1172 days ago
In their 2019 manifesto, the Tories said they would not hike Income Tax or National Insurance. Today we learn that an NI hike of 1-1.25% is planned to help shorten NHS waiting lists and to pay for care for the elderly. So the Tories lied. But it is worse than that. What is proposed is manifestly unjust, it is the transfer of wealth from those without to those with it.
1172 days ago
That is not what she actually said that thaat is exactly what Nana meant as she opined on the Government’s plans to hike National Insurance payments to pay for more care for old folks. As I outlined HERE this is nonsense, it is robbing from the poor and young to subsidise older flks who have benefitted from years of house price inflation which keeps young folks and the poor ever further from owning even a tiny flat.
3900 days ago
The spin doctors of Chancellor George Osborne had leaked much of what he said so it is not as if anyone was waiting with baited breath. What he did serve up was a combination of political posturing and timidity. It is not a conservative budget and it does little for Britain.
Posturing? The Welfare cap of £119 billion. Hmmmm. I am capped in my size 34 trousers but will binge and booze and then buy a pair of 36 inch trousers. Parliament can vote to lift this inflation adjusted cap and will do so.’
£119 billion is a lot of money. A brave Conservative chancellor would be tackling a system where folks like the vile fat slob and, now patron Saint of scroungers, White Dee can pick up £200 a week tax free and regard welfare as a lifestyle option. Forget setting caps that can be lifted. Start tackling welfare abuse. Cut payments. That is what a country running an unsustainable budget deficit needs.
What about the poor? Osborne has lifted the personal tax allowance by a few hundred quid to £10,500. That is simply not enough. It means that folks earning less than £1000 a month are paying tax. The incentive for those living on welfare need to take a low paid job is not just a stick (which Osborne declines to use) but also a carrot – that is to say to lift the tax threshold to £20,000.
What about creating jobs?
4267 days ago
Dear Mr Osborne.
You are in a mess. The left attacks you for wicked cuts. Those with half a brain know that you are not cutting at all. Your budget this week is your last chance and so I offer you a radical set of suggestions to sort out Britain’s ills once and for all. And unlike anything from Vince Cable my ideas stack up.
Your three priorities are:
1. To slash the £100 billion plus budget deficit
2. To encourage those on welfare to take low paid jobs
3. To encourage employers in the private sector to hire aggressively.
As such my first two proposals will initially increase the deficit. To deal with point two you should, at once, declare that all annual incomes under £20,000 should be tax free. Thereafter you pay the standard rate (30%) up to £30,000 and then a higher rate of 50%. National Insurance is not a hypothecated tax and should therefore be scrapped and included in income tax – let us make the system simple and open. This would be tax cuts for all, a huge admin saving by abolishing NI and the tax cuts would be targeted at the lowest paid.
