Wednesday 23 June 2010

Budget "VAT bombshell"

Before the election the Liberal Democrats accused the Conservatives of planning a "VAT bombshell" costing every family £389 a year to pay for tax "bribes".



Yesterday the ConDems did just that. How do the LD justify this? "I am not too happy about 20 % VAT but it has to happen, I guess." Well I guess many people who voted LD will be very angry.
VAT


“Swingeing cuts were neither unavoidable nor fair” says Green MP Caroline Lucas.
Commenting on the “budget for pointless austerity,” the UK’s first Green MP Caroline Lucas said:
“In spite of the Chancellor’s protestations, this budget was neither unavoidable nor fair. Instead it was a massively failed opportunity to shift the economy onto a fairer, greener pathway.

“Devastating public spending cuts of the sort announced today are not ‘unavoidable.’ They are not an economic inevitability – they are an ideological choice.

“Nor was this budget fair. A VAT rise, benefits cuts for all, a public sector freeze, and swingeing cuts in most government budgets of 25%, will all of them hit some of the poorest hardest.”

“We need a Green New Deal – a major investment package to rapidly modernise the UK economy for a low-carbon future, while seeing off the recession through large-scale job-creation. That’s the kind of policy the new government should have put centre-stage.”

Vote Blue, get Blue

Caroline Lucas concluded:
“Any notion that by voting Blue you get Green was nailed today by the stark absence of any serious measures to promote urgently needed environmental measures.”

A-Z of why these cuts are mad
Why the budget is not fair
A "budget for pointless austerity"
Video no shock doctrine for Britain

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link.

I totally agree with your post. It is so hypocritical for the LibDems to have committed such a u-turn - but there again, what did we expect after the massive u-turns that they committed once they had actually sealed the deal with the Tories.