Earlier today, George Osborne unveiled his much anticipated Budget Plan and needless to say there were mixed reactions among politicians, the public and businesses across the UK.
Osborne's plans reek of greed, selfishness and a desire to completely polarise the most vulnerable people in society. Not only will his plans to cap benefits to £23,000 in London and £20,000 force 40,000 more children into poverty (according to Government advisors), the abolition of housing benefit to those under 21 will make the poorest and youngest members of society suffer. Osborne has tried to veil his attempt at alienating the most unprotected people in society by creating a National Living Wage, which will apparently be raised to £9 per hour. However, this only applies to those over 25; therefore it will do nothing to help young people. Furthermore, the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) has suggested that the new living wage may be impractical, as businesses may not be able to afford such wage increases at current levels of employment. As a result, more people could be made redundant and have to be compensated by the welfare state. Isn't this slightly regressive? And with a strong issue in the economy being stagnating productivity levels since 2007/8, there is no guarantee this increase in wage will help boost productivity. Universal Credit is also set to be introduced even though the pilot schemes have proved costly and inconclusive, with this and Tax Credit being limited to 2 children from 2017. This means bigger families will suffer the most, and that it's definitely not a budget for 'working people'.
The Chancellor also antagonised prospective university students, by announcing the Government's plan to scrap maintenance grants and convert them into loans. This could easily deter poorer students, who are extremely academically able, from going to University from the astronomical amount of debt they will be in upon leaving. Once again, the Tories nature of attempting to create a massive divide between the rich and the poor has rung clear. This message was further reinforced in Osborne's declaration that Corporate Tax will be cut from 20% to 18% by 2020. So now, the bankers and business leaders that were a primary cause of the 2008 Global Crash can continue to avoid paying tax and can routinely contribute to creating further poverty in the UK.
Osborne was also keen to announce the plan to spend 2% of National Income on defence, which will be sure to please NATO, the army, nuclear war enthusiasts and...nobody else. With £6.6 million spent on nuclear weapons a day, and £100 billion already spent yearly on renewing Trident alone, spending any more money on defence is totally unjustifiable. The money that is already spent on weapons we don't need and probably will never use could be FAR better invested in Healthcare, Education or the Housing the UK so desperately needs. So why on earth this completely redundant policy has been made part of the 2015 Summer Budget Plan is beyond me- it can't be economically justified. David Cameron may scaremonger ignorant, naive members of the country into believing Trident acts as a 'deterrent', but anyone with a shred of intelligence can see what a waste of money Trident is.
So in conclusion, the Summer Budget was pretty bleak. It attacked the poor, the young and is also set to mess around with people's pension plans- a massively unwelcome blow to most of society. Possibly the only good thing to come out of it was increased spending on the NHS. But seeing as that's probably going to be privatised, there's not much to look forward to.
SDG
Osborne's plans reek of greed, selfishness and a desire to completely polarise the most vulnerable people in society. Not only will his plans to cap benefits to £23,000 in London and £20,000 force 40,000 more children into poverty (according to Government advisors), the abolition of housing benefit to those under 21 will make the poorest and youngest members of society suffer. Osborne has tried to veil his attempt at alienating the most unprotected people in society by creating a National Living Wage, which will apparently be raised to £9 per hour. However, this only applies to those over 25; therefore it will do nothing to help young people. Furthermore, the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) has suggested that the new living wage may be impractical, as businesses may not be able to afford such wage increases at current levels of employment. As a result, more people could be made redundant and have to be compensated by the welfare state. Isn't this slightly regressive? And with a strong issue in the economy being stagnating productivity levels since 2007/8, there is no guarantee this increase in wage will help boost productivity. Universal Credit is also set to be introduced even though the pilot schemes have proved costly and inconclusive, with this and Tax Credit being limited to 2 children from 2017. This means bigger families will suffer the most, and that it's definitely not a budget for 'working people'.
The Chancellor also antagonised prospective university students, by announcing the Government's plan to scrap maintenance grants and convert them into loans. This could easily deter poorer students, who are extremely academically able, from going to University from the astronomical amount of debt they will be in upon leaving. Once again, the Tories nature of attempting to create a massive divide between the rich and the poor has rung clear. This message was further reinforced in Osborne's declaration that Corporate Tax will be cut from 20% to 18% by 2020. So now, the bankers and business leaders that were a primary cause of the 2008 Global Crash can continue to avoid paying tax and can routinely contribute to creating further poverty in the UK.
Osborne was also keen to announce the plan to spend 2% of National Income on defence, which will be sure to please NATO, the army, nuclear war enthusiasts and...nobody else. With £6.6 million spent on nuclear weapons a day, and £100 billion already spent yearly on renewing Trident alone, spending any more money on defence is totally unjustifiable. The money that is already spent on weapons we don't need and probably will never use could be FAR better invested in Healthcare, Education or the Housing the UK so desperately needs. So why on earth this completely redundant policy has been made part of the 2015 Summer Budget Plan is beyond me- it can't be economically justified. David Cameron may scaremonger ignorant, naive members of the country into believing Trident acts as a 'deterrent', but anyone with a shred of intelligence can see what a waste of money Trident is.
So in conclusion, the Summer Budget was pretty bleak. It attacked the poor, the young and is also set to mess around with people's pension plans- a massively unwelcome blow to most of society. Possibly the only good thing to come out of it was increased spending on the NHS. But seeing as that's probably going to be privatised, there's not much to look forward to.
SDG
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