector waste and deadweight, and this budget, with its overoptimistic "growth" forecasts and the fantasy efficiency savings which Mrs Balls is going to magic is unconvincing and nowhere near radical enough. More should have been done to cut costs for the private sector by means of reducing NI contributions ... but Labour's far-too-large and molly-coddled client state has to paid for.

[Marcher Baron]

If VAT is cut on petrol/diesel, but the escalator keeps the price the same (as with tobacco and alcohol), then surely small businesses will be worse off. They pay the same amount, but can claim back less in VAT. That's effectively a tax INCREASE (like the 10p fiasco). Does Labour ever do its sums?

[Steve]

Limiting the downturn requires that people retain access to credit so that they retain the confidence to spend. Monetary policy would be much more powerful, but is currently not as effective as it should be as the banking system remains under stress. This is where the government could have taken forensic action rather than take out an ultimately ineffective IOU. History will look very unkindly on this Government and Britain will lose out globaly. If Fred Godwin at RBS had to go then so should Gordon Brown. He represents a calamatous failure of leadership.

[cel]

I think the 2.5% VAT reduction will definitely help the construction industry. On a relatively small £2M job, it's worth about £50K. Clients can begin projects sooner than they thought or increase the number of items in a building, helping the supply chain. The saving may also cover the additional cost of making buildings more sustainable.

[Tom]

It was debt that got us in this situation in the first place with the near collapse of the financial markets, putting at risk the savings of millions of ordinary people. Labour's solution to borrow more is totally irresponsible and will make the situation worse. We have been living beyond our means with record levels of personal debt and it is inevitable that some time soon the debt, whether personal or national, will have to be paid off. But the real loosers in the meantime are the prudent people who were not lured by the banks offer of unlimited credit and continued to save - interest rates now at there lowest levels for a long time. So what message are the government giving out ???

[Dragon]

My Income Tax went up 100% due to the 10% Tax band being cut. That was £245 taken out of my cost of living increase in pensions of £330. That is a lot of money out of a pension of only £8,060 p.a. Too high to get Pension Tax Credits, but too low to afford to pay my increased bills out of the £1.63 per week I was left with. My meagre savings are disappearing fast just to pay the bills. Whooppee doo. I am getting £120 back as a tax rebate this year, but I have still lost £125 which is nothing to the Govt. but would have paid my electric bill for a whole 3 months. It seems the £120 rebate is going to stay, but it doesn't make up for the loss of the 10% Tax Band.
Why does a single person get £1,000 Working Tax Credit on earnings of £9,000, when a pensioner gets no Pension Tax Credit on a pension of £6,700? Why don't we get Pension Tax Credit on the same limit? That would take most pensioners out of poverty at a stroke, and as it would be means tested, only low paid pensioners would benefit. Of course that's too easy for Brown and the idiot puppet Darling to work out if they can't grasp the fact that stealing £245 off pensioners, who are already the lowest paid in the country, then handing back less than half is a fair deal. They need to go back to school and study mathematics.

[Maurice Smith]

Richard Kirton 17.43. You are so right; I have been arguing this very point for ages - all to no avail. Just the same, pensioners haven't done so badly for a change; they will still be out of pocket come April but it could have been worse.

The big mistake (and it will come back to haunt them, just as the 10p debacle still does) is committing over 60% of the budget's 'investment' into VAT reduction.

The stimulus was needed through increasing the personal allowance, putting real money into the hands of people who would spend it, as often as not out of sheer necessity.

[tone]

dave,
the lib dems, for all their faults, have an excellent brain in vince cable. i would trust him and voted on that basis, but not for their party policies.

[Ceanne Barrett]

Just how out of touch are the Labour Party if they think this will make a difference.
I heard on a news report today that the reduction in VAT will knock 25P off a round of drinks....don't make me laugh.

[Ian, Durham]

I can't see why everybody is worrying about repricing items due to the temporary reduction in VAT. Why not just put notices around the shop saying that all prices will be reduced by 2% (roughly equal to the 2.5% additional tax) at the till. That way the reduction will be highly visible and overcomes the stupid 'pricing points' which become so wearysome in the shops.

[tony c]

An opportunity wasted.
Too little too late.
What about government and local government waste ?
What is needed is less government,lower public spending,and less taxation.
This government couldn't be trusted to run a whelk stall.
Would you employ any of them to do a job in the real world ?

[John Ganley]

We now see nulabour in their true light a nasty left wing government.Why don't they just go to the country for a general election and see what the british people's view on the brown bounce would be

[Andy]

Same old same old labour give in one hand and take it back in the other hand
what a waste of time

Was this surposed to help us get of trouble?

The trouble was caused by labour in the 1st place by all the borrowing they done

[Keith]

2.5% reduction in Vat is deminimus.
The Chancellor should have reduced income tax so extra money would be in peoples pocket.

[Helmut Koisser]

Government,Banks and the General Public must reduce their debt considerably-until then the economy will not improve.Having created an economy based on debt the mirage of success has now disappeared.Growth is not everything-stability will be the key.

[Dave]

Utter nonsense.

It strikes me that an obvious part of the solution is to cut back on the bloated, wasteful state machine which Labour has created. Savings here could be redeployed into true investments such as capital infrastructure projects, scientific research aiming to create spin-offs to underpin a more diversified future economy and so on.

[Shaun Hexter, London]

This PBR was not about economics but politics - if it wins the next election for Labour then it worked. It may well win the party the election - but all of us will be losers. As someone else has said, tax reductions are for life not just for Christmas. The Government overtaxes us in order to overspend. Borrowing to get out of debt has never worked, and never will. As for increasing NI - it should have been scrapped. Let's call a tax a tax.

[Nick]

In 10 years of plenty this government spent every penny - and also borrowed to the hilt. At the same time they let the financial sector go wild - and expanded the public sector massively (2/3 of all new jobs). Absolutely incompetent. Then when the hard times arrived it was a godsend for Gordon Brown: here was a perfect excuse to take everyone's eye's off his failure, blame the rest of the world, borrow even more (so much it risks the nation's future), bribe the massses to vote for him, and if he doesn't get in leave a massive poison pill for the Conservatives to try to deal with. Overall, here's a Prime Minister who has put his person lust for power above the nation's survival.

[Mike Smith]

How will the promise of raising NI (effective Tax on employment)help create more jobs? How will a 2.5% cut in VAT stimulate people to buy when shops are giving away 10% to 40% and still having difficulty. We are not learning the lessons! where is the incentive to save and invest for the future? why so much red tape to start in business? what about incentives to help new wave manufacturing? Why hasn't Stamp Duty been abolished, or reduced, to kick start the Housing market. Brown and Darling have no answers, if they had they wouldn't have got us into this mess in the first place!

[Disgruntled of Essex]

This PBR amounts to nothing less than a tacit recognition by the government that it has mishandled the economy for the past decade, leading us into what is now nothing less than an unmitigated catastrophe. The government's actions are wrong on every level and the sooner we are rid of them the better.
It makes no sense to borrow more when we can least afford it. There is no real injection of money into the economy, because we all know that what little we get now will have to be paid back - and much more besides - in a couple of year's time.
If it seems bad on the basis of the PBR tax increases, it will be worse still in reality because the predicted growth on which the government's sums depend will (as always) turn out to be wildly optimistic.

[T Ives]

VAT cut is a clever trick to raise inflation when deflation is expected to kick in. Most retail prices will see a rise just when deflation is threatening. There can be no expectation that the VAT cut will be passed on widely.

[BILL]

what a farce.. the tinkering of reduced percentage points on vat combined with increases on nat ins and income tax will simply persuade people NOT to spend..Ignoring the wrong headed left/right ideologiocal waffle, the Govt has simply mortgaged our futures and to achieve what? its simple .. All Darling has done is promised to max out all the centralized credit cards and then told us that we have to pay them off! Worse still, it's entirely likely we wont see any significant benefit from all this becos the Govt has a proven and highly visable track record of being appallingly inefficent at controlling or directing the funds the UK tax payer provides them with .. the wasteage is utterly staggering and obscene..in the realms of £99 Billion a year according to the Eurpean bank..my 8 year old son would likely make a better fist of it - if they simply tied off all the loose ends they could solve this issue without borrowing a penny..but it appears that they would rather sell the UK to the international money lenders.

[robert marshall]

Why does Labour think they know best? All they should have done was raise personal allowances and reduce and reduce personl tax, and ;let teh peopel decide where they spend their money.

This is Brown tinkering again and delivering nothing as has always been his problem.

[N Reed]

WE know we have to cut back hard so the banks can repay £750bn over about 2 years, So why put it off?
Start now. It will be more difficult to repay after this budget.
the level of Public borrowing and total spending should not be decided by politicians it should be decided by the BoE with resposibility for allocation only, lying with politicos.
To avoidn this mess happening again, the BoE should bring back monitoring of M3 the money supply so we don't get caught out by a flood of cheap foreign debt funding.

[Eddy Carroll]

If the reduction in VAT creates spending it will also increase expenditure on the imports bought, no help for our balance of trade.
Many of the people being encouraged to spend are already in debt and if they have any sense will ignore the call to shop.
We need an honest reduction of government spending starting with the quangos and getting rid of the many questionable PC appointments, then removing the consultants being paid to do the work of the civil service and ministers (Browns £171m for a start).
Then stop the money wasting initiatives that cause so much extra work for the teachers, police, NHS and the like.
Stop the target culture which distorts efforts to meet targets and is riddled with the law of unintended consequences.
Then day 2-

[Dave White]

Tax CUTS????

I will be hundreds of pounds a year worse off. Why? Because I worked hard at school, worked hard at university and work 80 hours a week to make decent money.

If I was lazy at school and worked in a skivvy job or signed on the dole this government would be my friend. As it is, I detest them more than I can describe.

This is a return to old-fashioned socialism - in fact we've had that for the last 11 years - it's just that the Grinning Chimp was good at fooling the oafs who voted Labour inot power.

You fools. You got the government you deverve. Unfortunately I have to suffer them too.

[Doggerel]

In olden times, all statements about "The Budget" or the economy, included references to "Productivity".
I do not recall "Productivity" getting a mention in the PBR. Like Prudence, it seems to have been cast out into the wilderness.

We are now in the realms of fairyland. Money obtained from debt, not earnings, shifted around from pillar to post, in dribs and drabs, hoping for the best.

Why not acknowledge that the country has been living beyond its means for eleven years, and now must face the reckoning.

The only way this debt will ever be paid off is by inflationary printing of money.

Note also that nothing has been said about the off-balance-sheet unfunded liabilities of public-sector pensions, and nothing about student loans, which are another burden on the next generation which will pick up this tab.

[JJH]

Bankrupt of ideas, the Labour Party are now set to bankrupt the Country!

What a shower; the sooner we are rid of them Brown and his incompetent crew the better.

[Paul Rance]

OK on Pensions and Child Benefit
VAT cut is irrelevant to consumers but will probably help company profits
Car Tax is a gimmick
A lot of the other "cuts" are just delaying extra costs so nobody is going to feel better off.
Will the Inland Revenue charge interest on delayed tax payments ?
Marks 2 out of 10, must do better!

[Mike O' Connor]

Pitiful and pathetic. What else are they hiding from us? Why do we pay these cretins exotic retainers merely to guarantee debt for future generations?

[rob]

The only way we can mitigate the affects of this recession is to take a bloody great double edged battle axe and use it where it does most good on Public expenditure and the bloodsucking bureaucratic structures that underpin this rotten edifice that is New Labour.

[rob]

The only way we can mitigate the affects of this recession is to take a bloody great double edged battle axe and use it where it does most good on Public expenditure and the bloodsucking bureaucratic structures that underpin this rotten edifice that is New Labour.

[Vanessa Day]

If Alastair Darling really thinks I'm going to go and spend £100 just to save £2.50 on VAT, and someone else's job, then he's sorely mistaken. I no longer trust the government or the bank with my money, so it's going under my bed. It's patronizing to think we'll fall for this codswallop.

[Tim]

The final throw of the dice. Even these terrifying figures will be way off the mark as no way we will start to climb out of this in Summer next year as he assumes. A promise of another £5b in efficiency cuts sounds encouraging or ceratinly would be if it was £20b, but then he knows that he relies on that bloated state sector to even consider the possibility of being re elected, so no chance of this turning into reality, purely playing to the galleries.

[David]

What a wasted opportunity. Darling could have cancelled the 5% VAT on domestic energy costs to help everyone, particularly the less well off.

It seems to me that if you have worked hard and saved you will be penalised by falling interest rates and impact on pension funds.

Labour, like so many in this country fail to understand that you only borrow what you can afford to repay.

[eric spielman]

Global trade has been a fiasco and led to global recession.
We are successful in export trade agreements and rather than to invest in past reckless bank deals we should invest in new business. Similar to the Export Guarantee Department we should construct a domestic guarantee department where we standard sound minimum contract conditions promote new business. the contract for car sales can specify a minimum UK content to make sure that our factory will not be shut down and our jobs saved.

[Stuart Sidebotham]

I am a third year student and I think the reduction in VAT will help in the short run but in the long run of things, it will cause a major problem in 10 months with a big national debt and also people earning over £130,000 a year will have to be taxed 45%,this is not acceptable. Most people who is earning that much has worked hard to get there and now they are being told that almost half their salary is going to be taxed! If I was earning that much I would leave this country until that tax is lowered.

[sarah sevastopulo]

The Chancellor doesn't live in the real world - spending billions on cutting VAT will not encourage people to spend more as they just don't have the money in their pockets. He should have either sent everyone a cheque to the value of the VAT windfall divided by the number of adults in the country or readjusted the tax threshold to take this into consideration. Secondly why wait to tax the super rich for two years? All he has done is to dig this country further into debt.
Sort the banks out and give people more money in their pockets and then maybe we can spend our way out of recession and hopefully no more businesses will go tot he wall.

[tony]

>:)^"*^%$?::{£!!.,/;'_--!!!
Just about says it all.
..please flush the loo when you have finished !!

[Mick Reilly]

I, like a lot of others, will have an increased N I contribution yet will have gained nothing from this sham.

I will have to pay for the privilidge of watching 'the less well off' get more hand outs from the government. This sham is about saving Gordons skin not the economy if it is of any worth other countries would be following.. are they?

[John Moore]

I do the wages for my company every week. That those earning close to minimum wage still pay tax is an absolute disgrace. Darling could have done something about this, but clearly prefers his Tax & Squander policies.
In my view this recession has been brewing up for six years - and I think it is going to take us at least as long to come out of it, if we are lucky.

[Bee]

This was a perfect opportunity to reform our tax system, what a waste of effort.
I live in a Labour metropolis, they will vote for anything with a labour placard. Guess what most are on benefits or pension credits. Work hard and get less, just wish I was young enough to leave.

[David Crosby]

Labour have brought this country into this mess. They have spent and spent without saving for this. The 2.5% VAT cut is not good. This will not help at all and in the future we will have to pay it back. Labour are planning id cards which will cost a lot of money what we dont have. So lets Cancel the plan for ID cards WE DONT NEED THEM. they are just wasting tax payers money. People are not silly and know all these tax cuts will affect us in the future. I say lets get a General Election now.

[Chris C]

This is one way to ensure a political legacy. Brown knows he has no chance of winning the next election, therefore borrow to the hilt now and delay severe tax increases til after the election so the incoming Tory government will be left with an impossible mess. Then he sits back and waits for 5 years to continue down the path to a Socialist State.

[Michael Antoniou]

Whatever happended to a combined monetary and fiscal policy working toegther. At the moment, monetary policy appears to be dead! As a result, the budget needed to be more drastic, but should in any case have been combined with another Bank of England reduction in interest rates.

[Peter Christensen]

It seems that 'New Labour' is shifting to the extreme Left.
Talk of Nationalisation, forcing organisations which are not public organisations to do what the Governments wants and showing a general Dictatorial posture.
Also increasing the number of Government employees will weaken the economy - they do not create wealth, they suck it dry, especailly with the FAT guaranteed pensions that public sector workers get!!and we, the public, have to pay for them.
This government has lost all credibility. The current Prime Minister has to be the worst we have ever had. As Chancellor he sold our Gold Reserves when Gold was at its lowest rate, the manifesto promis of a referendum on Europe was never honoured and he has led a policy of boom and bust with borrowing beyond belief and we will all have to pay for this, as will our children. It is a disgrace.

more spin more rubbish, please let us have an election to enable us to be rid of these con men.
adrian martell

[Eric Pascal]

More should be done to keep people employed, other than government employees. Certainly not increase cost of employment

[paul]

A holiday from Stamp Duty on house sales is the sollution to the credt crunch. Remove it for 6months then gradually reintroduce it at levels a little higher than at present. Get the housing market going and people will buy new curtains, washing machines, garden sheds, etc. Those that sell will buy new cars and new frocks. If the market looks like overheating (what a fantasy) simply jack up rates and stamp duty again.