Hey Peeps
Finally after weeks of worrying about nothing more than rich people getting dresses donated or a free box at football, we finally have a budget, and the tax rises that were never going to happen except they were inevitable.
The 1p off a pint of beer was moderately…ridiculous. You’d have to give yourself alcohol poisoning to save £1. But then it turns out that the pubs are going to have to put 47p on a pint to cover the costs of the increased employer national insurance contributions. Plus they’re going to have to employ fewer people because they can’t afford them, and give lower pay rises. This is probably going to be business-wide.
It kind of reminds me of the old chestnut ‘be sure your sins (lies) will find you out’. They may not be actually taxing the workers but they knew the knock-on effects as well as the next person.
It also turns out that the secret black hole in the budget, which wasn’t reported to the Office of Budget Responsibility, is 9bn not 20bn. I know that it’s still a bad thing, but the 20bn was also a big fib. ‘Be sure your sins…’, actually I can’t be bothered, it’s going to get boring repeating this.
I’d be in utter disbelief if it weren’t for the fact that discovering that they haven’t quite told the truth is so easily believable, I’m in utter disbelief that anyone is surprised at their rearranging of the truth.
So, we’re back in the position of having voted for change to get more of different but surprisingly similar. Tax and spend is an old Labour tactic that has failed approximately 100% of the time. The Office of Fiscal Studies also can’t find much growth in this budget…all so boringly predictable.
What is the lesson here?
It could be that the Conservatives have enough money for their wives to buy dresses and to afford a box at football, although I think Richie sat in the stands, but I don’t think so. I think when you’re in opposition for too long you don’t worry about how what you’re doing is going to look. Then you get into power and you don’t adjust your settings as it were.
In fairness to politicians, if they stirred their tea in the wrong direction the country would be up in arms.
What it boils down to (with or without the tea outrage) is that every 4-5 years we vote for the people we think are going to solve our problems. When we get fed up with one lot we finally give the others a chance, even if they haven’t had a crack at government since Methuselah was a baby, but we think that they will make everything work.
How many people get to run anything with zero experience? Imagine a brain surgeon saying “Well I’ve watched someone else do it so give me a scalpel and I’ll have a go…where exactly is it by the way?”
Here’s a possible truth. Only we can make our life work by making the right decisions and believing that we deserve the best.
Okay, I know that’s rich coming from an undercover political journalist, hardly the epitome of success, but I can ride out these changes and stupid decisions, because I’ve made some okay ones. Rock star would have been better and more lucrative, but I’m not interesting enough to make it in that field. I am however so ordinary that I’m ideally suited to undercover work. No one takes any notice of what’s-his-name, which is my superpower.
What puzzles me though is why more people doesn’t mean more tax to pay for services? That one baffles me. However, we don’t future-proof, we don’t upgrade our systems (sewage not computers), and we don’t upgrade our services.
Whatever your thoughts, it still holds true that each individual life is directly affected only by the person living it. People may have been failed by the systems, struggled at school because they weren’t academic or a learning disability held them back, but no matter what we have to fight for ourselves, no one else will.
Two of Britain’s most successful entrepreneurs left school at 16, one had dyslexia which held him back, and yet they made it big in business. Maybe the secret to life is not taking no for an answer and not letting anyone else stand in your way, rather than politics?
Clarence
P.S. My grandson is very upset because when he saw the complaints about the politicians getting dresses given to them he felt that they should have been prettier. I tried to explain to him that this wasn’t the issue, but you know kids. When he heard about the free football box he was outraged that anyone should be expected to pay for a cardboard box in the first place, didn’t understand why a football was in a box, he also felt that boxes are not that expensive at DIY stores and it worried him why politicians couldn’t afford their own. I didn’t even try to explain that one. Kids.
Deb Hawken - Amorah 