How will the mini-budget affect you?

If you saw “Newsnight” yesterday, you will know that the Chancellors mini-budget has caused great consternation and mixed opinions.


Alistair Darling may have opened a “Can of political worms” when he unveiled his proposals to the nation yesterday. The main question now is, “Will you be better or worse off because of it?”


Only time will tell if the so called “Drastic measures” are the right ones or far reaching enough to provided the desperately needed kick-start to our economy. A reduction in VAT is unlikely to make a massive difference to the general public as it will not necessarily all be passed on by way of lower prices. The general consensus though is that it will still help by making small businesses more profitable and helping to keep them afloat, thereby helping to shore up the economy and save jobs.


Increased national borrowing will mean increased national debt and therefore lead to increased taxes at some stage in the future. Talk is of this happening in 2010, but there can be absolutely no guarantee that any of the stimuli have worked by then, if at all. If not the level of borrowing will leave an enormous “Financial Black Hole” which will leave the nation indebted for many years to come.


Surely we should go back to basics here and rather than trying top “Borrow our way out of debt” we should be looking at packages that will stimulate cash-rich sustainable growth that is not dependent on foreign, particularly tiger economies. We need real change for a real solution, not more “Whitewash” which doesn’t even begin to conceal the cracks.


Reducing the tax burden for the lower paid will inject more cash into the economy. Reducing the level of national borrowing will ensure a healthier chance for growth and success for our children. This government have for long enough been talking about the dangers of living beyond your means and stretching credit too far, but isn’t that exactly what they are now advocating?


If we are to grow stronger through these troubled times we need a bullet-proof plan for generating and sustaining a realistic level of growth and investment. What we do not need now successive Governments have “Sold off all the silverware” is to become a nation consumed by the ravages of debt.


We need a change at the top whether it is policy or people. The current system of lumbering from one disaster to another and using rhetoric as a smoke screen and trying to blame everything but themselves has run its course. If Gordon Brown is to remain at the helm he must become a leader of men, not a man on a lead!


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