Wednesday, October 30th, 2024 - Budget Day

 

This is personal, stated the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves. She refers to realities of the 1980s and 1990s. The Chancellor's efforts to gather capital will drag hundreds of thousands more people into paying tax and even more into higher rates as their pay rises, indicates none other than The Guardian.

Could a personal crusade turn into a nightmare? Changing fiscal rules to disguise debt making it appear as something else does not change the fact that it will still be borrowing. So more taxes and more borrowing that will be increased for public interest, according to the Chancellor.

Ordinary folk and many business were badly hit by the Covid Pandemic and the measures implemented to deal with the Covid Pandemic. After that, people and many business were hit by the energy crise generated by the conflict in Ukraine and the measures adopted against the Russian Federation. 

Now, they stand to be hit again by taxation and potentially higher prices of utilities, housing and daily shopping.

But the Chancellor of the Exchequer still says that she will implement the budget in a way that she will 'protect the living standards of working people'. 

Well, in an interview made in Washington, USA, Rachel Reeves - perhaps inadvertently - made promises that she will have to deliver. If she does not deliver and if the measures implemented by the Labour government become a de facto nightmare, then this will create a widely open door for another Conservative government.

Starting on Wednesday, October 30th, 2024, the government will have to deliver and with every failure, and every new crise, there will be many by-elections along the way in which people will express their discontent.

She talks about building schools and hospitals. Well, what will she do about nurses salaries that are not enough to rent a one bedroom flat? If living costs keep rising, this will be a de facto devaluation of salaries and a worsening of living standards. Before she goes around building schools and hospitals, she will have to look carefully at salaries actually paid to teachers and NHS staff. 

Even with the triple lock, state pensions are not enough to rent a one bedroom flat. State pensions are totally insufficient. Taxing state pensions and private pensions can only worsen an already bad situation. And this is going to do nothing to 'protect living standards'.  

Jeremy Hunt: November 17th 2022 - Tax Day

 

November 17th 2022 - Tax Day

A hole in public finances of  more than 50 billion Pound will have to be plugged. Apart from the prospect of budget cuts affecting services, the alternative is a massive amount of tax increases.

Kwasi Kwarteng was slaughtered, thrown to the wolves, because he wanted to implement Liz Truss policies of tax reductions. What will happen to Jeremy Hunt when he announces a budget that contains punitive measures?

Let us remember that on the first round of the leadership election that led to the Premiership of Liz Truss the now Chancellor of the Exchequer didn't manage to progress beyond the first round. He was not popular among MPs and was not popular among the Membership of the Conservative Party. Now, the same man is going to propose a budget that goes against what is the declared ideological stance of the Conservative Party. Rising energy costs, rising interest rates plus rising taxes. If you are a business owner struggling to survive in the present financial environment, how are you going to react? Will you minimize your business to reduce fixed costs and in doing so sent your staff to the queue of the unemployed? A very harsh winter coming for those who lose their jobs when families are already struggling to pay for rental accommodation because they don't have the means to afford mortgage payments.

Wasn't Rishi Sunak the one who suggested that we should have a long term approach instead of shock therapy? Will such a budget be compatible with long term thinking? If Jeremy Hunt goes to far, this could the end of Jeremy Hunt and also the end of an already wavering Rishi Sunak? What next? Another leadership election?

Just a few months ago it was reported that recent interest rates will put more than 500,000 mortgages in jeopardy. Will more taxes and more unemployment make the situation better or worse? If the mortgage business falters, the financial system as a whole will be in serious trouble. We don't need even to explain what a wave of mortgage and load defaults will do to the economy.

There is no point in complaining about lack of public services when people vote for budget cuts

You cannot have your cake and eat it. There is no point in complaining about lack of public services when people vote for budget cuts.

If the moves towards Austerity go beyond what is reasonable, perceived financial problems will turn into dramatic social problems.

It is a well known fact that families affected by acute financial problems are the ones most affected by domestic violence because in the end something must give way.

There is a direct correlation between extreme poverty and deprivation with things like crime, domestic violence and ghetto realities including substance abuse and a wide range of anti-social activities.

A vibrant economy is not an economy in which poverty and deprivation prevail and extreme austerity measures can lead straight towards poverty and deprivation.. Disenchanted people are the ones who are more prone to get into trouble as they see society as prey instead of seeing it as something they would like to be part of.

In a society where extreme austerity measures are in place, public services are bound to suffer because people faced with very harsh realities are bound to put pressure on services like Health Services and Police. Alcoholism and other forms of substance abuse and related acts of violence are the root cause of many incidents that end up consuming much of the resources given to Health Services and Police.

It seems unreal that at the time when so many incidents are related to mental health problems, resources devoted to mental health services are evaporating for the sake of budget cuts. The legislation coordinating services like Police and NHS is quite inadequate and Police Forces end up having to release individuals that should have been referred for mental health treatment.

When Police forces are consulted they say that only in very extreme situations individuals detained are sectioned and forced to receive mental treatment. In other words, in the vast majority of cases people that would really benefit from mental health treatment get no mental health treatment whatsoever and sooner than later become involved in new incidents that could have even more dramatic consequences.

Police forces say that even when individuals who have been involved in acts of violence because of mental health problems get arrested and go to court the probability of the said individuals having mental health treatment is almost non existing.  

As this point, all the talk about prevention simply evaporates and public services like NHS and Police are overly burdened because there is no proper legislation in place and resources are being reduced.