Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

BREAKING NEWS>>>>>>>>>>>

FORGET THE TALKING HEADS – THE OBR CONFIRMS THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT THE ‘RECOVERY’
19/03/2014 · by skwalker1964
·
There will be hour upon hour of coverage on TV and in the press today and tomorrow about George Osborne’s budget, with Labour picking holes and the Tories and LibDems fighting for the ‘credit’ for the supposed recovery.

I’ve already listened to more than I can stomach of Osborne, Ken Clarke and others claiming that their ‘hard work’ and, of course, ‘tough choices’ (we’re all in it together, after all) have resulted in the supposed economic recovery, the fall in ‘worklessness’ (their attempted fudge after the UK Statistics Authority rapped their knuckles for claiming unemployment has fallen massively when in reality it’s dropped hardly at all or risen slightly, depending when you measure from) etc.

But the government’s own OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) laid bare the truth in a single phrase. Speaking to journalists a few moments ago, and covered by BBC News (who so far have failed to spot the telling point), the Chairman of the OBR, Robert Chote, said this:

Looking over the forecast as a whole..net trade makes very little contribution and government spending cuts will act as a drag.



Whatever the hype and the spin, we now have it in plain language from the most official source: government spending cuts act as a ‘drag’ on growth.

Since this government has cut, cut and cut again its spending on everything (including the NHS, in spite of claims to the contrary), this means – in the clearest possible way – that the government has consistently delayed the economic recovery.

And now they’re trying to claim credit for the appearance of something that they’ve done their best to impede, and which would have been here ages ago if it weren’t for their actions.

They’re like someone trying to stop the earth spinning but then claiming credit for the sunrise when they fail.

"revolving door" employment is certainly already common practice in the fashion industry ..... as soon as someone's employment is about to reach "redundancy rights", they are on to a strong chance of being booted out

that said, i'm not convinced you're right, on the basis that this incentive is exactly that - i.e. for those who are looking to add employees, this may tip the balance

i see the expected partisan "yardage" is coming thick and fast

shame really, as i thought my accountants' professional comment (38460) was well worth the read, but it's now been pretty much swamped

Cynic
I like the tax avoidance scheme. If you are regestered under one of the tax avoidance schemes, you have to pay the tax up front then complain after and/or go to court. It is expected to raise a fair bit.

Overall, I see it being good business, especially the investment tax breaks.

‘The Budget that confirms Britain is worse-off under the Tories’

Mr Os-bean: As Ed Miliband gave his response to the Budget, George Osborne had a gormless smile on his face that made him look like Mr Bean. This is not him – but it’s the closest image I could find at short notice.

If a Conservative government is returned to office after the 2015 election, there will be yet more spending cuts and service cuts afflicting hard-working, low-paid families.
That was the message for most people in George Osborne’s latest attempt at a Budget speech today.

There were plenty of groan-worthy moments as the part-time chancellor trotted out the Coalition’s catchphrases: “We will fix the roof while the sun is shining” (groan. The job is taking so long, one has to question whether the contractor is Con-ning the client). “We are all in this together” (groan). Oh really?

Benefit spending is to be capped at £119 billion per year, albeit rising with inflation; public sector pay “restraint” will continue for the foreseeable future. This is from the government whose Prime Minister was confirmed, only minutes previously, as having approved 40 per cent pay rises for his special advisors!

Most significant is the fact that Osborne avoided mentioning ordinary working people for most of his speech; this was a budget for businesses, with the benefits reserved for fatcat bosses.

No major advanced economy in the World is growing faster than the UK, said Mr Osborne; more people are in work. This appears to be borne out by current employment figures (although it should be noted that this is due to a vast and questionable boom in self-employment – the number of employees has dropped by 60,000).

Where is the benefit to the British economy? Why has the deficit not been eliminated? Osborne said it stood at £157 billion in the year he came to office, and would be £108 billion this year, but in fact £39 billion was removed due to measures brought in by the previous Labour chancellor, Alistair Darling. He has cut government spending by something like £80 billion so far, but the deficit has dropped by - possibly – £10 billion. Not a good start to his speech.

There will be further investment in high-speed rail, even though there is no way of predicting whether this hugely costly investment in making train journeys 20 minutes faster will create any economic improvement.

There will be money to fund new centres for medical research – but will these be absorbed by private health firms after the public purse has paid for them?

There will be investment in faster extraction of oil from the North Sea – aiming to get as much as possible out before the Scottish referendum, in order to impoverish the Scots if they decide to go for independence?

And there will be investment in low-cost energy (finally killing the highly questionable green agenda) – meaning money for shale gas companies, and to hell with the environmental cost.

All this investment will go into businesses whose main contribution to the Treasury – Corporation Tax – has already dropped by a quarter (from 28 per cent to 21 per cent) and will go down to 20 per cent this year. This is less than the lowest level of Income Tax.

Up go the profits – down go the tax payments. Who benefits?

Council tax in England remains frozen, meaning fewer public services.

The personal tax allowance is to rise, so people may earn £10,500 before paying tax. This is nowhere near enough to offset the massive drop in living standards that has been caused by the Tory-led Coalition. The cost of living has risen for 44 out of the 45 months of this Parliament – for the whole period, if the earnings of high-paid bankers are removed from the calculation.

The threshold for payment of the 40p tax rate is to rise, so fewer people will pay the higher rate.

Savers are to be helped but – again – this is not a boost for the poor. Most working and unemployed families don’t have any spare money to put into the banks. How does it help them to know they would not pay any tax on savings up to £15,000 in an ISA, when they cannot afford to open one?

And there is a new Pensioner Bond for rich senior citizens (poorer pensioners don’t live long enough to benefit).

As Ed Miliband said in his scathing response, the Coalition can afford to give a tax cut of £200,000 per year to bankers who earn £5 million – but can’t afford £250 per year extra for nurses.

Mr Miliband said the Budget speech was more significant in what it hid than in what it actually said.

Working people are suffering under the Bedroom Tax, under cuts to their tax credits, and they are having to visit food banks if they want to eat.

This is a government that gives with one hand, but takes back much more with the other.

And the Conservatives have the bare-faced cheek to call themselves “The Workers’ Party”.

oh lord! .... yet another 6 yards of verbiage to blanket out any intelligent comment from others, especially those who might have a view that is not labour-party-endorsed

hays - based on the comment in my post 13640 which certain peeps here just want to swamp with reams of guff rather than to comment upon intelligently and succinctly .....

on balance, i thinks it's quite a good budget too - again, i'ld refer you back to post 13640

#7 worries me a bit, though is suspect it will only hit those who have taken "aggressive" avoidance measures
the prob with fighting HMRC, even now, is that even if you are proved to be absolutely within your rights - whatever you are arguing about - you cannot reclaim the costs
to my mind, that is totally unfair

This is striking and one would have to ask JUST WHAT HAS GONE WRONG WITH THE TORIES........................

Our polling shows that Labour currently has the advantage; among those in full and part time employment they lead the Conservatives 44% to 27%. This is a 17 point lead, compared with the 4 point lead that they enjoyed among the electorate at large in our national poll the month before, which had Labour on 34% and the Conservatives on 30%. 12% of workers who had voted Conservative in 2010 would now vote Labour, whilst more 2010 Liberal Democrat voting workers would now vote Labour (40%) than would still vote Liberal Democrat (35%).

I am luck that I don't now see most of it. I filtered Fred about a week ago. I have filtered gf a couple of days ago after he started reposting Fred's posts. It is now a very pleasant thread.

FFS!!!
are you really totally incapable of doing other than c+p'ing several yards of guff?
do you really have no sensible and succinct comment of your own - i care not whether you agree or disagree with another's view?

hays - i refuse to be bullied - for that is effectively what it is - into squelching anyone
indeed, i would welcome the view of "the usual suspects" with regard to post 13640 =- my accountants' comment

Fred the truth below...........


cynic - 18 Mar 2014 18:29 - 5062 of 5086

go and banish yourself :-)
it always amuses me that for some strange reason you think I am glued to hays

stop being a playground bully sticky
it may be the way you were brought up, but you should have grown out it by now

Mr Os-bean: As Ed Miliband gave his response to the Budget, George Osborne had a gormless smile on his face that made him look like Mr Bean. This is not him – but it’s the closest image I could find at short notice.

http://order-order.com/2014/03/19/ed-miliband-prime-minister-in-waiting/

now that you've had your little play, perhaps you'ld like to comment intelligently - of which i know you are capable - on my accountants' summation (post 13640)

Labour leads Tories by 17% – new poll shows Labour the party of hard workers 18/March/2014......by polling company Survation.

44% of people in full or part-time employment said Labour were the party for hard-working people as opposed to just 27% for the Conservatives.

Shock Fall In Number Of Employees As Self-Employment Soars
Posted on March 19, 2014 by johnny void

workfare-isnt-workingDespite Tory claims that unemployment is falling, the number of employees fell this month by 60,000 people according to the latest Labour Market Statistics.

Overall unemployment has fallen over the most recent period, but this seems largely down to huge leap in the number of people who are self-employed. A whopping 211,000 more people became self-employed over the last three months – with the total number now hitting 4.46 million.

It is impossible to know whether these newly self-employed people are actually making any money or have simply switched their claim over to Working Tax Credits. Companies running the Work Programme are known to coerce claimants into self-employment, which not only means they are taken off the unemployment figures but also that those running Government welfare-to-work schemes can claim huge job outcome payments.

If just one in six self-employed people are failing to earn any real income then the true number of unemployed people in the UK is close to 3 million! This would explain the so-called productivity riddle which shows that despite more people being in work, less work overall seems to be being done.

With the number of people in real, verifiable jobs falling it is becoming clear that things are far less healthy in the jobs market than the Government are currently pretending. The unemployment rate – the percentage of the workforce without jobs – stayed at 7.2%, maintaining the rise from 7.1% which was recorded in the last month’s figures. The number of people out of work for over two years also rose, by 6000 people.

For a long time now workfare, zero hours contracts and self-employment have masked the true nature of unemployment in the UK. Yet even this can’t hide this month’s fall in employees, which is so far being ignored by much of the media who can’t be bothered to read past the latest DWP press release. With hundreds of people chasing every job in some parts of the country, it is unemployed people themselves who seem to be the only ones who know what is really going on.

oh well - clearly i misjudged your abilities
never mind, but it's a pity, as an intelligent discussion might have ensued

This is the truth Cynic, your turf accountant doesnt hold this information and therefore all his figures are flawed. You might want to send a copy to your turf accountant......

Remember reading the Governments Budget Book is just like reading a companys accounts........ all the bad news is hidden at the back in the notes.

My view from Westminster

Real Story of the 2014 Budget is hidden in the OBR Projections
04:46 pm, Wed 19th Mar 2014 John Mann MP.



The real story of this budget is the figures provided by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility in the back of the budget book.


There are four areas of major concern for people up and down the country.


Firstly, chart D.3 on page 108 of the budget book predicts that National Accounts Taxes will increase from £556.8 billion in 2012-13 to £734.2 billion in 2018-19. This is an increase in tax receipts of £177.4 billion over the 5 year period which works out as a of 31.5% increase in tax revenue over the next five year period.


Secondly, chart D.1 on page 106 of the budget book shows the OBR prediction that employment will increase from 29.9 million in 2013 to 31.4 million in 2018. Yet their unemployment figures suggest a fall in the claimant count of only 650,000. This figure shows that the Government is relying on significantly more migrant workers coming to the UK to take up these jobs. At a time when the Government has repeatedly pledged to lower the number of migrant workers coming to the UK these figures are politically very controversial for the Conservative Party.


Thirdly, the figures provided by the OBR in chart D.1 show the Chancellor is presiding over another housing bubble as the average house price has increased by 5% since last year but wages and salaries are only predicted to increase by 0.9% in 2014 compared to 2013.


Fourthly, whilst the OBR predicts that unemployment will fall to 6.8% this year, George Osborne failed to mention that this will most likely trigger an increase in interest rates by the Bank of England. This will lead to an increase in mortgage repayments at a time when the OBR’s own figures show household consumption will fall as families cut back on expenditure.


The Chancellor’s own figures are betraying him as they show a staggering increase in taxation over the next five year period. The figures show that this is a recovery based on consumer spending and increasing house prices, it’s simply not sustainable.