General Election Campaign (AKA 'The Budget')

Well, who’d of thought it……George Osborne actually stuck to his ‘no giveaways’ pledge in the final Budget before the election.

 

But as with any pre-General Election Budget, that did not stop him throwing a few crowd pleasers to voters. Cuts in beer, cider and spirits duty and a further freezing of the duty on petrol and diesel will only raise a smile with the masses. Then there was the slashing of tax on savings which will result in no tax on savings for over 17 million please. Very nice.

 

There was the expected pledge to increase the income tax personal allowance……but not immediately. It will go up to £10,600 in April and then to £10,800 and £11,000 respectively over the following two years. The higher rate threshold will also rise. Yet more smiles from voters.

 

When you picked your way through the clichés ("hard working people", "fixing the roof" and "we're all in this together") and 80’s TV quotes (Bullseye......"Out of the red and into the black"), The main message of the Budget was, as expected, sticking to the long-term plan.

 

Achieving his original 2010 aim of having debt falling as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was clearly important to Osborne. It is duly achieved……based on the Office for Budget Responsibility's new projections. But rather than achieving this through a top class Chancellor performance of fiscal magic, it will be mainly achieved by selling assets acquired (including the stake in Lloyds Bank). Or to put that another way……if Plan A isn’t working quickly raise some cash to plug the gap to make it look like it is. Genius.  

 

Anyway, 2018-19 will apparently mark the end of austerity, when spending should be down to 36% of Gross Domestic Product.

 

Living standards will be a battleground in the election. Osborne laid stress on the projections of a rise in real household disposable income per capita in this Parliament. Milliband batted this back by stating “this government didn't solve the problems for working families, it confirmed them".

 

The General Election campaign is off and running!