tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2484626660177622626.post6758860635116003730..comments2024-03-27T19:54:34.479+00:00Comments on Falling On A Bruise: Budget Day AgainFalling on a bruisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05518409624331248084noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2484626660177622626.post-25576385183218087222009-04-22T22:50:00.000+01:002009-04-22T22:50:00.000+01:00I am happy to see that he shifted the top rate to ...I am happy to see that he shifted the top rate to 50% and left the rest well enough alone. The beer, cigarettes and fuel was always going to go up but after a quick glance through the rest of it, nothing stands out but he really didn't have much room to manoeuvre either way.Falling on a bruisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05518409624331248084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2484626660177622626.post-29133987963697876072009-04-22T15:01:00.000+01:002009-04-22T15:01:00.000+01:00I see he's gone for 50%... Hopefully that's just s...I see he's gone for 50%... Hopefully that's just short term. It might be tempting for the Tories to keep it like that, although they should remember the productive boost that came from Lawson lowering the top rate to 40% in the late 80s... <br /><br />Overall it's tempting to agree with Nick Clegg's take on it: "Taxes are still too heavy on those who can least afford it and too easy to avoid for those who know how. That's how this Government and the Tories seem to want it."Cheezyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10176170186766506070noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2484626660177622626.post-38057526923592937222009-04-22T11:28:00.000+01:002009-04-22T11:28:00.000+01:00By the way, I haven't a clue why I put the % sign ...By the way, I haven't <I>a clue</I> why I put the % sign before the figure in that last paragraph... Mental Note: Don't blog while you're doing six other things...Cheezyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10176170186766506070noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2484626660177622626.post-74793149700569860862009-04-22T11:27:00.000+01:002009-04-22T11:27:00.000+01:00Notwithstanding the usual arguments over tax incre...Notwithstanding the usual arguments over tax increases causing a 'capital flight' from the UK (there is something to be said for this view, and I'm sure you'll hear from others about this shortly!) I can't see the political sense of raising the top rate to 60% by 2011, since the Conservatives will be in power by then and will never back it. <br /><br />What they <I>will</I> back (as Cameron and Osbourne have already said) is a raising of the top rate to %45. So it makes sense for Alastair Darling to peg it that rate. It's like when Labour were elected in 1997 - they inherited a top rate of %40 from the Tories, and - up till now - never saw the sense of changing it, up or down.Cheezyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10176170186766506070noreply@blogger.com