Today,
the Chancellor will announce X. The budget will be known as Y. He is expected to say that the mumble mimsy will be the ahemest cumsplatter budget, and the Chancellor will be holding his pickle.

I love clairvoyant news.

What does genuinely amuse me when listening to the BBC Propaganda Channel, is the subtle difference in context the word 'expected' gains:

They know exactly what he's going to say, they don't think he might, therefore it becomes a threat, and I'm quite enjoying the mental image of Mr Darling sweating whilst trying to remember what he's expected to say whilst a little red dot dances on his forehead.
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Wed 22 Apr 2009, 8:45, 9 replies, latest was 17 years ago)

While the government could have done better
I don't envy the Chancellor his job today. Although it would be amusing if he were to stand up and deliver a speech totally unlike anything he's expected to:

"Due to the greed of the human race getting us into this shit, I think the best way out of it would be to get you all to pay. So I am putting up income tax by 15p in the £, effective immediately".

I wouldn't actually like that, personally, as I'd have a lot less money to spend, but as far as the country's concerned it would probably work quite well.

And you could only get off with that sort of thing as a dictatorship. In a democracy, the politicians are too busy pandering to the electorate to do anything radical, as it would amount to political suicide.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 22 Apr 2009, 8:56, Reply)

k2k6
it wouldn't be so bad if they weren't so fucking godawful at pandering to the electorate!
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 22 Apr 2009, 8:58, Reply)

Ha ha!
You're quite right Vipros.

They're crap at that too.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 22 Apr 2009, 9:06, Reply)

They don't have much room to manoeuvre
We've a budget deficit of gargantuan proportions, which means tax hikes all round for the next decade to pay off. However, the Labour Party is in absolute freefall in the polls while Unison amongst others is threatening to withhold a £1.8m donation unless the government stops pandering to big business and does more to help the man in the street.

Expect drinkers, smokers and drivers to be excessively penalised.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Wed 22 Apr 2009, 9:56, Reply)

What I would like him to say is:
"Well that's it folks, the country is bankrupt, we are hundreds of billions of pounds in debt to everyone. A country would normally fall back on its gold reserves in a time like this but Gordon sold it all for $200 an ounce, it's currently worth $900 an ounce. Cheers Gordon. Anyhoo, it took us 60 years to pay back the loan the yanks gave us during WW2, and that was a fraction of the size of the current debt. So that's it, we're boned. Anything I do will be like re-arranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic".

But he wont, he will talk about "stimulating the economy" and other such drivel.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Wed 22 Apr 2009, 10:04, Reply)

Well, the only good news on the horizon...
is that an election is 14 months away at the maximum.

A government facing an imminent opposition landslide suddenly starts having good ideas out of desperation.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Wed 22 Apr 2009, 10:11, Reply)

But would they really have good ideas, PJM?
Won't they just try populist measures to raise their standings again? After all, it appears most politicians are only in it for personal gain, rather than to run the country for the benefit of its populace.

That said, we're all in such a hole that there's not much they can do at the moment, other than to stop digging.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 22 Apr 2009, 10:14, Reply)

Popularist?
Either way it's better for the electorate. If they hammer everyone in the budget they'll get clobbered into third place behind the Lib Dems next year.

If they actually start to listen to what people want instead of telling people what they want then maybe things might change for the better?
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Wed 22 Apr 2009, 10:18, Reply)

The PJM budget
The only feasible way out is to slash public spending. The government spends £60bn a year on non-elected public bodies and "think tanks", which is £30bn more than Major's government managed to do. The axe desperately needs to be swung in that direction.

The tax system needs to be overhauled and simplified, with a 45% and even a 50% tax rate for higher earners and bonus payments above and beyond monthly salary payments. While I'm at it, the banks we've poured £100bn into should be targetted with increased tax bills until such point as the public get a return on their investments.

In the long term, I'd like to see Britain opt out of the EU...
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Wed 22 Apr 2009, 10:32, Reply)