Just heard the budget on Radio 4 and it strikes me that we are bit up the creek and have overspent so much that the chances of even being able to afford the small deposit needed for a paddle are slim.

On a positive note, that 2 grand scrapping bonus should go a long way to helping our car industry recover.

All long-term unemployed under 25s to be offered job or training

Hmm, how’s that going to work? Where are the jobs coming from?

£1.7bn additional resources for Job Centre network

Ahh, so just give ’em jobs in the job centre!

Dunno – can’t imagine buying a new car now just because someone is paying the first years depreciation.

I’ll be able to put more into a tax-free ISA – so I’m happy.

All long-term unemployed under 25s to be offered job or training

Hmm, how’s that going to work? Where are the jobs coming from?

What about if you are over 25? Do you no longer need a job?

I’m seriously miffed that we had the chance to do a lot more stuff like encouraging people onto bikes and not put so much money into cars but didn’t. The money for the cars will mainly move abroad. We’ll be giving people in Germany and the US money.

GOVERNMENT SAVINGS
• Tax loopholes and schemes identified which could provide £1bn of extra revenue over the next three years if closed

• An extra £9bn in efficiency savings is planned

• Public spending to be cut from 1.1% next year to 0.7% in 2011-2012

So why are you spending £9bn MORE than you need to now?

tax free ISA is good news.

tax on £150k is pretty daft. A lot of people earning that much can arrange to have it paid outside of PAYE and in some form over which they have a better chance of managing their tax.

the national debt is very very scary but
after watching newsnight on monday no one even ken clarke could say he knew where the economy would go in the short, medium or long term
4 different experts had 4 different opinions on what should be done
of course no one wants huge debt for your kids but investing in the right places now, could mean that we are able to cope with it
trouble is labour dont have a good track record on where to spend our borrowed cash

oh and this was the best bit of teh bbcs budget commentary…..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8010759.stm

1226 Loud cheers around the chamber for Luton South MP Margaret Moran
who, wearing a Luton Town FC scarf, congratulates the team for winning
the Johnston Paints Trophy, despite being relegated from the Football
League. Mr Brown says he is sure the club will return to the league
soon.

yes, but the isa wont pay any more than your current account……….

quite like the idea of building more houses (yes plese, drive them down just bit more and i’ll be able to afford one!)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8010759.stm
tax on £150k is pretty daft. A lot of people earning that much can arrange to have it paid outside of PAYE and in some form over which they have a better chance of managing their tax.

i totally agree real effort should have been made on sorting out tax evaders

i know a few obscenely well paid city IT types who channel their tax through their ‘company’ based in croatia!

“On a positive note, that 2 grand scrapping bonus should go a long way to helping our car industry recover.”

If it’s anything like the scheme in Germany, it’ll be applicable only to new, small, cheap and “green” (I hate the term) cars i.e. the Polos/Fiestas/Kas/i10s/500s of this world. Only one or two (the Nissan Micra, IIRC the Toyota Yaris and (eventually) the Honda Jazz)) are built here in the UK. “Our” (as it really belongs to someone else) car industry will not benefit from these scheme.: “we” make stuff like Astras, Avensis’, Accords etc, plus the bigger, high-end stuff.

quite like the idea of building more houses (yes plese, drive them down just bit more and i’ll be able to afford one!)

dont forget quite a few extra houses coming on to the market inside the M25 now that no 2nd home allowance 🙂 although the torries say it unfairly targets them as many of their home county mps will be forced to use public transport!!!!

On a positive note, that 2 grand scrapping bonus should go a long way to helping our car industry recover.

How? I have a 1998 Peugeot 306 on my drive that I have owned for over a year, I’m fully employed with no debts yet I can’t afford a new car at the moment. It would be madness to buy a new car now.
I know Im not indicative of the general public, nor can I speak for them however I wouldnt go near a depreciating major purchase at the moment.

thisisnotaspoon – Member

yes, but the isa wont pay any more than your current account……….

Sorry – this one has confused me. Could you explain?

Aah, more pubs suffering at the 2% increase on the price of a pint.

£2000 for scrapping my old car for a new one – needs to take out a loan to buy new car.

I wouldnt go near a depreciating major purchase at the moment.

bizarrely lots of people do

i suspect this may be popular with businesses if its applicable to them

Just think its crackers- I havent planned or booked any holidays, if I buy something its balanced out by selling something (bike bits).

We had a lad working for us- he has an Audi A4 convertible on HP and a small son. He could even afford to replace the tyres. When he left we found alot of gambling sites/gambling email spam etc going to his email address. Sad but clucking bells if your a grown up shouldnt you be abit more prudent etc?!!!

the £2000 ona car, can i buy a banger then go and get £2000 for it off a new car

No, you need to own the car for 6months first.

tax on £150k is pretty daft. A lot of people earning that much can arrange to have it paid outside of PAYE and in some form over which they have a better chance of managing their tax.

There are plenty of people in professional services earning above that level and, because they own the firms that provide them with that income, I suspect that the need to “save” the tax will also be passed onto the employees of those firms.

Great.

mmm i have a 13 year old mondeo estate that runs sweet but i think i will keep it as i dont need another loan

our kid is quids in with the 14 year old fiesta ive given him recently tho as he was after running it a for 6-12 months (as hes just past his test) and then buying a new one 😉

On a positive note, that 2 grand scrapping bonus should go a long way to helping our car industry recover.

I’m not so sure.

If you’re running a 9+ year old car, are you really in a position to go and buy a new car even with £2k off. With a few exceptions, people/ families running a 9+ year old car could be low income households. Do we really want to encourage them to get into debt with car finance or a loan???

See i’m seriously considering a new car cos of the scrappage.

My old mondeo is worth about £400 (cheap for an easy sale), and I want to replace it with a berlingo. Current website price on a berlingo first (old shape one) from citroen is 10k, so 8k for a new one is pretty appealing. Compared to say 4k for a 3yo petrol one, the new one could be diesel and save me about £400 a year on tax/fuel, plus it’ll have new tyres, not need a new cam belt in the next 5 years, have a warranty so less worries about big repair bills etc etc.

I’d not buy on finance tho – maybe that’s the difference? I’d buy new if it means overall the cost of me owning it say 5 years is the same or less – and the sums work out pretty damn close.

That last bit was withering sarcasm…

I know that all the major companies that small, fuel efficient cars are overseas and so most of the money would just evaporate off-shore. I also know that despite my 9 year old Frontera only doing 37 to the gallon, it is far cheaper for me to keep running it than it would be to scrap it, buy a new car and then wait for the efficiency savings to balance out.

I’m also thinking that it is better for the environment/CO2 production to keep my car and run it for a long time than to go out and buy something new. To my mind, it takes a lot more CO2 and resources to build a new car than it takes to run and repair mine.

My next car will be a Landy 90 running on chip fat. It will also be my last car, as I intend to run it for about 30 years… Beat that Prius.

On a positive note, that 2 grand scrapping bonus should go a long way to helping our car industry recover.

Well this scheme is workign here for a few month
Government gives you a grand if you scrap your car.
Car dealers double it.
Car dealers usually gives you the eco-tax too.
So you can save 2700 € on your junk/old car.

Result, there is no cheap car second hand anymore. No one is going to buy middle class second hand cars (4000-5000€ mark) as it would be cheaper to buy a brand new twingo…

Results, second hand market is all wrong, it still give the feeling to the **** car makers that they still can plan a +10% this year.

Stupid if you ask me.

The 2k thing. We were considering selling out two cars and buying one, how would that work?

What terrifys me the most, is the totally speculative growth figures. from which has allowed Darling to massage the deficit figures.

Personally, I think it’s absolutely terrifying. More terrifying is when the actual growth figures come out…watch the markets sink the pound and massacre any gilt sales – from which they reckon they can raise £220 billion…minimum. Remember the last gilts sale…didn’t go very well.

If that fails, we’ll probably lose the AA+ credit rating as a country.

As someone under 25…about to leave university. I would (as I’m sure all my other graduates and indeed recently made redundant non-graduate friends) LOVE to know exactly where these magical jobs they’ve suggested are coming from?! I can’t say I’ve heard of any around here! Are they just making this up as they go along?! Especially given that too many of the graduate schemes have shut up shop/put on hold/not recruiting until 2011/firms gone under entirely.

A brilliant comment just made on Sky news – ‘Rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic’.

My uni house – with 3 apparent labour supporters from the North after watching it as a house… have all unanimously just decided, all 6 of us are going abroad, yes we’re running from the problems, but hell, **** paying for everyone else’s future pensions/future mess and future debt. Out of the 6 of us, we’ve already paid off £30,000 between us towards our student loan debt, because we’ve worked every summer, because we’ve worked during term time, we will pay off what we owe, but we are not going to pay for an incompetent governments mistakes for the next decade.

We’ve contributed Tax and NI that we’ll never see the benefit of because it’s paying for everyone’s else’s pension who (for them luckily) made money when times were better.

Time for a stress relieving ride in the Dales!

I suspect the chancellor wanted you to spend the rest of the day talking about his little scrappage scheme rather than anything important. He would appear to have succeeded. 😉

Clever budget politically all round I think. Strong narrative, projections which at least chime with what I’m hearing from my clients, sounded all fairly calm and sane. Cameron was teetering on the edge of the elephant trap of opposing the increased top rate. It will be interesting to see how the conservatives play that and the personal allowances and pension tax relief for high earners when they get their heads around it later. 🙂

I am sure the chancellor is absolutely bricking it that 6 students have decided to go and work in a bar in Sydney for a couple of years… 😉

I think it’s ashame that the car scrappage scheme doesn’t take mileage into account as well as age.

To me this is another pat on the back for the fairly well off, and a slap in the face for the low income folk.

I run a car that is over 15 years old. I cant afford to buy a mid age second hand car, yet alone one on a scrappage deal. Knocking £2000 of a brand new car price with not bring it into financial reach.

This deal is only of use to people who were planning to/can afford to buy a brand new car anyway – I am guessing perhaps ‘2 car or more’ families who might now trade in the older car to have 2 recent ones, or who can afford to buy the teenager kids a brand new car.

As many of the older cars will be destroyed, poorer people will have less chance to buy the old vehicles which they are able to afford – and to make it worse second hand prices will go up as older vehicles become more scare.

BigDummy.

2 of us are starting funded 2-year MSc’s abroad (Netherlands and Canada)…one in September, one in February.

1 has a job starting with Goldman Sachs in Paris in August..

1 is going on holiday for a year.

The other two are looking for options (abroad if they can help it)

All very well you saying that, but contemplate the number of graduates this year who are going to find themselves in a similar position. I’m by no means suggesting ‘oo aren’t we daring..rebel against the system..etc’ please, spare me such rudeness.

I am saying that not everyone like yourself can laugh things off when they see little prospect of being able to get a mortgage or a real job over the next few years, and not for the want of trying.

The £2k car scrappage thing does nothing for the car industry as they have to contribute half of the £2k, with margins so low on lower end vehicles each sale could cost the manufacturer money. Not restricted to so called green vehicles either.

I am sure the chancellor is absolutely bricking it that 6 students have decided to go and work in a bar in Sydney for a couple of year

6 students who all watch sky ‘news’

my, standards have slipped

Funny kimbers…being that we watched PMQ’s beforehand.

We’d be first to freely admit that the value of a UK degree is near enough worthless, we’re just lucky that those abroad haven’t realised how devalued they’ve become.

shame about the isa thing, from my perspective.

being under 50 and desperately saving for a house deposit, next year will be too little too late.

that said ive yet to read the fine detail.

being that we watched PMQ’s beforehand.

wow u have to be reeeaaaly clever to watch a bunch of self important ****ts spout the same tedious rhetoric and wafflle, cheer, lambast and harumpf at each other

ultimately leaving to work abroad will offer you little benefit except better weather, unless you know of any countries magically insulated from this downturn

oh i see, and the over fifties can take advantage this tax year but only from October

Oh spare us mrgibbons.

So one of you is has a graduate job at an investment bank, two of you are being funded to study until the recession will have ended, one of you has enough money to doss around for a year and see how it pans out and the other two don’t know what they’re going to do yet. And all this means that you disdain paying UK tax and social security contributions and would rather make such contributions in another country.

🙂