[kendra k]

gordon brown is hot with the red briefcase. i'm so excited!!!!

[Matt]

i'm so excited!!!!

Let me guess, and you just can't hide it? About to lose control and I think I like it?

Thought so!

[Sidders]

No doubt beer and fags will go up and the student loan will go down. Ironic.

[Ahh_Pathetic]

wasn't it worth the wait folks? zzzz

raise income tax stupid.

[Adam]

It works out fairly well actually. I dont drink that much so it doesnt really effect me that much.

[Sidders]

It's only 1p anyway which is a surprise. I thought they seemed to be clamping down on drinking at the moment.

[Adam]

It's only 1p anyway which is a surprise. I thought they seemed to be clamping down on drinking at the moment.

They are. Increasing the prices won't stop anyone. There should be a much tighter control on the sale.

[kendra k]

i agree, though sometimes raising the prices can help as a minor determent, but also as a funding source for prevention/control programmes. look at tobacco taxes here.

[Ahh_Pathetic]

yeah but we don't use earmarked taxes. if they did we might have half decent roads.

only thing duller than the budget was micheal howard's response.

[jimmy g]

Why can't they just raise income taxes? (rhetorical) They are much more fair and these stealth taxes have just become trivial. I bet a 41% tax would sort out most of the budget problems.

[kendra k]

people don't really pay attention to these "stealth" taxes. whilst 41% tax would probably make life better for everybody, the though of giving up that much money is just too much to bear.

overall, i'm dissappointed in the budget. last year's was sexier. michael howard is boring and sad. he makes me depressed.

[Ahh_Pathetic]

they raised NI which is effectively an income tax anyway. the difficulty is in getting it right. its not long since it was at 60% an they reduced it to 40% which brought in greater revenues.

tax... fascinating.

[kendra k]

tell us more about it!!!!

i'm being serious, dude.

[Sidders]

I'm quite a fan of stealth tax to be honest.

[jimmy g]

people don't really pay attention to these "stealth" taxes. whilst 41% tax would probably make life better for everybody, the though of giving up that much money is just too much to bear.

They sometimes do - remember all those fuel blockades a few years ago? Still, they promised no income tax increases, and they will probably stick to this one.

You could used to get taxed up to 95% at one time, which sounds unfair, but when you think about it someone earning £50,000 pays the same rate as someone who earns £10,000,000.

Sidla - how can you be a fan of stealth tax when you probably don't have to pay income tax yet anyway?

[Chris]

NI isn't capped (any longer), it's essentially 1%.
Hello stealth 41% income tax.

[Adam]

I dont know much about US Spending - but there's one thing I find rather shocking is how much you spend on defence and armed forces..

Certainly have the $$$ dont you?

[Ahh_Pathetic]

well if they had pounds it would be just stupid. i mean the currency exchanges would be so busy.

the north-west has a bigger economy than greece. fact.

[jimmy g]

Defence seems like an inaccurate term. They also seem to spend lots NASA.

The US have a huge budget deficit to keep the short term economy buoyant and please the voting types with tax cuts. They still try to squeeze the maximum from the poor, though.

[Lawrie]

what made it worse was....Cheltenham festival was on Channel 4 at same time

[Sidders]

Sidla - how can you be a fan of stealth tax when you probably don't have to pay income tax yet anyway?

I don't pay any stealth tax either, unless you're including VAT and tobacco/alcohol duty. I'm mainly talking about motoring stealth taxes.

[kendra k]

i think those are completely valid. if you own a car, you should pay a tax that goes to the roads. roads don't pay for themselves (except toll roads, sort of). don't be so stingey, butters.

[Ahh_Pathetic]

yeah but the money from the road tax is not spent soley on the roads.

if you know you are paying a stealth tax sidla then it isn't very stealthy.

[kendra k]

sidla isn't that stealthy.

like butters.

[Sidders]

if you know you are paying a stealth tax sidla then it isn't very stealthy.

What I don't know doesn't hurt me.