Car before storm
WELL, at least there might be some small cheer in today’s Budget.
All the indications are that Rachel Reeves IS going to keep the 5p cut in fuel duty, which is vital for our hard-pressed readers.
The introduction of a proper PumpWatch scheme which exposes those petrol stations which continue to shamelessly rip-off motorists is also welcome, if long overdue.
Other signs though — after weeks of hopelessly mixed-up Government messaging — are not so good.
Tax thresholds will be frozen again — dragging more workers than ever into paying a higher rate.
In a fresh blow, on top of last year’s winter fuel fiasco, ten million pensioners face being dragged into paying income tax.
Savers’ tax-free accounts will be slashed.
And — while good news for anybody who can still find a job in the battered economy — a steep rise in the minimum wage will increase costs for struggling small businesses, especially pubs.
Then there’s all the taxes on fun.
A milkshake tax . . . a tourist tax . . . and even a levy on your minicab home after a night out.
On betting, we wait to see whether the Chancellor has listened to the concerns of punters up and down the land — or will plough on with a destructive £3BILLION raid.
Somehow, amid this endless picking of ordinary people’s pockets, Reeves has found another £15 billion to fund MORE benefits handouts for the jobless.
None of this is going to deliver growth.
The painfully long run up to this Budget has been a shambles, dominated by the need to appease leftwing MPs gunning for Sir Keir Starmer.
During this time, business confidence has plunged and the housing market has stalled — even before a proposed mansion tax is introduced.
Employers have delayed investment until they can see whether or not the Chancellor can get a grip.
After last year’s disastrous anti-growth Jobs Tax Budget, we didn’t think it could get any worse.
Today might prove otherwise.
Jury’s still out
ON a day when Labour overturned centuries of precious legal rights by scrapping jury trials for dozens of serious offences, thousands of pounds were wasted on the prosecution of Father Ted comedy writer Graham Linehan.
His spat with a trans activist was nothing more than verbal handbags.
This is the kind of nonsense Labour SHOULD be stopping from clogging up our courts.
Instead, the Government has ended fundamental rights tracing back to Magna Carta, leaving defendants’ fates in the hands of judges only.
That’s a huge gamble with our freedoms.
