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I recently spoke to a young man who was extremely proud of the job he was doing. He is responsible for supplying our first class special forces with their equipment. He told me that his mates thought he was on a "gravy train" because he is a civil servant. Guess what his current salary is and what his annual bonus is if he actually achieved one.

Answers. £15,000 and between about £350 and £900. should we really be considering cutting these sorts of monies?

Shame on us all if we support any cuts in these sorts of figures.

I like the idea of us being "All in this together"...... So let's see how much the Financial Institutions get hit. Hold your Breath -----NOW!

Hello,
I must be either the most "Thickest" person in the UK?, or, we are being "Conned again"??
If I have it right, the Financial Institutions in this & other Countries nearly Bankrupted us.
The last Government (in their wisdom), got Massive Loans from the IMF to "prop" these institutions up?
However, ALL this money given to the Banks are a LOAN, payable back over time WITH INTEREST?
So then, Why are the public now having to "Suffer" by increases in VAT, withdrawal of Public Services etc! Just to repay the Debt? WHEN, eventually the Banks etc! Will pay the monies back over a period??
That equates to the Government being paid TWICE???
What will they do then? Give us it all back? ----I Think Not!
Rip OFF Britain still survives!
Thanks

World organized crime.
Most people do not see this and are willing partakers in the biggest heist for ages. No wonder Labour say it is a global thing and many countries are in the same situations.
Blame the global mafia elitists.

The banks did not cause this mess, Nulabour's profligate spending did.

So get used to it people, the 1 million public sector jobs created under Nulab will have to be trimmed back substantially to a figure the country can afford. Nobody likes it, but is is simple fact we cannot afford the bloated public sector any more.
I am not saying people in the public sector do not do a good job, just we cannot afford it any more.

''We are all in this together'' is a bit of a fatuous statement, when some are more ''in this'', than others.
POOR LONELY BACHELOR.

Now's a time for an exciting inspiring vision for the future of the UK. This economic budget has nothing to do with 'home' budgeting in its real sense but purely finance. So, why not call it what it is? An emergency financial budget!

Stopping all benefits for 12 months would save £151bn.

Will be fair for the bankers and rich,but not us mugs i dident cause the crisis so why am i paying for it?

This is how the country ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.

We're doomed! We are all doomed!

But never fear George will same us!

Of course none of the obvious or simple options will have been explored:
- End all foreign aid.
- Bring our troops home.
- Tell the EU to get stuffed once and for all.

We're doomed! We are all doomed!

Economics - 'Ö÷²¥´óÐã': Why not have a real Economic Budget that includes an element of finance. The Health of the UK Economy becoming the vision for the UK. This would include the health of both our people and the environment within which they live, in order to bring about a real economic change and sustainability.

Every Lib Dem voter should be feeling betrayed.

As someone though ill health receives benefit (I paid for it through my NI for years) I expect to have to go through the process again of proving my health status. Last time I ended up in tribunal where the judge apologised to me and ruled in less than sixty seconds - because the paper pushers had done everything that they could to play the numbers at the detrimental of my mental health.

There is nothing more honest about this government than there was the government before. The same people who are targeted might as well have painted a bull's eye on their chest for this budget.

Have I understood that right? There will now be another independant quango controling the Budget instead of the Chancellor?
Is the Chancellor now a toothless political position with nothing to do? If anything now goes wrong with the Budget or the state of the countries finances, the "Government" can hold up their hands and say "Wasn't me G'vnor, it was the independant quango". Sir Allan is now going to get the blame for everything and it wasn't George Osbourne "'onest Guv"

Here we go again torys bashing the working classes and poor old sick chileren
No change there then on the eightys.
sorry there will be some change this time it will be harder for us ,and again easier for the other half.

Bring it on we are used to torys bashing us nothing new there.

Not staged managed..poppycock, what are the Liberal tweedle dee and tweedle dum doing sat on either side of George. Put there to be nodding donkeys.

The opposition should employ vu-vuzelas all the way through the speech.

Its as intelligent as the usual mutterings and groanings and would make for an inetresting spectacle.

'VAT will be rising by....'

'Vuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.'

We'd still get the same tax rises but it would definitely feel less painful.

Fabulous Ö÷²¥´óÐã live coverage online, except... Ö÷²¥´óÐã commentators Watson, Flanders, Peston, Kuenssberg et al, we love you dearly but do us a favour and SHUSH while he's talking!

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I currently receive income support and DLA for my disability of Aspergers syndrome,

I live in a council flat, and receive social support paid by social services, I receive 3 visits a week for 3 hours each visit, which isn’t enough to keep me on track.

My worries on the budget cuts that can affect me are

1. loss of some benefit money
2. being forced back to employment, which I cannot do
3. increase to my living cost due to VAT rising
4. benefit money being frozen so no more money to help with living costs
5. loosing my free disability bus pass, leaving me housebound as this is my only form of transport when I haven’t got support workers
6. having a reduction to my support services, which are not enough at the moment already
7. and having to contribute financially to the support

as a result, I will find it difficult to live within my means, at a suitable level required for good health, and not sure what I can do about it,

I’ve been worrying about this ever since the conservative party took over the government and am worried about all the changes happening at the same time.

Dont you feel warm in side knowing we are all in this to gether one big happy family cuddle up dave ozzy.

Welfare, defence, crime, housing and health would all factor into this, as too transport, natural heritage, agriculture, land management.

Prepare to get shafted
How about getting all our overseas aid money back, given in the last 50 years.
Countries like china and others can afford to help us in our hour of need.
Pigs might fly ; YOU will pay and there's nothing you can do about it !
Trust no one ,believe nothing ,vote for nought .

I'm 19 and a young parent and have recently applied for my first full time job because at present, I rely solely on benefits and wish to change that. But will this budget affect me in a positive or negative way? will it be worth my while starting to work now, or would I be better off staying as I am? how will this new budget affect people in my position?

private sector, here it comes

Here's hoping that the Government are true to their word in protecting the most vunerable in this budget. Hoping that the funding for Aiming High For Disabled Children will remain intact. It would be a step backward to see the most vunerable children in our society become even more vunerable for a such a small amount of money. Labour may not have spent most of our money wisely, but the Aiming High Program is one legacy that Labour and in particular Ed Balls can be very proud of.

Focus currently purely on the finance but no reduction in capital spend and those with an 'economic' factor. Yet it really means finance again. Extremely narrow-minded and opportunities missed.

Why should ordinary people have to pay the country out of a catastrophe caused by bankers who still pay themselves obscene bonuses with OUR money?
And the rich who don't pay tax should get jailed and have all their assets siezed.
And why is my tax money used to pay for WMD we can't use?

Time for a giant overhaul of priorities

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Twedledum and Twedeldee set themselves up to come and rule thee.

How stupid we were to think any of us had the power to escape the clutches of the incoming Prime Minister David Cameron and his colition buddy Clegg I say if they believe they will have a smoother ride than his immediate predecessors, they should swiftly disabuse themselves of that notion.

"All the recent election in Britain has brought is "the traditional face of the ruling classes" back to power: "Wealthy white men; privileged backgrounds; privately educated; beautiful manners; fine tailoring."

"Don't be fooled by the gentlemanly exterior, "They will savage you, as they are about to savage the working people of Britain."

A wonderful man and film maker made these comments recently when he was interviwed . His name Ken Loach .. God bless him

This budget will show how these two intend to ruin the poorest in this country.

"We are all in this together"

Yet some people are more "in it" than others

Its really going to hurt people like Mr Osborne isnt it

David Cameron has shuffled up on the bench behind Osborne so that he is flanked higher side by Liberal Democrats for TV feed. Nice way to deliver devastating cuts.

I assume the focus will still be on protecting the bankers and maintaining the ultra-cheap interest rates being enjoyed by property developers, buy-to-let entreprenuers and their ilk?

In other words the burden will fall on those who were most prudent and DIDN'T cause the mess we're now in.

We aren't 'all in it together', low paid public sector workers are going to pay to clear up the mess caused by Osborne's chums in the City. In the process he is going to send us further into recession. We will have to pay benefits for more unemployed people and more importantly jobless people don't buy goods and services etc - another hit to the private sector.

The argument that we are in a massive crisis also needs questioning....we are being conned by Osborne and co re: the debt question

In 2008 before the recession, debt was at 36.4%......MUCH LESS than under the last Tory governments (Net debt in 1979 when Thatcher came to power was 43.6%. In 1997, after the Thatcher/ Major governments, net debt had fallen to 41.9%. This tiny reduction was despite huge north sea oil revenues and massive privatisations). Its obviously much higher now in 2010, over 50% of GDP. Why? Because of the financial crisis....which was caused by incompetent bankers, NOT by investment in public services....of course the right-wing press and bulletin board fascists will tell you we have to stop immigration, slash spending on the NHS etc.

Its worth remembering that net debt as a proportion of GDP is higher in Japan, Italy, Belgium, France, Germany and Canada (the nation Osborne wants to emulate!). It is at a comparable level with many other countries.

Osborne and his Liberal lap-dogs might want to start reducing the current deficit by clamping down on the massive tax avoidance by their chums in the City, corporations and by non-doms. Most estimates suggest at least £60 billion a year in tax is avoided. Funny how he never mentions that? Its easier to blame immigrants or public sector workers etc. As for cut backs, I'd start with scrapping the Royal Family, cancel the upgrading of Trident and ditching the Olympics...that should save billions.

we currently have over 2million private sector jobs directly attached to public sector workings.

I would like to see a good balance between that private sctor which will evolve alongside each other.

a service must be a skilled up service delivery with recognition of personal developmental commitments to those people who will work within the riskier areas.

this will need significant support to go forward, and will be a difficult wheel to manage to the productive horizon.

My view is the same as most people’s here so far: I thought the taxpayer had LOANED billions to the banks to get them out of trouble; a loan that would eventually be paid back. Now it appears that Joe Public has to foot the bill AGAIN. It really is time that we copied the Greeks, French etc. and took to the streets!

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Back in the 80s and 90s public sector workers agreed to take much lower pay rises as their pensions were considered a benefit and would be protected. So much for that! These agreements appear to be torn up now. Where is the incentive to work in the public sector for anyone?

No EU immigrant to receive free healthcare (except in a life threatening emergency and claimed back from their health insurance) and no benefits of ANY kind to be paid. If they are not working, then they should be expected to go home.

So the multi-millionaire "Gideon" George Osborne is set to put a pay freeze on public sector pay and he calls this "Tough but Fair"? well yes tough for those earning low wages and working long hours in the public sector, understaffed and overworked social workers, nurses, and benefits staff (who'll be getting busier I expect), and fair for the Banks, and Financial sector that got us into this mess in the first place.

Oh and fair to multi-millionaire's playing at politics whilst playing with people's lives…

The omens are not looking good - the neo-liberal serpent raised by Thatcher, nurtured by Blair and listened to by Brown is rearing its ugly head for a fateful battle in the class war, and the sickening thing is, that people seem to think this is a good thing!

3. Steve

No you are not the thickest person in the country. It is just not as simple as the press/government would have us believe.

1. The government didn't go to the IMF to bail out the banks. This is what we are desperately trying to avoid at the moment. Loans from the IMF come with big conditions attached to them. We would no longer be in control of our fiscal policy if we did go to them.

The money came from commercial and government loans. It was borrowed from anywhere and everywhere (mainly the Chinese). And yes, as a loan it must be paid back, with interest.

2. The cause was a mixture of the banks bad lending, global recession, government massively overspending and our own greed that led to the crisis. The banks were lending to people who could not afford to pay it back. They were lending to people who never had any intention of paying back. The banks were employing some sharp practices and the government were happy to let them continue as long as the tax rolled in. And we were all feeling wealthy because we had jobs and our houses were notionally worth a fortune.

Unfortunately it was never real money. The bad debts built up, the recession hit. The borrowers could not pay back the banks. The banks could not pay bank their lenders and on it went. Then the government were unable to rescue anything or even continue with their spending commitments as they had no money and had borrowed excessively like everyone else. Ultimately greedy people (both in banks, public, government and public services) are to blame and we all have to pay it back.

That said, as with all things in this country, it is easier to pick on one thing or person and it might aswell be the banks.

Agree with Tax Credits for those who need them the most but surprised that as high as £40 000 per family. Child benefits to freeze but again agree with this, as aids our most vulnerable.

As usual, the public debate is restricted to cuts to the public sector, which is condemned as parasitic on the private sector. In fact, it is the private sector, especially big business, that depends on the public sector.

The public sector educates the workforce, keeps it healthy, and looks after it when business fails. The public sector provides infrastructure and research that is then exploited for minimal return by the private sector (pharmaceuticals and hi-tech, for instance). Computers, the internet, automation, lasers, gene research and many more; all were paid for by the public sector and then sold on the cheap to the private sector. The public sector bails out big business, including the ridiculous, antisocial financial sector. The public sector pays for the externalised costs of the private sector: depression, injury, environmental cleanup, obesity, and general ill health.

The focus for cuts will be the obvious services, which we will be told, once again, we cannot afford -while the rich and the super rich continue to increase their wealth at the expense of the rest of us. More and more resources will be transferred from public to private hands while public sector cut backs will allow private industry to once again cherry pick the most profitable services and customers while the remainder go to the wall.

Huge areas of expenditure will not be mentioned: for example, export credit guarantees, enormous public sector subsidy to business, the millions spent in state funding for the three main parties and so forth.

The relative pittance lost to benefit fraud (perhaps 2bn annually) will be highlighted while the sheer lunatic complexity of the benefits system, which ensures that the agencies themselves make hundreds of millions of pounds worth of mistakes annually will be ignored. The tax evasion and fraud of big business, which costs us around 20bn per year (at least) will not be mentioned.

And all of this is based on the unchallenged assumption that we must cut the deficit because the 'markets' tell us we must (despite us having run larger deficits during the 50s). The 'markets' are no more than small groups of enormously rich people -many of whom caused the mess in the first place by pushing for and exploiting deregulation during the 1990s.



If a small group of people with more guns that the rest of us demanded a decisive say in Government policy, we'd call it a coup. When it's a small group of people with untrammelled economic clout who do the same, we somehow call it 'democracy'.

Did he really have the audacity to say that the welfare system has made us go broke?

How about the thieving bankers, mps and elite that have used and abused us since the beginning of time?

You can tell he has just come back from the evil Bilderberg meeting. One very evil society amongst the other mafia this world is run by.

Please wake up people.

The government will not carry the people with them with the imposition of tax increases and cuts in services, pensions etc. whilst they continue to give away vast sums of tax-payers money in foreign aid.

I have a suggestion which will instantly save us £7.9 million.
Stop giving the royals money from the public purse , i'm sorry but for a few p.r gaff's and straplines for the tabliod press what are they doing to enrich the national economey to warrent this amount of cash ? Utterly shameful, i'm sorry i dont have anything personally against them but they do not deserve to take money out of our pockets like that , we're trying to make savings , lets start by cutting the purse strings they think they are intitled to .

Real shame that not picking up any environmental issues and the help the environment; the economy needs. Hugely missed opportunity especially given the 'green' cloths that both the LDs and Conservatives claim to wear.

@42. At 12:56pm on 22 Jun 2010, wwinstonsmith wrote: and others

All we have to do is stop supporting their system that enslaves us. We need to stick together, no rule and divide and help each other. Stopping paying tax hurts them more than riots which only serve to hurt us.

18. scarlerow, the 1970s called. They want the rhetoric back.

I have not had a pay rise in 3 years and took a pay cut 8 months ago. Are you doing your bit? Some folks in this country need to wake up and smell the crisis and look at the potential crisis of not all working to do something about it.

It makes me proud to be British to hear a budget free from the 'stealth taxes' false promises and duplicity that marked the Brown and Darling years. At the moment, I have much more than just a 'degree of hope' for our great country. Long live the coalition!

I notice that the Chancellor has 'frozen' the Civil List of £7.9m per year.

The true cost of the Royal family is almost £200m per year. Why aren't they subject to the same 25% cut as other state costs over the next 4 years? I didn't hear Osborne announce that the Royal Household were a 'protected department'.

This government won't see support for cuts unless they are truly shared by everyone - that includes the richest in the country!

Cutting corporation tax without any comments to the contexts these businesses are developing in to ensure that they're healthy for our people and our home which we and our children '...and ya, to the third and forth generations.'

Health in pregnancy grant scrapped is a huge mistake, as the health of the child in the womb and the health of their mother are massive areas shown to influence the long term health of both involved. The costs financially of this will be giant, as this one comes home to rest, with shorter life spans and less years of good health experienced (meaning more benefits and access to the NHS, nursing/care homes).

58. At 1:06pm on 22 Jun 2010, Ollsbols wrote:

I have not had a pay rise in 3 years


================

I'd be looking for another job if I were you! Three years?! You need to ask yourself why?! That aint due to the economy!!

Will selling the student loans book mean the private company gets to set the intrest rate on repayments?

If so then this is a betrayal of students by the Lib Dems

He seems to be skipping very fast over lots of points of detail. For instance what does it mean: 'varous allowances will be removed from housing benefit...' which allowances? And 'limit social tenants right to suitable size housing'... what does that mean? I am confused and worried.

Clearly intent on making up for lost time while they have been in opposition. Make the less well off worse off so the fat cat's can keep their snouts in the trough.
Next election folks remember Con-Dem!!! they are both tarred with the same brush.

Corporate Tax regime changes could have been SO helpful in aiding the sustainable health of our people and our country. It looks like this will be the means to continue to speed up the deterioration of the health of our people and home.

Already only just into the budget we see what the tories are doing cutting benefits such as family credits and baby benefits (which never effect the top earners and giving tax cuts to businesses which are owned by the wealthiest people so infact the lies the Tories are saying about everyone sharing the burden are not being shared except by the poorest. Corp tax down 1% each year for teh next 4 years goes to who? thats right the shareholders and top management not passed down to the normal workers and who are those top earners and shareholders thats right tories.
Once a liar for ever a liar the tories

Innovation to create new jobs could be accessed with criteria to include their effects with our people's and home's health; more for those that improve and less for those that don't.

Great budget, my only concern is that he may not have cut enough.

rural internet infastructure will be far cheaper to conduct than the saftey limits of urban sprawl.

but urban development always involves greater focus and employment with responsibility.

this counter urbanisation strategy will have limits

If Labour has any comment to make about freezing child benefit (as announced live at 1pm) then they can forget it - Osborne could have gone much further, getting the same money you're getting now for the next three years rather than a cut is something parents better appreciate rather than taking for granted.

VAT going to 20% means we'll have the mother of all Christmas sales this year...

Wow - Its going to be tough being poor and on benifits.
Osborne quote "Housing benefit will be limited to a maximum of £400 per week for a four-bedroom house under radical reforms"
I just went on to google to look for these types of properties. I found 23 for under £400/week inside the M25.

VAT to rise to 20% is positive in as much as it'll slow down the spending across the board, and as so much currently seems to be detrimental to our people and our home's health, it's not such a bad thing. However, would have been better if undertaken in the context that more taken from those which increase poor health and less on those that increase health.

20% VAT - Even worse for the poor

Emily....It means he doesn't have the guts to spell it out, he wants to hide the detail so his cut's wont look so bad. Typical Con-Dem trick.

he is begining to discuss the integrated response to taxation duties on goods and supplimented subsidence.

the thatcher milk run days are back

Council Tax. Again a missed opportunity! If this had been changed to be assessed against factors that decrease or increase health.

what is wrong with today's broadcast, you seem to have done nothing except show a photo of someone in the city 9 times in the last hour, every time there is a network delay or a pause in the broadcast.
Can you please put someone in charge of the backroom boys to stop this non-professionalism...

@Brownandout.
"the banks didn't cause this...nulabour did"
Well you obviously have no knowledge of political and economic history do you?

The recession, was cause by the collapse of goldman and sachs in the US (A BANK)
this led to the mass failings of the banking system (AGAIN THE BANKS)

Labour, got us a big deficit, lending money to the banks...the money, we will get back. They are loans. Lloyds group have already paid their back.

Now, who de-regulised the banking system allowing this massive faliure to happen? Thatcher in the 80's, when she shut down the industries.

This is all well documented. In short, The Neo-conservatives led by thatcher in the UK, and Regan in the US caused this faliure.

Labour has nothing to do with it, except of course, being the only way out of the recession.

Capital Gains Tax. Yet another missed opportunity to have it accessed against impact on Health of people and our environment.

Corporation tax slashed

Says is all really. see my post at 5

I have just read an article published in the Daily Mail where a leaked memo showed a planned VAT hike to 19.5%. Cameron and Osbourne refuted these claims and Cameron said he would not cut the deficit by increasing VAT. This was before the election.

Not only do we have a hybrid Government that we didn't ask for, we were lied to again!

£5million is getting to the point of giving entreprenures the chance to make protected spreads earlier in their careers.

very good

In your FACE, Queen Elizabeth! No pay rise for you! We are truly All In This Together.

Can Robert Peston explain whether the new maximum housng benefit rate will be applcable to the Queen?

Working with industry. Yet where's the working with those who are in positions to help with the true Economy of the UK; Health and Environmentalists.

A typical Thatcherite rip-off. Kick the poor; feed the rich. A Disgrace.

It was going well untill the VAT rise.

Of course, no-one on here will be complaining about VAT going up by 2.5% will they? After all, in Dec 2008 the overall consensus was that the 2.5% reduction was pointless.

Capital gains tax not as bad as hyped.

Removal of tax credits for high income families is welcome.

low tax living will still be subject to the chancellor, without legislative proportional valuation

What next, a tax on the humble potato?? At least alcohol and cigarettes are safe - we will need them... Blah, fiddle dee dee, potatoes...

Now there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of fraudulent claims of benefits, many of them successfully passed the existing medical assessment and even appeal tribunal, what about those? Do you ignore them and just concentrate on the new claims? That is not fair.
I have just one small advice, link DVLA activities of buying and selling vehicles to the NI number and benefit system and you will get a result similar to installing a CCTV camera in a village who never seen a device like that and never been warned about its installation; amazing scenes!

the earnings link will drive growth, alongside the population growth, but is this earnings link, or final wage?

Notice that ALL the benefits are going to his business men backers. With his hike in VAT proves that the Lib Dems are a bunch of spineless little men only interested in their moment of fame. They were Totally opposed to VAT increases before the became tories wit a little t.

Usual targets, drinkers, smokers and car drivers... oh sorry, that was Labour wasn't it.

At least Osbourne is seeking to use evidence to see if increasing booze duty will work. That's more than Labour ever did.

Still, once the VAT rise comes in the fuel will rise as there's VAT on that.

VAT going up (Nick Clegg's constituents should boot him out for that!)
2 year pay freeze for public sector workers
Child benefits frozen

And all the money generated from that is given to the rich business leaders in the form of a massive cut in corporation tax.

Well I hope the suckers of Great Britain who cannot think for themselves and believe The Sun newspaper are happy with their decision to elect this bunch of toffs.