SOME SAY it was all going so well until the Tories produced that Beer and Bingo poster that looked like something out of Viz comic advert. Either way, both prospective candidates for Thurrock’s two constituency were not impressed by chancellor’s George Osborne’s budget.
South Basildon and East Thurrock candidate, Mike Le Surf said: “A poor budget. The Tories and their Lib Dem pals are totally out of touch with the people of South Basildon and East Thurrock who are facing a cost of living crisis.
“The truth behind Osborne’s “smoke and mirrors” routine is that residents are worse off now than they were in 2010 with rising energy bills, rail fares and food costs.
A Labour government in 2015 will freeze energy bills, cut business rates and scrap the bedroom tax. Real answers to real issues.”
Thurrock candidate, Polly Billington said: “The reality is that George Osborne seems to be oblivious to the type of lives that most people are living and they are really struggling. These living standards have been going down for the last 44 months.
“Their worries are not being met by this budget. VAT has knocked out many benefits for hard working people. There should have been a bankers bonus tax and that could have meant we could have put into a jobs guarantee.
“The reality is that the jobs figures mask people on zero hours, who do not have the full dignity of full employment.”
That’s page one of the current edition of the ‘Labour Book of Soundbites’. Any original ideas of your own? Perhaps you would like to outline how you would have reduced the deficit whilst at the same time keeping all of your client groups happy? No? Thought not.
The big headline was that it was a budget for savers.
Don’t quite understand how allowing savers to put more money into ISAs is going to help matters. Yes, I understand that there is no tax to pay with these accounts, but how much tax are savers paying now – very little.
Before the bankers played fast and lose with our money I was paying about 10 times more tax then I am paying at present, in fact if I were to transfer all my saving into this NISA account I would save all of about £5 per year. Not good enough.
Savers have lost thousands of pounds since the rates have been at 0.5% and NISAs will do absolutely nothing to correct the situation…
The government’s next and final budget will be full of “working class” giveaways to con the British electorate.
5p off cigarettes, another 1p off beer, 2p off fuel perhaps.
What else?
You could sit here and pull apart their entire arguments in a couple of seconds. Zero hours contracts created becasue of the conditions the Last Labour government created in the jobs market.
VAT was increased by the Labour party.
Living standards would have gone down regardless of who was in power. Unless of course Labour are now going to nationalise food, energy and rail and subsidise them through taxing people until they squeak.
The bedorrom tax was brought in by Labour for private rented tenants who are hit even harder because market rents are already far higher than council rents.