[Malcolm Armsteen]

Bastard's stolen our trousers.

[Crabcakes]

That was the biggest load of appearing to do something while in reality doing nothing or less than nothing I think I’ve ever seen. With a side order of denial of why a lot of what needed appearing to be done needed doing in the first place. It’s like a builder papering over the cracks he caused by driving a lorry into your house while pissed, then blaming the shittiness of the job and the cause of the crash on bad roads and global wallpaper prices.

[Oboogie]

On the 23rd of September the Tories, including 8 members of the current cabinet*, applauded a programme of massive tax cuts, today, 8 weeks later, those same people applauded a programme of massive tax rises. What are they FOR?

For the record, the following were also in Liz Truss's cabinet:
Suella Braverman
James Cleverly
Therese Coffey
Ben Wallace
Nadhim Zahawi
Alister Jack
Chris Heaton-Harris
Penny Mordaunt

[Andy McDandy]

They're occupying positions of power, and denying them to others. That's all there is at this stage.

[Andy McDandy]

And the upshot appears to be a trap laid for the next government - spending cuts pencilled in for a few years time, but headline-grabbing protections of pensions and the NHS now. If the Tories win the next election, they can do as they choose. If it's Labour, they either have to stick to the plans or risk being attacked for financial profligacy and recklessness.

Seize the headless chancellor, a load of fannies, we hear (5).

[Tubby Isaacs]

You know, I'm not sure that Hunt delivered victory at the next election there. Unless things improve next year and a giveaway budget is made possible, but even that will ring rather hollow.

It was actually not as bad as it could have been, in that there were major tax rises there and the fiscal rule was changed. But a few obvious popular tax rises were spurned (VAT on private schools, Mansion Tax, something on capital gains) which Labour is prepared to do. I think it's reasonably well set up for Labour here.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Victory at the next election for whom?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Captions please

[mattomac]

To be honest it’s a budget that tells me even they believe that Labour are going to win the next election.

[Crabcakes]

Offsetting it all to after the next election only works if you assume whoever comes next is going to be working to the same mentality as you. There are plenty of things they could have done to address shortfalls etc. that people would be broadly supportive of. A Labour govt can do all these knowing full well that the only people they’ll piss off are Tory voters they’d never win over anyway.

Plus, the longer they say they’re doing stuff with no discernible impact - such as no shifting in NHS wait times, higher bills etc. - the more people are going to tie it directly to them and to brexit, which is already at 60% or so saying it was a bad idea. The ‘blame it on Russia’ plan also won’t work because a lot of the public will just see Ukraine winning and think it’s bullshit - and yes it is more complex than that, but this is the party that got where it was based on ultra-simplistic takes on complex issues, so if anyone deserves to be undone by the same, it’s them.

[Andy McDandy]

BTL commentators on the Mail (see the Littlejohn/Vine takes) are already muttering about the expense of putting up all these white and sympathetic Ukrainians. Few months more and they'll be in "we backed the wrong side" territory.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Fargel the frog-faced fucker is in that territory already. The shitforbrains elite will be following him shortly.

[Bones McCoy]

Fargel the frog-faced fucker is in that territory already. The shitforbrains elite will be following him shortly.

Follow the money suggests it would always be thus with the frog faced Putin asset.

[mattomac]

Even a new trade agreement with Europe would help and those red lines that were stuck to so rigidly won’t matter.

There is a fair bit of other stuff, Anti taxing the rich rhetoric only works when it looks rosy, the problem is those on 40, 50 and 60k are starting to feel it.

It’s probably why even the Government felt they could make the move they did.

There figures in recent polls with anyone below 50 is in single figures. It’s not sustainable and naturalised expectation that the older you get the more Tory you get is starting to waver because things haven’t improved, the given that the next generation would be better off than the last hasn’t happened and things that were a right or a given have been slowly eroded.

I do think the NHS has finally reached a point when it will matter at the ballot box. They like to talk about their Vaccine success but what’s it actually done? Did it mean the UK was able to bounce back quicker than other G7 nations? Has it meant there isn’t a health crisis in this country? No.

I’m glad Britain pushed ahead but that was because the country is still home to one of the best Higher Education systems in the world, one that this government wants to dismantle.

Let’s face it, they didn’t get anything else right on Covid.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Local council has a plan for some rare brownfield land in the centre of a Surrey town. Replace sprawling car park with 28 homes and a multi storey car park.

Can't be having that, says the actual Chancellor of the Exchequer.

[Andy McDandy]

Interesting to see no mention of the C word on that leaflet. Also interesting that they're still doing the dodgy surveys.

I'd imagine that if a few traveller families rocked up on the precious car park, Hunt and the good folks of Godalming would be Joni Mitchell-like in their disapproval of car parks.

I'm also amused that he brands the locally elected council as somehow the enemy of the local people, when one of its parts is the local residents association.

[soulboy]

You saw a dodgy survey, I saw a pre-paid envelope and an opportunity to tell “I do beg your pardon, Hunt” exactly what you think of him at his own expense.

[Andy McDandy]

Is that QR code readable?

[Samanfur]

They've been using that green branding - or blue and yellow - a lot recently. And yes, you'd need a magnifying glass to spot the Tory imprint at the end of the last page.

[Youngian]

This doesn’t sound like a bad idea, it might not be but at least Hunt has been thinking about life in the real world.

Budget 2023: Jeremy Hunt to create 12 new low-tax ‘investment zones’ across UK

The chancellor is expected to reveal 12 zones clustered around universities – radically scaling back a scheme introduced by the former prime minister Liz Truss which saw hundreds of councils bid against each other.
The Treasury said each zone would get £80m of support over five years – including generous tax incentives to attract businesses to left-behind parts of the country.

The zones will be clustered around universities and research centres and will be focused on driving growth in key sectors – technology, creative industries, life sciences, manufacturing and the green sector.
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