Are you ready for the Budget?

Prime Minister David Cameron has said the budget deficit will not be dealt with by "just hitting either the rich or the welfare scrounger".

What about 'hitting' both and leaving the overly taxed under funded middle men/women alone?

Every budjet under labour was aimed at the rich to give to the poor - the folks in the middle were left to fend for themselves (and they often went to the banks for the only handout going - how did that end up again?) Unless they had a kid and then they got a massive £17 is it? Wow life changing!

DC - "we're not going to do anything to hurt workers"
Who pays National Insurance?
Workers

DC - "We're not going to do anything to hurt the vulnerable"
Who is going to be worst hit by a rise in VAT?
Pensioners

And my favourite: DC - "We're all in this together,"

Can't believe I'm the first here. Maybe everyone else is bored stiff with it. So here goes: Europe, in its entirety; I.D. cards; Afghanistan, and any other God foresaken hell-hole where we send our kids to die; Half the House of Commons, all the House of Lords, once a home of experts, now a retirement home for useless members of the former; every single quango, responsibility to be taken by whichever minister is relevent; Plastic coppers, and all the other non-jobs invented by the Brown mob to soak up the unemployment figures. Go for it George, just for starters, and watch the idiot bolsheviks scream. But I doubt Auntie will publish it. She'll probably ban it, and give me another slap on the wrist.

1. Abolition of capital gains tax
2. Increase in the threshold of inheritance tax to £1m
3. Reversal of the rate-taper on income tax for those earning above £50k; so, for example, a marginal rate of 0% to apply for income above £100k
4. Abolition of National Insurance (as it is just tax by another name, with the Labour fraud that suggests to their stupid supporters that it is a pot of money set aside for the taxpayer, not realising that it is no such thing) as a simplification measure
5. Trebling of duties on booze and fags; reduction of fuel duties.
6. Staggered cancellation of all benefits payments, compulsory reassessment of all health-related benefits by Armed Forces doctors. Funding for soup kitchens and dormitory hostels.
7. Cancellation of all pension arrangements for public servants
8. Sacking of 50-60% of all public sector employees without compensation and a prohibition on their ever receiving any state benefit; the remainder should have pay cuts (e.g., doctors need a 75% cut to compensate for the enormous gift they had due to Labour's criminal incompetence)
9. Funding for examination of the use of POCA (Proceeds of Crime Act) against all members and ex-members of the Labour government with a view to confiscation of all their assets
10. Funding for re-examination of all those granted residence visas and citizenship since 1997; immediate deportation of all those found to have falsified or exaggerated or concealed anything in their applications
11. Abolition of corporation tax
12. Increase the VAT rate to 30% to fund all the above; it is over-consumption that ruins the planet, so VAT is the appropriate tool. Tax damage, not brains or hard work.

That'll do for a start.

Cut
- Trident
- Benefits for single mothers
- EU membership fee
- All jobs with 'diversity' in the title
- Public sector pensions
and withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.

GETTING OUT OF POINTLESS AMERICAN WARS - LIKE VIETNAM oops.. I mean AFGHANISTAN & IRAQ.

That would save money and lives.... - I can't actually see a downside to that.

Once we've done that, then we can talk about other cuts and I bet there wouldn't be anywhere near as many as we have to put up with now.

There are 3 items I would like to see in any budget, all of which would go a very long way to start to repair the untold and more importantly, undisclosed damage Gordon Brown alone did to this country; these would make a massive contribution to paying off the budget deficit left by Brown.

1: Plans for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal from the EU with the quantification of the savings that would accrue from it.
2: Plans to immediately bring British troops home from the illegal wars in which Blair and Brown involved us and their immediate arrest as war criminals.
3: Plans to slash the hundreds of thousands of non-value-add civil services jobs Nu-Labor created in their vain attempts to buy votes; I wouldn't listen to cries about unemployment, because these jobs never really existed.

Just make the Disabled and the vulnerable pay for it as they are already going to do.

#3 That's what we need, protection for the wealthy in the midst of a world recession.Classic me me me tory claptrap.

#6- Yes, let's sever our ties with our largest export market that makes real sense, after all, we're big enough to go it alone aren't we?

Agree with the troop withdrawl - do you think the tories will upset the
US and actually do it? No me neither.Incidentally,I think you'll find that the real war criminals were on the payroll of companies like Halliburton and were based in Washington -Blair was just their poodle - no doubt Cameron and Hague will fulfil that role in future.

Aaah mass unemployment - the tired old tory answer to everything......use the public sector employees as a scape goat - they can pay for the criminal negligence and greed of that mainstay of the private sector - our decrepit, unreformed and unrepentant financial services sector.

Can't help but think of Cameron's pledge prior to the meltdown to match Labour's spending pound for pound........what a bunch of short-sighted hypocrits!

Dropping legal aid for anyone not born in the UK. That would save a billion a year, Tax credits are waste of time as to give someone £10 per week it costs about £20 through collection administration and distribution, just raise the tax free allowance.

Oops I forgot they should raise the age of the public sector pensions to 65 rather than 60.

Raise the age of retirement for women to 65 the same as men, that would also help equality.

Raise the age of police retirement to 65 as well, a police man/woman can retire on 3/4 final salary at 50 years old, so if you live to 80 thats the same length as in employment. The police complain their paper work takes up too much time, then let the old coppers do it!

I would like to see Tony Blair pay a little tax.
He is worth quite a bit of money know that he has used his privileged position as a public servant to line his pockets.
I understand from what I read that he is not as keen on spending his own money as he was with the money that his incompetence forced the country to borrow.
Perhaps he would like to help out a bit?

If I had the opportunity to influence the content of the forthcoming budget I would suggest that the Chancellor put a 5p tax on every mobile phone call and a 5p tax and every email sent. When you consider that at least 50% of mobile phone calls are just to talk and many emails of either rubbish or jokes this could have a huge benefit to our society and raise considerable sums of money for the Exchequer.

What should be in the emergency budget?

1. Immediate cancellation of all overseas aid - charity begins at home in my book.

2. Immediate withdrawal of all our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq - that should save quite a bit.

3. Immediate withdrawal of child benefit from households whose income is over £30k

4. Immediate withdrawal from the EU - that would save a ridiculous amount of money

5. Increase capital gains tax on second homes to 50% - most people I know are struggling to pay for their first home - if people can afford a second then they ain't exactly on the breadline are they?

6. Immediate withdrawal of final salary pension schemes for all new starters in the public sector.

7. Immediate cessation of immigration where the migrant does not already have a job to come to.

That lot should do for starters

G 0
Should stop all Foreien aid Charity begins at home'
Bring in dog licences £50 why £50 If people can pay £800 for a dog
they can afford that for a licence.And it would stop the amount
of mess we have to try and avoid
Next No more family allowance after 2 children As in our day 1950s
The list could go on and on.

Across the board VAT increases were a disaster last time and would be now unless it is a very large increase on small number of items. For example who really needs a Lamborghini on British roads or even a 4x4. The 4x4 Porsche is the ultimate in bad taste. My suggestion is to increase VAT on ALL luxury goods, high performance cars and Chelsea buses, to say 50% or higher unless its needed for work eg: farmers. If you can afford these items then you can afford to contribute a higher percentage.

Scrap Trident, tax bankers and anyone earning more than 30 times their lowest paid at at least 50% - NO ALLOWANCES.
Romove the ceiling on NI.
Scrap non-dom - how can Rose run M&S while apparently living in Monaco for tax purposes?

Do not cut services for the poor and sick in our society

Its no good whingeing about what Boy George is going to say or do because the nation voted for him and the power at any price friends from the LibDems.
What always amazes me is that a percentage of the voters actually believe the Tories every time even when they are lying,even Mrs.Thatcher promised much and did the opposite but the average voter doesnt seem to remember much beyond what happened last week.Its been made so much easier for Boy George because the Labour party were going to do the same thing but without crowing about it.
I guarantee you that all the excited supporters of the mish mash Tory/LibDem will be left looking sheepish after Tuesday.The cuts will begin to finish off the Tory pet hate of "civil service",something Mrs.Thatcher could never achieve.Of course the low paid workers of the civil service will bare the brunt despite Camerons assurances because most of the top civil servants are all Tories.Most of the controlling councils are Tory or LibDem-at the moment.Its the Tories intention of using the cut in the civil service to start the bleeding of all the public services we have got used to.The Tories want every one of these services to be privatised with the contracts going to those supporters and contributors of funds to the party.Its never been about "were all in this together"its about cold hearted business-nothing else.
So expect savage cuts this year.next year and every year until every public service is in the hands of the private sector.Oh! yes you may get a few crumbs here and there which will have been taken away but a couple of years later given back just to keep the dumb voters happy-but its much as before as we endured under Thatcher.What will be a shocker is when Boy George cuts in real terms the minimum wage-which when combined with tax credit cuts will impoverish millions. So what should be cut?Name it and it will be done!Amen.

No 15 I agree absolutely. No increase in VAT except a massive increase on 4x4s - except for farmers. Also high charges on all private cars driving through Central London and high charges for vehicles using our London streets as private parking lots. Something must be done to improve the shameful condition of our overcrowded roads in Central London. The essential first step is to get as much private traffic as possible off our roads.
Of course nothing will be done by the current Government and their crony , the Mayor of London. Both are
mainly interested in showing their superiority over the " common herd". The interests of London and Londoners come a poor second with them.

Fact is Cameron, Clegg and co haven't a clue about anything. Not economies, not anything. Unfit to govern. And before I am accused of being a lefty apologist, New Labour don't know any better either.

What caused the global economic collapse? Was it spendthrift governance? No, but it didn't help post collapse.

Was it indulgent politicians and bureaucrats? No, but it didn't help post collapse.

Was it arrogant and irresponsible accountants and economists? Yes, and were they allowed to maximise benefit from their fraudulent greed? Yes, and is that benefit continuing? Yes.

Let us have party dogma but only after our economy is torn apart, rethought and reshaped, and the perpetrators of all our pains thrown into gaols.

Does George Osborne have a clue or is he one of those who didn't think twice about making fast bucks out of other people's misery? Are his new friends and mates on the front benches whiter than white? In fact did anyone in the Houses of Parliament really look after the ordinary people of the UK? Or were they simply too busy with expenses claims to notice?

Yeah, Osborne and company never had it so good.

Savings should be made on the ability to pay and not just making excuses to hit the poor and needy. It's all very well cutting civil service jobs, pay and pensions but who is going to provide the vital services that the economy needs to function? Are we going to see a cut in the number of parasite MPs, a cut in their salaries, rather than just pay freezes, and other benefits? No, I don't think so and precisely, what do MPs have to offer the economy? It's time to call a General Election.

A total review of the tax system.

70% of tax is used up in administration and counting the tax money.

The rest is squandered.

On a more realistic level.

Remove VAT from services, what benefit does it give the struggling small business to charge an additional 17.5% to come and fix your plumbing. Most companies now are giving quotes less VAT and when you come to pay the bill they say "oh, thats £600 for your new boiler, £400 labour and £175 for absolutely nothing". We are not able to ship our services like this abroad, but if we could there would be no one working in this country. We need to re-establish our manufacturing base again, if as on some responses here say why not increase VAT to 30%, then why not tax all imports 100%. By the way 100% tax on an item imported is less tham 30% tax on the price you pay.

Spending on the Royals should now be cut back. The state should fund only the monarch and the first in line to the throne. We don't need so many palaces. All royal visits should be stopped except by the monarch, as they cost local authorities a huge amount of money and time and only really exist as a 'raison d'etre' for the huge amount of royals that we have to support. Remember the Welsh local authority who tried to stop one because they could not afford it?
All league football clubs should be made to pay for all policing costs and any other costs on the public purse, in relation to matches at their grounds. They are after all not short of money and are a huge drain on public funds. Those in arrears for policing costs should be actively pursued for the money.
All second homes should be taxed at least at the same rate as any other and if unoccupied for substantial periods should be taxed at an even higher rate.

How about anyone with a Royal honour being forced to pay normal UK tax (i.e no non-dom status such as Lords Paul & Ashcroft), or lose any honours as they're not technically subjects of the Queen any more.

Some suggestions. (1) Abolish a whole range of quangos (2) Cut Government advertising (3) Scrap the 50p tax rate (4) Introduce a public sector pay freeze for those earning more than £30K, increase contributions to unfunded public sector pensions from 6% to 8% of salary and cut pay for the top 10% of earners in the public sector by at least 5% (5) Scrap Regional Development Agencies (6) Cut middle class welfare (6) Reform climate change policy (7) Decentralise Government finance i.e. give local authorities greater financial autonomy (8) End all taxpayer funding of the Trades Unions. (9) End taxpayer funded lobbying.

100% taxation on any salary over £50k pa.

Zero VAT

Cancellation of Trident and any proposed replacement. Withdrawal of all overseas armed forces.

Free school meals for all children in state funded schools.

Well, what exactly should the budget focus on?

It doesn't matter what we think, the government are not in a mood for listening at the moment, they are on a narrow sighted route to get more money into the government bank account in order to reduce the debt.

At the moment, they are blaming Labour.....what can the new Lib/Con government do?

1. Scrap trident.
2. Reduce the number of MP's and review the expenditure that is granted as a parlimentry privledge.
3. STOP SPENDING £18,000 every month and a half on topping up the GOVERNMENT WINE CELLAR...this is a disgrace.

The government now need to make sure they make the right choices....will they do it....probably not.

It's not what I want's in this budget of Libdem&Con, But what I think,
You would do, is to hurt the most vulnerable ones, as i always suspect of
this coalition?

I think you will hurt our elders-and-single mums, the enemies of of the-
Right?

Well, I pray to God-our elders and childrens of single mums will survive!
Cllr Ken Tiwari(Oxford UK).

Cut civil servants by 50 to 60%.
End all final salary pensions for civil servants and raise their retirement age to 66 like the rest of us.
Withdraw from Iraq now.
End road tax for cars and add the tax to the tax on petrol.
Sell off the BBC.
Withdraw from the EU and ban imports of dairy products, meat and any other items our own farmers should be producing.
Insist tjhat British taxpayers money is only spent on British made goods, just like the French and Germans do.


That should save a few quid.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

I would guess they will clobber the poor and enrich the rich. Standard behaviour for conservative governments - and I would suggest this "libcon" bunch are no better . Bring back Gordon.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Just watching Mr Cameron and his sidekick Mr Clegg just makes me sick!! They talk about the cut's necessary and yet Mr C and his wife are pictured wining and dining the French President and his wife...who is paying for all of this?
I am sick to death of listening Mr C talking about the public sector, it would seem the new goverment has forgott about the way in which the banks conducted themselves and the amount of public money required to bail them out!
So for a start the axe should fall on the banking industry, MP's, the house of lords, number 10 - why does the PM need to live there - use it as an office as the rest of us have to do. I call on the electorate after Tuesdays budget to seriouisly consider some direct action to show this happless goverment that we are not going to stand for it.
Mr C needs to lead by example, why are we keeping him?
It would seem that the public sector is continiously under fire, in the six weeks this goverment has been in power thats all it has done is cause anxiety and stress - the real cuts should be directed towards those in society that havent worked a single day in their life, these hapless scroungers think it is OK to live of others, the unemoployed, single mothers whoose children have a whole host of fathers that go on to father more and don't pay a penny for their keep instead the country keeps them...... and then there is the cost of war in lives and monetry value.
Jo public know where the cuts should lie, truth is Mr C and his silver spoon gang haven't got a clue.
This is our country not Mr C - let's slash his pay and see how he likes it!!!!!
This goverment makes me sick!!!!

Just leave the low paid and the vulnerable elderly and disabled out of the 'age of austerity'. Those who caused the economic breakdown should feel the pinch.

Before the government do anything.

At present they do not know what the tax income is. They have an estimate.
They do not know what the expenses are. They have a budget.
The only time they know is at the end of the year when they say, Oh dear we have spent too much.

Collecting tax in some cases can be more expensive then the revenue recieved. How much money does it cost for a business to file all their accounts and pay the relevant tax, then how much does it cost the taxpayer for the Inland Revenue to administer this tax. Make the tax laws simple, very simple. National Insurance, everybody in the country pays a minimum of £5 per week, that is everybody man, woman and child, this is deducted from income whatever that income is, this increases to the maximum according to income, the only thing NI pays out for is health and pensions. All visitors to the UK must have valid insurance, that will pay the cost of any health issues (no limit), paid direct to the NHS, this must be presented on arrival to the country, if you do not have it then you buy it there and then or go home.

Recover £10 billion per Annum from the bailed out Banks. By the way is the interest collected from the banks included in the income? if so where does it show that? and how much is it?

Its a difficult question BBC! How could I possibly know what measures are necessary for this Budget! One things for sure, whatever 'should' be in the budget, we can all be certain that the budget will achieve nothing of substance - it will fail to address the incompetent, morally bankrupt and corrupt nature of those in control of our economy! It will do nothing to stop the nepotism or cronyism still infesting our institutions, and business. The poorest will continue to support the wealthiest and the rich will continue to receive billions of £'s every year in 'welfare' while the poorest will continue to be attacked for being poor, while having to make bigger sacrifices in order to keep the wealthy elites living in extravagant temples of gold! And, the Political mystic babblers will keep you all convinced 'we are all in this together', will continue to convince you its democracy, continue to convince you freedom is a matter of consumer choice - You will continue to deny your own slavery, and continue to 'believe' that the red pill actually is different from the blue pill! Look closer, they are both merely different flavours of the same fascism........

More money on border defense, police and security services.
More money for building "fit for purpose" prisons (only basics provided).
Deport all foreign prisoners. Do not allow them to re-enter the UK.
Deport all illegal immigrants and abolish the Asylum system.
Cut funding for prison luxuries and prisoner family support services.
Cut funding for drug addicts and support services.
Stop the legal aid gravy train.
Cut budget for the long term unemployed and welfare state scroungers.
Stop all aid foreign aid (we give India, a country with a space program, £40M aid a year).
Cancel the new Forth Road Bridge.
Cut funding for all "foreign cultural", "sexual orientation", "race relations" or "diversity" projects.
Stop all translations of local authority or governmental publications into foreign languages.
Bring back our troops from foreign wars and use them to safeguard our borders.
Abolish NI (paying a stamp used to mean a person got what they put in back - not now. Everyone but the hard working are looked after)
Increase tax on Tobacco
Cut all public service and civil service posts created in the last decade.
Abolish the Scottish and Welsh parliaments
Leave the EU and increase trade with the commonwealth.
Raise income tax threshold to £12K.
Bring back 40% income tax rate to encourage entrepreneurs and investment.
Retain CGT rates.
Decrease business rates.

They should raise the age of all public sector pensions to 65 rather than 50-60.
Abolish child benefit/fuel allowance for combined salaries over £30,0000.
Disability checks should be more thorough, I know some-one who claims, who puts on the act, collects pills regularly from the doctor but dosn't take them! It seems, if you can claim....claim, it is the same with attendance allowance, rich pensioners can claim, just because it is there for the taking!
Benefits are for the needy, really needy.
Scrap non-dom.
Dog licences should come back, it may stop the killer dogs and fouling of the streets...£50.00 each...and warden checks.
Scrap Trident.
Higher tax for the super-rich.
Come on Gideon, I mean George!

All this user's posts have been removed.Why?

The Budget deficit will be greatly aided if we terminate our military misadventures in Afghanistan & Iraq, already said to have cost us something like £20 billion & rising.

I would like to see the following in the budget:

1) All benefits to be means tested so that they go to the most in need
2) An increase in tax for anyone who earns twice the national average
3) A reduction in tax for anyone who earns half the national average
4) Above inflation increases in tobacco and alcohol duty
5) Above inflation increases on the state pension

Thank you.

I see all the nutters are out, after reading the ideas on saving money none would do so if you think about it.The only way to get money in is to tax the majority eg. any one on 15k or less because you are the bottom of the pyramid the higher up yuo go the less tax you get back.the cuts surgested on here would not scratch the surface,some times keeping someone in work is cheaper than being on the dole.

Abolish National Insurance, increase income tax as appropriate to maintain a similar level of revenue.

Abolish Council tax, as above.

Abolish road fund licence, increase fuel duty so that the people using the roads the most pay the most.

Increase VAT to 20%.

Abolish child tax credits - if you want kids, pay for them yourself.

Unemployment benefit to be contingent on doing some form of training meet the needs of the job market.

Reduce the number of people going to university. 50% is a crazy figure; 10% is more like it. It should be free to those who prove themselves worthy to go.

Immigration limited to those with a genuine case for asylum or immigrating to take up a pre-identified job.

Retirement age of 65 for all; to be re-evaluated periodically as lifespan changes. Average lifespan has increased by 8.8 years in the last 48, and is currently 79 in the UK.

Prisons to be self sustaining - inmates to work within the prison producing goods for sale, or in the cultivation of their own food, making their own clothing etc. Society should not have to pay to keep convicted prisoners, at an average cost of £30k/year. Prisoners would be released with some sense of a working day, rather than being used to having everything done for them.

Loss of entitlement to benefits for those convicted of criminal offences.

Publish the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan. Then bring the troops home.

28. At 08:55am on 20 Jun 2010, Stuart_Paterson wrote:

Insist that British taxpayers money is only spent on British made goods, just like the French and Germans do.

Crikey, I didn't realise that the French and Germans taxpayers money was only spent on British goods. Long live the EU!

Before cutting jobs and services at the bottom end of society, how about collecting the vast amounts of money owed in unpaid taxes? Then start closing loopholes in the tax laws where rich people can afford to employ crafty accountants to "legally" avoid tax. Then scrap Trident and other expensive weapons of war.
Also, racists are always saying there are too many "illegal" immigrants in the country, so, whatever your perspective, the U.K. Border Agency can't be doing a very efficient job. Scrapping that would save a lot of money and those currently employed there could always find jobs guarding concentration camps somewhere in the world or, if they don't want to move, could become bailiffs or debt collectors.

Means testing of all state benefits including pensions.
Abolition of child and other lifestyle-choice benefits
Abolition of MPs expenses scheme
Abolition of the House of Lords
Increased taxes for the rich
Reduced taxes for those earning less than 20k
Road building to be curtailed
Road fund licence to be scrapped and the deficit added to fuel duty
Monarchy to fund itself (privatise it)
Inefficiencies in the civil and public services to be remedied
Cuts to MoD and forces pensions and scrapping of weapons we cannot use
Tax incentives to have small families

I think the priority should be reducing MP's and MEP's expenses, salaries and pensions. I think most people agree that the taxpayer is being ripped off and we certainly are not getting value for money.

Secondly I would like to see the Royal Family floated on the stock market and privatised. I don't think they should take another penny from taxpayers. Let them market themselves, rent out the houses we have built and maintained for them, hire themselves out for speeches, as advisors, for weddings/special occasions etc - this would mean the people who like them could continue to pay for them and the people who don't want a Royal Family no longer have to pay for them. A win-win situation.

Thirdly I would like no more money given to countries who are not supporting their own poor. Two such examples are China and India who both have extremely healthy economies but choose to ignore their own poor people but spend billions on space travel instead. Money paid by UK taxpayers is currently being sent to these countries each year to give to their poor. I think this is unacceptable and should stop immediately.

Finally I don't think taxpayers should be made to pay for policing of football and other sports events - the clubs themselves should pay. The taxpayer should also not have to pay for visits by religious leaders such as the recent visit by The Pope. The Catholic Church is one of the richest organisations in the world and they should have paid the entire bill for The Pope's visit. I never asked for The Pope to visit so I shouldn't be made to pay for it.

I recommend no 42 Imperial Wrath..

28. At 08:55am on 20 Jun 2010, Stuart_Paterson wrote:

# Cut civil servants by 50 to 60%.

Ooh, great idea. Firstly, do you actually understand the difference between a "civil servant" and a public sector worker? Secondly, bawling that "50 to 60%" of them should be sacked, without any pretence at explaining how this would help anybody, is simply childish (though, admittedly, I'm not sure the Public Schoolboys' Coalition takes a much more adult view). You make your reason clear in your next point: you're jealous, because you think they're getting something you're not. Not fair!

# End all final salary pensions for civil servants and raise their retirement age to 66 like the rest of us.

Yeah, right, Stuart: it's dustmen's pensions that have caused this mess, isn't it - not wealthy international financiers' greed and incompetence? Despite the guff you read in your Daily Mail, many "civil servants" have worked hard for decades, often on very low wages, which were offset by the promise of a reasonable pension. Not a "gold plated" one, by a long chalk: just a decent one. As for retirement age, unless your definition of "civil servants" includes the police, fire service, armed forces, etc., you put in however many years you put in and you receive, when you leave aged 60 or over, whatever OCCUPATIONAL pension your length of service entitles you to. Like anybody else, you don't qualify for your STATE pension until you're 66. You don't know the difference between them, do you, Stuart?

# Withdraw from Iraq now.

We left Iraq some time ago. The country we're fighting in now is called Afghanistan. Evidently your knowledge of current affairs is on a par with your understanding of the public sector and its pension arrangements.

# End road tax for cars and add the tax to the tax on petrol.

Oh, now we're getting to what really matters. You resent paying road tax. Got a big car that pumps out carbon monoxide by the ton, perhaps?

# Sell off the BBC.

Absolutely: ensure that the entire media shovels out nothing but Tory propaganda.

# Withdraw from the EU and ban imports of dairy products, meat and any other items our own farmers should be producing.

So the free market economy must reign supreme, no matter what the cost to ordinary working people - yet Tory-voting farmers have to be protected from all foreign competition! So what if the customer, deprived of cheap imports (and possibly already thrown onto the dole) has to pay more for basic foodstuffs? You're quite happy for 50 - 60% of "civil servants" to lose their livelihood: why are you so keen to featherbed farmers at everyone else's expense?

# Insist that British taxpayers money is only spent on British made goods, just like the French and Germans do.

The people who have to use the goods might not thank you for that. It's well known, for example, that the armed forces have been burdened over the past decades with much substandard tat sourced from the British private sector, and would often have much preferred decent, foreign-made products.

First of all this is a Tory budget so expect to get a good kicking in the wallet. Especially if your a low payed worker or sick or disabled.
What the country desperately needs is a fair tax system based on the ability to pay. Closing of all tax loopholes for the rich and a real assement of those on benefits for there ability to work.
However the jobs are not there and never will be unless action is taken to protect british manufacturing. Its a catch 22 the cost of the last TORY recovery was mass unemployment it will be the same medicine again.

How about 1% on vat. Capital gains tax to 25%. Income tax for all earning over 20K another 1%. Over 50K another 2% and those earning over 100K a 50% rate. And yes that means all MP's and Ministers too !
A tax on the banks and a paulty limit on bonuses to bankers who's irrisponsibility cause this mess in the first place. Suggest no bonus over 10,000 who ever they are.

Phase in the 10,000 tax allowance for the low payed quicker and cut tax credits to pay for it. Too many people i know laughing at me for working hard while they avoid overtime to keep there tax credits.

O and PS a freeze on council tax for the life of this parliament.

Having just watched George Osbourne on the Andrew Marr show I would just like to say that as a "benefit scrounger" on £53 per week carers allowance I get up at 5.50 every morning and look after my severely disabled husband until I go to bed at around 10pm when I am then "on call" if he needs me during the night. Up until his stroke 2 years ago we both worked and paid taxes and I am really upset by the Tory and Lib Dem attitude to the welfare system. So I would like the budget to recognise that real people with real needs are sustained by the benefits system and I suspect many more will be needing them once they have axed thousands of jobs and the unemployment figures rise. How about chasing tax dodgers as hard as benefit scroungers?

The civil service needs a major cull. Too many pointless jobs were created under Labour to disguise unemployment figures.

It is a lovely idea to create loads of public service jobs if you can afford it. Unfortunately we can't.

Wealth is not created its transfered invariably from the poor to the rich whether directly through the likes of the free markets or indirectly through the exploitation of the working poor.

Scrap the house of lords for starters ,no tax for people earning under £10,000 a year, tax to be payed on all income earned in the uk no exceptionsat the going rate,VAT payable on all internal airfares a tax on 2nd homes they are a luxury; at double the normal rate for that property that will help offset the cutbacks in grants to local authorities.A 60% tax rate for income over £500,000 a year a clampdown on bad motorists; will save money in costs to NHS by reducing accidents greater efforts to stop drug trafficking and money laundering, more money to be spent on mental health services more efforts to get banks to pay back government money lent to them; no bonuses to be payed by them until its payed back.NO vat on food,books or medical items greater help for poor with heating bills.

I recommend comment #50 Jane

Although to add since the Tory's seem to be prejudice against benefit claimants we can expect them to not listen.

well, first put the tax up for the wealthy. deny the wealthy heating allowance, family allowance and child tax credits. Plug the loopholes up for tax evasion for businesses especially the one where household goods are put through company books therefore negating any further or present VAT claw backs. And they call the poor scroungers. eliminate poll tax benifits for second homes especially the one where a husband and wife both own a home but claim the 25% single occupancy allowance for each one. Increase poll tax on higher valued properties to a more fairer differential Best stop here as im in danger of wiping the full deficit just on creating a fair society. I dont mind being told were all in it together so long as the rich dont end up with the better half......again. After all it was the Fantastic Highly Wprshipped Private Sector that created this mess but it will be the public sector that pays for it...........again

Three main areas can be addressed to save large amounts of money

1) The Non-jobs and PC Posts:
Community bin painting development co-ordinator, or whatever we have this week, isn't really a job is it?

2) Social Workers:
In Scotland we have a population of roughly five million. It is estimated that we have about 1/4 million care workers, plus associated managers, co-ordinators and admin staff - That's 1 for every other 19 in the country. How many people do they actually "care" for

3) Unemployment/Sickness Benefits:
If I lose my job I can get £60 a week to live on (Jobseekers); If I have a mild mental condition, one which still allows me to live in the community, go shopping, go pub lunching, etc., I could pick up almost £300 a week. WHy such a disparity? I'm told that it's to ensure "quality of life". Personally the former could be raised some (say £80-90), and the latter lowered by half. One pays for the other, and the jobseeker will (hopefully) find work thereby paying taxes again

If the Government really want to save the amounts they are talking about then what about scrapping the Scottish Assembly, the Welsh Assembly and all of the extra tier of civil servants that go with it. We seemed to mage quite well without them until 10 years ago.
It would no doubt be very un popular with the Scots and Welsh but as they don't vote Tory anyway they won't be losing much.

I have no idea what is going to happen over the next few months, my plan was with Labour, so for me this is uncharted territory. The one thing I must say, it is the responsibility of every person in this country to make the right decision.
We have people right at this very moment who are defrauding the welfare system, we also have people running businesses, which may be very successful businesses who are not paying all the tax they should and employing people illegally, we have people doing ‘govy jobs’, cash in hand who are avoiding tax. This country needs to clear its deficit and it will do it far quicker if the rich and welfare scroungers did what was right.

Increase income tax because it hits everyone fairly according to ability to pay. If Cameron was really serious about sharing the burden fairly this would be the main plank of his attempts to reduce the deficit.

Close the loopholes for tax evasion. Tax evasion is (rather like speeding) too socially acceptable because lots of people do it. It should be socially unacceptable to use every trick in the book to reduce ones tax bill, socially unacceptable for celebrities to live outside the UK to evade tax and socially unacceptable for workmen to ask to be paid in cash. Strange how we heard so many complaints about MPs behaving within the rules but immorally with expenses and there is a deafening silence about people who find loopholes in the tax rules who cost the country far, far more.

Scrap all welfare benefits and replace them with food/clothes coupons redeemable upon presentation of Photo IDs at stores that don't sell designer ware, and only sell basic food stuffs.

Limit housing benefit to levels in the least popular cities/towns so people who are really desperate move there, or take on the challenge of life and move to another nation, just like economic migrants from other nations move here.

Paying people for long periods to sit at home , whilst they fill in forms for jobs that they have no chance of getting, or maybe don't even want because the job is ranked as too menial for them, is a recipe for long term disaster.

When people see they have a challenge to stay alive, they get up and rise to the challenge; when they see the state is going to allow them to continue to live without any real effort on their part, they take the easy choice whilst using their PR skills to show they are "making an effort".

People in third world states don't all die of hunger or lack of accomodation. They get off their backsides, even when severely malnourished and disabled, and accept they have to work for 18 hours a day, perhaps picking plastic bottles/metal cans from rubbish heaps to sell on, and hence survive.

Yes people with money can help out the poor, and of course they can continue to do so as much as they want by means of charitable donations.

However forcing the whole state to become poorer and poorer, with increasing levels of national debt, will only lead to disaster, as all of a sudden no-one will lend to the state anymore when they realise they will never get paid back, and the whole system will collapse on itself, with both poor and wealthy people losing out.

Every homeowner knows this. You can't keep borrowing when you have no means of paying back. You must get out and earn some money/trade, and live in direst of conditions, until your situation improves. If it involves becoming economic migrants then so be it. People from other nations don't abandon their local environments, friends and relatives out of fun, but because they have either have little local opportunities, or because it is a wiser long-term move.

1. Robin hood tax on the City, the Banks and Rich individuals. That should bring in about £40 billion a year. Over a few years it would eliminate our debt. They caused this situation they should to the right thing and pay for the mess they created.

2. Means test all benefits outwith the old age pension which would raise jobseekers allowance to £90 a week but cut rich people's welfare dependance.

3. Cut ID cards and Trident saving about £50 billion.

4. No public service cuts outwith efficiency savings which will keep demand in the economy

5. Cut VAT, it is a tax on demand and a tax on the poor and working families.

6. No increase in National insurance.

7. End wealth accumulation by individuals and redistribute it through reigning in of the tax havens. This will save about 15 times what benefit fraud cost the country. Net effect, puts money in the pockets of the poor who will spend in and boost local economies hence preventing economic stagnation.

8. Regulation of big business, The City, Banks and the financial sector to ensure Greed is systematically made a criminal offence and that further economic collapse is made accountable should it happen again.

I would advise George Osborne not to punish the old, sick, disabled in his first budget. He should not cut family credit for a family earning less than £30,000 per annum. He should not cut or reduce child benefit and make dental treatment and glasses free for old age pensioners irrespective of their savings.

First a bit of honesty, like:- "Sorry we are twisting the evidence and have set out to find the worst possible view of the situation Labour left us, but you know how it is, when you want to cut back services like we always wanted to then we have to blame someone else. So first we blame Labour and then we blame you for giving all those cuts ideas during that consultation we had."

Now, what should the budget contain.

1. Maintain real spending on health, education, crime and defence.
2. Invest heavily in the new green technologies, particularly manufacturing.
3. Raise tax drastically on tobacco.
4. Keep the Labour's NI rise for employers.
5. Announce new legislation on tax dodgers.
6. Maintain overseas development aid to develop our future markets.
7. Announce moves to have a referendum on the Euro. This country stands to do well from joining.
8. Raise the top rate of tax.
9. Adjust the tax credit system and benefits system so it is always an advantage to work.
10. Reduce corporation tax on small businesses.
11. Maintain the universal child-benefit payment. This was always a benefit to reflect the expense of bringing up children and is the cheapest way of getting support to where it is needed. Means testing is expensive.
12. Raise car tax according to fuel efficiency. This would mean a reduction in some cases.
13. Force people who need hospital treatment due to smoking or drinking to take addiction therapy or pay the cost of treatment.
14. Hospital parking to be free on exit on receipt of a hospital visit token.
15. Raise the top rate of income tax if earning over £100,000 per annum.
16. Levy on bank profits and on bonuses over a certain level.
17. Keep VAT at current rate.

Osborne's resignation!

Pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan. That should free up billions.

Stop paying benefits to the millions on incapacity benefit who are 'depressed' - an illness that you can easily make up.

Stop paying benefits to teenage mums. If you can't afford to raise your kids then don't expect others to pay for them.

Get rid of the hundreds of thousands of fake public sector jobs that Labour created to fiddle the unemployment figures.

Make the millions of workshy scroungers in this country work.

"If I have a mild mental condition, one which still allows me to live in the community, go shopping, go pub lunching, etc., I could pick up almost £300 a week"

Even the benefits for the most severely disabled person do not come to anywhere near that figure. And they're all subject to rigourous medical checks and in many instances are means-tested as well. Someone with a "mild mental condition" certainly wouldn't qualify. Congratulations on managing to combine a complete ignorance of welfare benefits AND mental health.

Tim wrote in no 49:
"Too many people i know laughing at me for working hard while they avoid overtime to keep there tax credits."

This is so true. I leave home at 5 am each morning, and travel 90 miles on a motorway clogged with roadworks to get to my place of work in the South, 5 days a week . I get back home at 8pm after another 90 miles. No-one reimburses me for my travel costs and there is no tax allowance to compensate me yet because my salary is higher than it would be in my local town, and I actually have a job (for the moment, touch-wood ! ), I get beaten down with high-tax rates, have to pays kids tuition fees at Uni, and am not eligible for tax/child credits etc. At the same time I see fully able but quite obese people sitting in their homes, getting taxis to local supermarkets to bring back their three bags of shopping instead of walking, and living on benefits, with TV satellite subscriptions, attending football matches, getting free education for their kids at Uni, living off pizzas and chips, and drinking in the evenings, all of the state. Taxes I and many others pay, by working our socks off, go to keep lazy people at home.

Ban benefits now, and introduce soup kitchens.

This economy is in a complete mess but Osborne has to be tough but fair.
Cuts, savings right across the board. Its the only way.

Cut back the bloated public sector; it is not a job creation scheme.

VAT up to 20% - let me decide what I spend and where I will be taxed.

Cut child tax credit to families earnings over £45K.

The deficit was caused by having to bail out the banks, as well as by labour's splurge on bureaucracy, wars and regulation. Time to tax the banks and bankers to start the process of recovering taxpayers funds,start reducing bureaucracy and control freakery, and exiting useless wars. Get rid of our ego trips like nuclear weapons and aircraft carriers. tax the wealthy fairly, crack down on avoidance, and develop environmental taxation starting with a carbon tax related to CO2 emiissions.

Close consideration must be paid to making politician's affected as much as or even more than the average tax payer.

Anything different is going to result in riots, as seen across the other european capitals that have tried to implement such practices.

Wu Shu Comment 65:-

"Pull out of Iraq...."


You are so prejudice that you haven't noticed that we withdrew from Iraq over a year ago.

I also noticed in your attack on the mentally ill, the unemployed, the sick and teen mothers that you failed to mention the billions lost by tax-dodging.

50. At 10:13am on 20 Jun 2010, Jane wrote:

Having just watched George Osbourne on the Andrew Marr show I would just like to say that as a "benefit scrounger" on £53 per week carers allowance I get up at 5.50 every morning and look after my severely disabled husband until I go to bed at around 10pm when I am then "on call" if he needs me during the night. Up until his stroke 2 years ago we both worked and paid taxes and I am really upset by the Tory and Lib Dem attitude to the welfare system. So I would like the budget to recognise that real people with real needs are sustained by the benefits system and I suspect many more will be needing them once they have axed thousands of jobs and the unemployment figures rise. How about chasing tax dodgers as hard as benefit scroungers?

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Very few people would disagree with anybody in the situation you describe getting benefits. What however many of us would like to see addressed is the issue of the large numbers of people who are abusing the benefits system.

How about those who openly state that although they could work it is not worth their while as they get just as much for sitting at home? What about those claiming to be unemployed who are actually working in the black economy? How about those who have two or three children via different fathers and then expect the taxpayer to fund their lifestyle choice? These are the things most of us wish to be addressed, not situations like the one you describe.

Common sense really isn't it? People genuinely in need should be provided for and those abusing the system should be rooted out. Neither Labour or Conservatives governments have done much to adresss the wide scale abuse of the system that goes on to date but I rather suspect that now money has run out both of them when in government will be taking a long hard look at it in future.

The single biggest expense of the government is the salaries and pensions paid throughout the public sector. A reduction in pension costs and a salary reduction for those on over £25k a year would give the biggest savings. If the public sector prefer we could just reduce their numbers by 30% instead. Some sort of combination of reducing the wage bill must be found to bring government spending in line with its income.

This government appears to be stupid and heartless.
Just reading how they have scrapped free swimming for children under 16 and OAPs. More children on the streets with nothing to do? Swimming is a healthy activity and expensive for parents and OAPs on low incomes.
Then we have the government trying to take from the free school meals' budget to fund the set up of 'free' schools.

I hoped that at long last this country's parliamentary system would be radically reformed and cuts begin in that area. Has the expenses scandal already been forgotten or do you really believe it has been reformed?
MPs should be means-tested and if they can afford to fund their second homes etc. they should do so out of their own pockets, not ours.
We are still paying for Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, and numerous others by providing travel and police protection. Absolutely ridiculous when they can afford to pay for it themselves if they feel they need it.

What is the matter with us when we allow our rulers to spend our money on themselves in such an immoral and extravagant manner? We are so easily brainwashed and our attention so easily diverted on to the undeserving poor instead of us concentrating our minds on the undeserving rich.

Before deciding on what cuts should be made why not "reign in" the tax exiles who pay nothing into the UK tax system?

Then there are the large foreign companies working for British businesses, whose workers are from their own countries, and do not pay UK tax.

Why should we continue to pay billions in foreign aid when our own people are suffering?

The time has come to step back and look at why the country and the people living in the UK are in debt. Disposable Income or the lack of it. The taxes charged by the council + the government,Road tax etc. If the government is looking to increase their income, taxing the citizens is not the way out.

The government should encourage people to spend, not by forcing them to go into debt, but reduce taxes and therefore reduce the burden. Encourage 'constructive spending'.

Let me give you an example,

'I think its fair to say the motorways are "bursting at the seams" during rush-hour. As a result,

1. Cars are left idling for long periods of time - increasing CO2 emissions.
2. Wear and tear resulting in break downs leading to motorways being turned into car parks.
3. Increased stress on drivers leading to health problems

And the governments solution,

1. Levy a Road tax and green tax or whatever its called and BURDEN THE PEOPLE.

Constructive Spending,

1. Improve connectivity and make it worth our while to ditch our cars and use buses, atleast to and from work.
2. Encourage larger companies to organise mini-buses for their employees to travel in comfort and stress-free. It will probably improve their health as they travel stress free and a walk in the morning and after work from a common pck-up point.
3. It might even improve social life with people interacting more instead of sitting in their cars and interacting with their car audio systems.'

The government sounds intelligent and all they do day in and day out is paint the same gloomy picture (like we didn't have enough to worry about in our lives).

Lastly, the people of this nation are burdened and the government has to recognse that, burdening them further is NOT THE ANSWER.

Am I ready to face a period of austerity?

Of course I am - my larder is stocked to the rafters with tins of Spam and packets of dried egg powder. I've turned my beloved garden into a vegetable plot and we now have a resident cow for our milk.

The VW Golf is mothballed in the garage and I have made my very own rickshaw just so my significant other and I can get around.

If they could make do with candles in centuries past they will be good enough for me and two layers of thermal underwear will have to keep me warm instead of the central heating.

Am I down hearted? - of course I am but I will do what every true Brit should do to make sure we come out of this crisis with our heads held high.

We didn't get where we are today by throwing up our hands and moaning - remember the 'Dig for Victory' mentality. We all knew this was coming so why blether on about it now.

May God bless us all and all who sail in us.

As my dear departed father was fond of saying 'It's getting chilly dear -throw another dog on the bed.'

It is obscene the big businesses continue to make billions in profit while little Joe Public has to suffer. It's time to make the fat cats pay their way.

@ 50. At 10:13am on 20 Jun 2010, Jane


Jane, your circumstances are very just, and I for one am very, very glad to pay my taxes to support people like you. Don't let the others get you down, there are more like me than them, they just have more time on their hands than they know what to do with, and resent others receiving something they don't.

#50 Jane

I do not think you are a benefit scrounger. You are not only providing care and comfort to your husband but also saving far more than £53pw to the NHS and us who fund the service.

The biggest benefit scroungers are those associated with the Palaces of Westminster.

My views are fairly simple and maybe a bit naive, but I would like to see the following:

A temporary freeze on all non-essential public works
A system designed to "encourage" single parents to at least look for work and contribute to society. Before the outcry, I AM a single parent who would dearly love to work but seem to find so many barriers.
Tax raised on ANY alcoholic products
Benefit cut to the so called "middle class"
Target not just benefit but incentive to work to those who need it. If a person doesn't at least show willing to work, then action should be considered.
Of course the budget is going to be painful, but the country needs someone with the attitude and foresight to carry the plan of recovery through.
Appoint an independent body to look at ANYTHING unnecessary or irrelevant such as "wine cellars" and cancel.
One last thing, if the Prime Minister expects all of us to adopt austerity type measures, then he should be seen to be doing the same, along with all government members. Do that and his support will increase exponentially.
Sorry if this seems rambling, it's my first post, but people should show a bit of common sense for a change, pull together, try and contribute, too many takers in this country. Not everyone is a scrounger, some of us actually want to help.

How about a bit of FULL WIDE OPEN TRUTH.

So called International AID is said by government to going to be maintained.

I would like to know HOW MUCH of what is normally generalised as "UK increased aid to other countrys" is in fact money used by the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for payments to tribal heroin drug producers in Afganistan, which is potentially due to substantially rise in an attempt at cynical "hearts and minds" policy.

Also I would like to know if any money provided in the UK Afgan military budget is also for provision of payments to tribal drug cartells/producers/criminals.

Basically how much are we or will we be paying drug barrons to produce less heroin in which to poison the world and which by United Nations figures currently results in a 90% production share of world heroin and also corresponding 90% of world heroin deaths which equates and is stated by UN as being 90,000 deaths per year.

Also would it not be cheaper to use Napalm (now banned) or something similar to destroy heroin production, rather than the feeble present attempt to contain/reduce heroin production via sending our soldiers out in small groups to protect Afgans while they pull up each poppy plant one at a time.

We have been in Afganistan for coming upto 10 years but Afganistan heroin STILL accounts for 90% of world production/supply.

Would it not have been MUCH MORE ECONOMIC and MUCH SAFER for our soldiers to drop leaflets on such areas warning Afgans to get away/clear the area because it is going to be destroyed/bombed and offering to provide seeds etc so tribal areas can be converted into non-drug production and stating that such areas if returned to heroin production will be destroyed without warning/notification.

My BIGGEST problem with the Afgan war and its vast expense of our soldiers life and other monetry expense, is that the continued massive production of heroin on such a scale is an attrocity in its own right and in which our politicians and military basically oversee and allow to continue.

The ACTUAL and FACTUAL COST of Afganistan is ALSO HUGELY a part of the MASSIVE expense in the UK which is directed at attempting to provide services for UK drug users.
This expense WITHIN the UK is WHOLEY part of Afganistan expense.

ALSO part of Afganistan expense is a LARGE chunk of UK prison population,a LARGE number of UK victims of crime and basically EQUATES to at LEAST another £2billion of UK taxpayer expense in dealing with the results/consequences of CONTINUED Afganistan drug/heroin production.

The thing with our action in Afganistan, is that there are MANY direct/indirect costs which are HIDDEN within budgets of other government departments.

Now if I had set aside £4billion for military operations in Afganistan for 2010-2011 I would at LEAST DEMAND a reduction of 50% of heroin production.

We say we are keeping terrorists off our streets, but that is a basic lie, because heroin is basically a terror of massive proportions and social damage/cost and destructive of so many lives, directly and indirectly.

Basically our policy is to prevent 20/40/60 deaths in the UK via bombs etc, but at the same time we have not even basically TOUCHED or reduced the attrocious killing/deaths of 90,000 humans per year worldwide via criminal violence and use of heroin produced in Afganistan.

I personally think that in the emergency budget should be an amount to provide the means to bomb/destroy the poppy production in Afganistan BEFORE we leave. We have had NINE years or so in which to pussy around humanely and NOT annoy tribal leaders who produce poppys/heroin.

If we pull out of Afganistan and heroin production is still at its present levels and not destroyed by 50%, then FACTUALLY we have gained nothing, because people o our streets will STILL be dieing and suffering as a direct consequence of Afganistan terror, of which HEROIN production is a FULL part.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said the budget deficit will not be dealt with by "just hitting either the rich or the welfare scrounger".

sure, on their own hitting them won't be enough but they sure should take more than their share of the pain. The rich got rich since the boom started circa 1992 so can afford to take a lot more pain than the rest of us whilst still being able to enjoy a lifestyle far superior to both the rest of us and their rich predecessors enjoyed. The welfare scroungers (who should not be narrowly defined but could include anyone who chooses to live off the state - teenage mothers, NEETs, parents whose ability to support children is totally dependent on the state, career unemployed, some - but not all or even most - of those on incapacity benefit: eg those depressed 'cos their dad died 5 years ago or similar tragedy: the rest of us have to just get on with life; no extra benefit for those on benefits whose kids have ADHD or other conditions those in work just have to deal with etc etc). Benefits generally should be reduced by roughly the same amount as those in work will find taxes raised by: shares the pain equitably.

What I still don't understand is why the Financial industry gets off scot free. This is the industry that stoked the boom and bust. This industry required state assistance to bail it out, to reduce interest rates to historic lows, to force quantitative easing. A brain dead monkey could make money in those conditions (borrowing at 0.5% and lending at 5%). Yet it is this same industry that is poised to downgrade UK and other government debt, to demand reduction of the deficit and cause runs on stockmarkets because actions to bail THEM out have cost governments hundreds of billions.

The crisis was caused by individual, government and private sector borrowing and irresponsible lending. Individual debt is still far higher than public sector debt and many borrowed irresponsibly to support an unaffordable lifestyle.

Consequently the pain has to be spread widely but, I expect as usual, it is the responsible middle income families who have saved who will bear the brunt. Those who caused and benefitted from the recession will doubtless get away unscathed.

We have a huge deficit - agreed. But the solution to a substantial part of it is really very very simple indeed.

Cancel Trident.

That's about half our deficit dealt with. Let's consider that - half the deficit wiped away. And at what cost? We eschew our ability to reduce cities to piles of radioactive ash and to engage in the indiscriminate slaughter of thousands upon thousands of non-combatant men women and children - an ability that there is no prospect of us ever exercising. Certainly not over the 20-year projected lifespan of Trident.

OK, cancelling Trident does not address structural deficit, which needs to be dealt with. But dealing with the huge non-structural deficit that resulted from bailing out the banks by using funds earmarked for Trident would give us time and space to deal with structural deficit in a sensible, non-hysterical fashion.

50. At 10:13am on 20 Jun 2010, Jane wrote:

Having just watched George Osbourne on the Andrew Marr show I would just like to say that as a "benefit scrounger" on £53 per week carers allowance I get up at 5.50 every morning and look after my severely disabled husband until I go to bed at around 10pm when I am then "on call" if he needs me during the night. Up until his stroke 2 years ago we both worked and paid taxes and I am really upset by the Tory and Lib Dem attitude to the welfare system. So I would like the budget to recognise that real people with real needs are sustained by the benefits system and I suspect many more will be needing them once they have axed thousands of jobs and the unemployment figures rise. How about chasing tax dodgers as hard as benefit scroungers?
==========================

Jane - you are obviously NOT a benefit scrounger, but there are plenty of people out there who are.

The chronically sick and disabled (and their carers) should be given as much financial help as they need AND they could actually receive much more than they currently do if all the wasters were weeded out of the system.

Slash benefits for those who refuse to work preferring the state i.e. the rest of us subsidise the ever incresing number of children they sire.
Trained lawyer not working, easy get a job.

#19. Lot of valid observations - I did hope Cable might have been able to make an impact but alas it seem not...

Stop employing companies that maintain a workforce of 100's to do the job of a few. Example roadworks, has anybody every caught them working while sat in the traffic jam? and who agrees these budgets. The people who organise these contracts need shooting, the minimum should be get 3 quotes, use the lowest quote divide by two tell all of them to re-quote against that target then negotiate 10% reduction. I want to see people working for the country not themselves, oh OK £6 million, sign here, then they get their £100k in the back pocket.

In the Biblical Book of Leviticus, a Jubilee year is mentioned to occur every fifty years, in which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven. So there is the solution, a full reset of the economy, wipe it all out and start over with strict rules to prevent it all happening again. Those in power seem to enjoy flaunting their religious credentials, so how about putting them into practice. It seems those far off folks knew the benefit of having a reset every once and a while, and we sure need one now.

The Tories (and now their Lib dem lap dogs) will do what they always do. They will put up every tax that effects the low and medium incomes whilst leaving huge gaping loop holes in place for their rich pals to avoid paying anything much. The only fair thing to do is to get rid of all forms of taxation apart from income tax which should be set at whatever rate is required to pay for everything. Say 50% for all with of course a safe lower threshold before you pay. Say £10,000.
That way we all get to see how much the UK Government actually rips off us. This will satisfy the policy of open Government.
This will also reduce the price of everything we buy thus stimulating the economy. Now where did I put that pipe?

1.Stop trying to be the world's policeman and concentrate on home grown problems.
2. Scrap Trident - what makes us need it when few other countries have it?
3.Cut bureaucracy and red tape
4. Stop Foreign Aid - we can't afford to look after ourselves properly and certainly can't afford any high minded principles.
5.Scrap the House of Lords.
6. Make the RC Church pay all the expenses of the Pope's visit - they can afford it better than UK taxpayers.

66. At 11:03am on 20 Jun 2010, Nebiroth wrote:
"If I have a mild mental condition, one which still allows me to live in the community, go shopping, go pub lunching, etc., I could pick up almost £300 a week"

Even the benefits for the most severely disabled person do not come to anywhere near that figure. And they're all subject to rigourous medical checks and in many instances are means-tested as well. Someone with a "mild mental condition" certainly wouldn't qualify. Congratulations on managing to combine a complete ignorance of welfare benefits AND mental health.

*******

This figure is CORRECT, as it refers to my ex-wife. She has her rent paid (c.£60 pw), pays no council tax (c.£25 pw), and receives disability and mobility allowance PLUS income support of (combined) over £200 pw

Total = nearly £300 - Not entirely ignorance

There should be a special performance related tax for footballers; the worse a player performs the greater the percentage tax paid. Those who earn £125,000 or more a week should pay 70% tax for starters with this increasing to 100% tax for a useless peformance on the pitch. Those on £80,000 a week a scale from 65% to 100%, etc.

I'd remove all of the allowances and benefits that have crept in under Labour's regime for a start. Most of them seem to favour young families and, when our kids were young, all we had was the child benefit and nothing else.

Next, I'd get half the police out of their cars and put them back on the beat where they belong. I never cease to wonder how, so easily, we were once able to afford real policemen in 24-hour stations in every village and town without crippling the public finances. I suspect that, when not chasing here and there, most of their time is spent at football matches, carnivals and demonstrations and counselling. They're certainly not around when the pubs empty.

Much the same with local authorities. Make those who use swimming pools, skateboard parks etc meet the full cost of maintaining them, rather than making everyone else pay. Get council operatives to work a 35 hour week for a change, rather than starting at 10am and clearing off by 3pm, as happens here. Get rid of those noisy, smelly grinding machines that are supposed to clean kerbsides, but don't and go around parked vehicles, and replace them with proper road-sweepers with barrows and brooms. Stop wasting our money on teams of operatives watering town hanging baskets from bowsers every morning.

They're just for starters, but small savings add up to a lot.

The emergency budget should reward those who will try to create businesses that will raise the UK's GDP and get us out of this disaster. There are too many in our country that think they should be kept by the "rich" with increases in taxation and re-distributing wealth to the "poor". I am fed up with the same people on HYS using "you should be shamed", "you are greedy", "tax the rich", "if you can afford two houses then...” etc, etc. They are the usual bleeding hearts and failures that live under the illusion that all people in our society deserve the same rewards no matter what they contribute. We would be in a better state if every lazy scrounger and socialist got up and did something for the country. We would be in an even better state if we had not had the last decade of social experimentation and reckless spending.

There are estimated to be fifty-four billionaires living in the uk,lets see how much tax they pay.Lets tax bankers,oil companies,super-market giants,money market profiteers and all the very rich people in the government,tax them much more than the ordinary man in the street.Tax those who can afford to send their children to eton or harrow,they can obviously afford it.Lets have a super super tax for the rich and squeeze them until it really hurts.Stop aid to other countries,and close the door to immigrants and free nhs operations to visitors .Then I will agree with 20% vat.Do not dare touch benefits to the unemployed or sick or elderly!If this does not happen I can see scenes similar to what has happened in Greece,but perhaps even more serious.

89. At 12:02pm on 20 Jun 2010, Royd Moore wrote:
In the Biblical Book of Leviticus, a Jubilee year is mentioned to occur every fifty years, in which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven. So there is the solution, a full reset of the economy, wipe it all out and start over with strict rules to prevent it all happening again. Those in power seem to enjoy flaunting their religious credentials, so how about putting them into practice. It seems those far off folks knew the benefit of having a reset every once and a while, and we sure need one now.

What about those of us who did not take on debts we could not afford in the first place? Those of us who saved to ensure we could afford to buy things, who paid off our mortgages through our own efforts? Your approach creates the very "moral hazard" that caused the crisis in the first place: those who are irresponsible getting bailed out by those who are responsible.

First of all, I'd like to say that I truly do appreciate the suffering and financial-loss that many blameless people are going through - I am going through the same things...

On an on-going basis - our Government must take a VERY deep look at all those 'handouts' that Labour regularly gave/gives to it's innumerable minority-group 'friends' and Quango's in exchange for 'political popularity' - especially those that admit that they despise our way of life and culture.

"What would you include in the Budget?" (BBC):
1) Families AND single-parents with an annual income of over £50k should not receive 'Child-benefit' - they are NOT the 'needy'.

2) Stop Child-benefit for more than 2 Children - to become effective in 12 months time - so that people will be fore-warned - and it will not affect those that already have large families. This rule should apply even if the Parent/s are on State-benefits.
This will help people to be more responsible when it comes to childbirth and help rectify the 'supposed' Child-poverty that exists in Britain. It will also free-up more Housing for the truly 'needy' rather than for the irresponsible. It will also massively cut our Benefit costs. Add to this the benefit of helping to cut over-population and all the costs, misery and dissatisfaction that this causes - and we would see a massive improvement - not just in costs - but in a better standard of life and Society for ALL.

"Are you ready to face, what many expect to be, an "age of austerity"? (BBC):
Many of us are old enough, wise enough and responsible enough, to realise that there is NO other way to get this Country 'back on it's feet' without some 'hardship' - we've been through it MANY times before. Periodic 'austerity' has almost become a 'way of life' in the UK - thanks to MANY Labour governments.

The Budget is not even on us yet and already I'm tired of all those (many of whom abused our benefit-system or have been greedily over-paid) screaming about the injustice of the 'cut's'. We either deal with it or trudge-on for decades - in total misery.
We OWE this to our Children - it is THEIR right - let them see how much we care by dealing with it.

Just to correct a few myths that are being perpetuated here.

I have to admit I am a little confused to find out that I have an "unfunded public sector pension". Looking at my pay slip, I see "Pension contribution: £212.86" on it.

Also, for those calling fo changes to the retirement age - certainly in my sector (I am a teacher), any new entrant to the scheme from 2007 had their retirement age increased fromv 60 to 65. Though I'd point out that even currently, many teachers don't retire at 60 - if they did, we'd have a secondary teaching shortage far worse than it is already.

As regards pay; we are in the 3rd year of a pay deal that saw teachers take a below-inflation pay rise in 2008 in return for a fixed three-year deal of 2.3%, the last tranche of which is due this September. Whilst it would be unfair for the government to renege on that, given the situation in the country I think the majority of people would at least understand if this rise was to be cancelled.

Where Cameron has to be careful is with pay. There's a lot of calls to restrict pay freezes/cuts to those earning over, say, 30K. But certainly with teachers, who start on a low salary and go up the pay scale with experience, this would mean that those below 30K (usually young single people) would escape at the expense of those with 7 or more year's experience. These people are usually those in their 30s who are likely to be the very people that Cameron wants to protect - working people, often married, with young families. If he doesn't want to appear a hypocrite, he needs to think about this.

I won't mention what I think of the Lib Dems, who I voted for, for the first and last time, in May.

#65 More cliche's than a Match of the Day interview - ignorant, simplistic,child-like reaction to a crisis created by the reckless greed of those in the private sector.......no thought given to the practicalities of implementing these "ideas"....and a simple prognosis for all those suffering from depression.....what a prize clown.