Budget

The budget was, of course, an appalling raid on the poor. And that is entirely to expected, being largely a Tory budget. I imagine there's a bit of politics going on here in that they want to get the bad news out of the way as quickly as possible - they are going to have 4 more budgets before the next general election so it is better to be bad now and good later.

Despite that, that 20% VAT rate is going to scar the Lib Dems for a long time, and will probably still be potent enough to bite them in 2015. Expect a return of those VAT bombshells, this time probably exploded ones.

I am lucky enough to have been born into a society in which my particular set of skills happen to be quite valuable, meaning that I am in the top 10% of income earners in the country (the decile statring at approx £40k - it's lower than you think). Okay, so I don't have any children yet, but I literally have money to burn.

If I didn't believe the government was wasting large slabs of tax on things like "defence" (or "attack" as I like to call it) then I would be inclined to overpay my tax bill because I really believe that people like me should be paying more.

Who is it at the top of the Tory party who honestly thinks that screwing the poor is a good and sensible thing to do? Who says "I know, instead of raising the top rate of income tax, CGT, council tax on large homes, instead of introducing green taxes or local income taxes or land value taxes, what this country really needs is for poor people to pay more for their phone credit, dog food, Sky subscription, kitchen utensils, beer, clothes, Coke and petrol!"?

It's a good job I'm only supporting the Lib Dems because of their position on electoral reform. They'd better get that right. I mean, I know that this is a Tory budget with a bit of Lib Dem restraint, but if this is the best the Lib Dems can deliver, it's pretty pathetic.