Todays budget and our future

[mgsontour]

I read today that Britain is in the worst state it's been for 300years but don't worry lads all in hand and by 2033 we will be flying again!

Great news but not really looking forward to 12years of un-nice-nessssss

[enfieldspares]

The devil will be in the detail. But at least...it appears...we haven't had a "single use plastic" tax on plaswads or plastic cartridge cases.

Edited March 3, 2021 by enfieldspares

[blackbird]

Just put it on the credit card & leave the next generation sort it out 😂

[Westward]

2 minutes ago, blackbird said:

Just put it on the credit card & leave the next generation sort it out 😂

aka the Gordon Brown method!

[Jaymo]

We had years of ‘un niceness’ as you put it, ever since the 08 crash.

As it was once put, there is no magic money tree!

[enfieldspares]

6 minutes ago, Westward said:

aka the Gordon Brown method!

No the Gordon Brown method was that PLUS steal everybody's old age by raiding everybody's private pension plan and subject reinvested dividends in them to tax. A tax regime it must be said that the Tories did not reverse when they came into Government with Cameron.

Edited March 3, 2021 by enfieldspares

[sabel25]

You all seem to forget the 70's  National companies bleeding money from tax payers and making **** .That is when they actualy went to work as the unions were running the damned country and allways striking aka Scargill. who was still taking a wage out the union long after the mines were closed

Thatcher gave him a smacking and finished him and the mines were shut

I missed out on a lot of schooling as there was no coal to heat the school boilers

She pulled the country round in the 80's so i see Boris pulling things around

[enfieldspares]

Hmm? Johnson is not Thatcher. Thatcher was hard working, driven, did what (she believed) was best for the country. Johnson is lazy, has no enthusiasm for self effort and does only what he believes is best for Johnson. There could not be two more different personalities. I've no great liking for Thatcher but by comparing her to Johnson you compare a pygmy to a giant.

Edited March 3, 2021 by enfieldspares

[Scully]

It is what it is. We knew this was going to have to be paid back. 

[mgsontour]

Ummmmmm, interesting comments. . . .  I think we would be half way to intoxication if we were all around a table.

For what it's worth the Aldi  'Red Fox Red Leicester' offers great value and quality and the price of an old English SxS gun is affordable again with the cessation of lead as the proof houses are failing most of them all it seems

[enfieldspares]

True? Is Aldi Leicester worth buying? 

[The Heron]

1 hour ago, Scully said:

It is what it is. We knew this was going to have to be paid back. 

Yes I helped to pay the war debt back and I wasn't even born then 

[mgsontour]

12 hours ago, enfieldspares said:

True? Is Aldi Leicester worth buying? 

100% but the one marked 'red fox'

[treetree]

I think it's also worthwhile reminding ourselves where so much of this money we will need to pay back has gone; paying perfectly healthy and not-at-risk adults to sit at home and do nothing.

[henry d]

Short term gain for me as we are buying a house and although we should complete before the end of the month the extension to the SDLT takes the pressure off. Although the treasury has lost about £12B I would hope that it has stimulated the housing market and therefore the economy in general.

[Vince Green]

21 hours ago, Scully said:

It is what it is. We knew this was going to have to be paid back. 

This ^^^^^

In some ways we have been living in financial cloud cuckoo land this past year. 

[Vince Green]

7 hours ago, henry d said:

Short term gain for me as we are buying a house and although we should complete before the end of the month the extension to the SDLT takes the pressure off. Although the treasury has lost about £12B I would hope that it has stimulated the housing market and therefore the economy in general.

The property developer / landlord website that I am on generally seems to hold the view that the stamp duty "holiday" has only bumped asking prices up artificially by the same amount as the stamp duty would have been.

However, the end to furlough, when it comes, and the end of mortgage holidays will release a floodgate of distressed sales. This, it is predicted, will cause a market crash. The extent and duration of which varies by commentator     

[Dave-G]

23 hours ago, blackbird said:

Just put it on the credit card & leave the next generation sort it out 😂

Like we paid the bill for WW11

[enfieldspares]

9 hours ago, mgsontour said:

100% but the one marked 'red fox'

Thank you. I'm not a great fan of Sparkenhoe Leicester so as I often shop in Aldi I will buy and try.

[henry d]

15 hours ago, Vince Green said:

The property developer / landlord website that I am on generally seems to hold the view that the stamp duty "holiday" has only bumped asking prices up artificially by the same amount as the stamp duty would have been.

However, the end to furlough, when it comes, and the end of mortgage holidays will release a floodgate of distressed sales. This, it is predicted, will cause a market crash. The extent and duration of which varies by commentator     

Where I used to live in Perth seems to have been different, over the past two years the price of houses in our area jumped by around 15-20%. Perhaps this was due to supply and demand, my house was ex-council and nearly 50 years old, so had its faults but had bigger rooms, the housing stock being built nearby was by contrast smaller rooms and 35-40% more expensive, but I couldn't be 100% sure as some of the newer stock had been built for 5-10 years, some still to built yet. Tyneside, where we have moved to, has had static/depressed house prices prior to Covid but since then, as you say, they have increased but by around 10% as far as I can see. I think that it was a good call by RS to taper off the holiday and I sincerely hope that the future is not as bleak as your commentators have said.

[Scully]

On 04/03/2021 at 09:51, treetree said:

I think it's also worthwhile reminding ourselves where so much of this money we will need to pay back has gone; paying perfectly healthy and not-at-risk adults to sit at home and do nothing.

Even if true, I’m not sure what is to be gained by reminding ourselves of this; it’s still to pay back. 

[Jim Neal]

On 03/03/2021 at 20:38, The Heron said:

Yes I helped to pay the war debt back and I wasn't even born then 

**RANT ALERT**

The citizens of the UK paid their final instalment of £45.5m to the USA on 31 December 2006. It's only fourteen years since we cleared our debt from WW2.

It's mind boggling to think how many British people born post-war have ended up paying for the conflict, in one way or another.  Which is why I don't care too much for the EU - several members in particular - who have treated the UK with disdain during our time as a member of, and during the process of our leaving, the EU.  Short memories.  Maybe their parents or grandparents should have recollected more often to them the feeling of abject horror witnessing Hitler cruising down the Champs Elysée in his Mercedes.

Perhaps the images of our thousands of troops of the BEF, assembled defencelessly in lines on the Dunkerque beaches whilst being attacked from above, have faded from their memories.  The thousands of bodies of British and American boys mown down like grass on the Normandy beaches seems to have been disregarded.  80 years isn't that long ago.

Thankfully both of my Grandfathers made it through WW2, albeit a little worse for wear both physically and mentally.  Many of their generation weren't so lucky.  My Dad was born to the sound of bombs dropping when a few Luftwaffe bombers mistakenly targeted Kettering on their way to Coventry one night in 1944.  His father, my paternal grandfather was in the transport corps, and served in northern France after D-Day driving supply trucks.  The transport columns were regularly strafed and bombed, and my Grandad lost his front teeth in an accident one night.  He died when I was quite young and I never really had the chance to absorb his knowledge or experiences of the war because he struggled to talk about it.

My maternal grandfather wasn't front line but served most of the war in the Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern theatre.  Although he was in the Pay Corps (he was an accountant by trade) he didn't serve without his share of risk due to the ships, transport columns and bases being torpedoed, strafed and bombed.  The only mention of the war I ever got out of him was a short tale of when he was on a ship in the Med and they were attacked by Stukas.  The ship's gunners managed to fend the Stukas off before they unleashed their payload onto the vessel, no doubt saving the lives of many if not all of the souls on board.  My mum, via my Grandma, has shared some vague recollections of the things he witnessed during his time in the war which were certainly not the day-to-day experiences of an accountant.

He died when I was 19 and I never really knew him.  He was a closed man; he wore a cast-iron suit of armour around his emotions and only interacted with people on a functional level.  He treated my Grandma right, provided for his children more than adequately, but was quite simply emotionally constipated after his experiences in WW2.  He only ever shook hands with me.  That was my only physical contact with my Grandad, and emotionally.... zero.

So what is the true debt that the citizens of the UK have, and still are, paying back for WW2?  It runs deeper than money.  Much, much deeper.

[mel b3]

Well said Jim. 

[crossy 666]

On 04/03/2021 at 10:04, henry d said:

Short term gain for me as we are buying a house and although we should complete before the end of the month the extension to the SDLT takes the pressure off. Although the treasury has lost about £12B I would hope that it has stimulated the housing market and therefore the economy in general.

I was looking at a 7k bill so at last this extension has saved me that