Reality Budget or missed the target?
THE money the Chancellor has at his disposal must be spent as frugally as possible so, obviously, there isn’t enough to please everyone. Every demand could be met if we were all prepared for taxes to rise by 50 per cent, but who would vote for that? When I go to the shops, I spend according to what is in my bank account and not what I’d like in an ideal world. It’s called reality.
PHILIP MUNRO, Manchester. THE only way the country can earn more money in tax is for companies to thrive. So why has the Chancellor increased corporation tax from 19 per cent to 25 per cent? If companies go bust and fewer people are employed, the overall tax take will go down.
LORY CORdALL, Truro, Cornwall. I DESPAIR at Jeremy Hunt’s refusal to halt the increase in corporation tax, despite pleas from business. Failing to scrap VAT on tourist shopping is another hopeless own goal.
I propose the Mail’s Alex Brummer, with his excellent ten ways to put rocket boosters under the economy — and, hopefully, the Treasury — should replace him as Chancellor.
ALAN KIPPS, Hadleigh, Essex. THE Chancellor has made a major mistake in raising taxes instead of cutting public spending. Huge savings could be made by dealing with waste and inefficiency in the public sector. By raising corporation, dividend and effectively income tax — by failing to raise thresholds in line with inflation — the Conservatives have put their re-election at risk.
DAVID KILPATRICK, St Albans, Herts. AN EASY way to help everyone would have been to increase the personal tax allowance to £20,000 a year.
TONY THOMPSON, Banbury, Oxon. AFTER an inspired delivery of the Budget speech by the Chancellor we got the usual tirade from Sir Keir Starmer running down the country. If Labour wins the next General Election, what will happen to the economy? We’ll be sold out to the unions and the EU.
dEREK HOWE, Buxted, E. Sussex. WERE state pensioners mentioned in the Budget? Why are we seen as a non-productive burden to the capitalist economy? Doesn’t our lifetime contribution of work and National Insurance payments count for anything? When it comes to the General Election, we’ll pay back the Government in kind.
MALCOLM NAYLOR, Ilkley, W. Yorks. WHY has Jeremy Hunt helped beer drinkers yet hammered wine drinkers like me?
IAN HARRINGTON, Axminster, devon. THE Chancellor has promised to help pay for the Edinburgh Festival on top of other funding increases for Scotland under the Barnett Formula. The Scots want independence, but how would they cope without this money?