What Gideon didn't say.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/what-didnt-george-osborne-tell-5357788You can waste a lot of time talking about what George Osborne said in his budget speech.
“Britain is paying its way in the world today.”
Why can I hear the Cheers theme tune?
“Choose the future.”
Who’d seriously choose something else?
“The jobless claimant count is the lowest since 1975.”
Because they’re all in work or because you’ve stopped them claiming in the first place?
As long as you talk about what he said, you won’t get anywhere. His logic is so circular that it’s like going down a rabbit hole, and you’ll never get out if you go in there without a torch.
It’s far better to steer clear of his logic altogether, and instead look at all the things he DIDN’T say.
And my, what a lot of stuff there was.
PAThe Budget 2015Hidden messages: FSF says this was a budget for the few
He talked about a “Northern powerhouse”, which’d be a great thing if he was serious enough about it that he’d started work on it in 2010.
Sadly he left it until six weeks before a general election , and threw in a promise of better rail links – all of which would come AFTER the monstrous HS2 rail link which is sucking £50bn out of the coffers already.
He talked about a lucky fall in the oil price, and then announced a 10% tax cut to North Sea oil producers. If you listened to him you’d think this was all marvellous, but the truth is the drop in oil price is devastating jobs in Scotland and the subsidy will cost us £1.3bn.
He said he was selling off £9bn of shares in Lloyds, getting back the taxpayers’ money which Labour had so recklessly bailed them out with.
Yet if the bailout hadn’t happened it’d be like Lord of the Flies out there, and those Lloyds shares had finally started paying dividends – we were making money out of the bailout, and now he’s stopped it.
It’ll be said he’s done something for first-time buyers by promising a new ISA that will add £50 to every £200 people save for a home.
Except giving people money to buy homes, without building new homes, just pushes up the price of the existing homes. Thus making the ISA redundant fairly quickly, and benefitting older home owners far more than first time buyers.
Housing crisis
23%
of working people claim housing benefit
34%
of private renters have moved in last year
652,000
people living in overcrowded accommodation
120,000
houses currently built a year
245,000
houses needed to supply demand
National Housing Federation
He announced all under-21s would be taken out of National Insurance – but most don’t qualify anyway, being either in education or not earning enough.
He said there were more jobs created in Yorkshire than all of France. But employment fell in France, so anywhere with one new job could say the same.
In short if you drill through all the slightly skewy things George said down to the rich seam of motivation running underneath it, he told 16m people to get stuffed.
That’s how many people could have voted in 2010 but didn’t , and doesn’t include the 7.5m who aren’t registered at all . After an hour on his feet George Osborne gave them no reason to do different in 2015.
Single parents, ethnic minorities, the disillusioned, the poorly paid, students, the disabled who in many cases don’t even get wheelchair access at polling stations – you can go hang.
The budget was for people who vote, and vote regularly.
It was for pensioners, and homeowners, and business people. It was for those who already have a mortgage, two cars and three children – not those who want them.
It was for those who want tax relief on their savings , not people who don’t have a hope of saving anything.
It was for those who’ll see “help to buy a house” and not do the simple maths that, actually, he’s made house prices rise.
VIEW GALLERY
It did nothing about the bedroom tax , tuition fees, people who rely on food banks, those on in-work benefits, the disabled who want to work and find themselves sanctioned for being too ill to go for a job that’s inappropriate anyway.
Budget 2015: What it means for you
Fundamentally, it was a budget for people who are comfortable enough they don’t need to bother with maths.
If you are one of those who counts every penny, and therefore know the price of a pint of milk, a cold that keeps you off work or a new tyre for the car, maths is important enough you can see his sums don’t add up.
They just go round, and round, and round – a never-ending equation of “if you vote, we’ll persuade you to vote again, and if you don’t we don’t care”.
And the net result, after inflation and in real terms, is that those who don’t or cannot vote get turned further away from doing so.
The narrower and shallower the electorate becomes, the more George Osborne’s logic is accepted and the more people disengage from politics. It’s Catch-22, because the only way to engage people is to make policies for them but they won’t make policies for anyone who’s not engaged.
It’s depressing, and disgusting, and that’s why the Budget today was nothing but a series of bad sums used as bribes to the few who are wealthy enough not to care.
But one thing he said was true – you can choose the future you live in.
You can choose Osborne’s rabbit hole, or you can choose to vote and show him you exist and that you matter.
The more of the millions he doesn’t care about who get up on their hind legs and walk or crawl to vote, the more he and future chancellors will have to notice you.
If you sit at home, they’ll only notice what you cost – and then they’ll cut it, without asking if you mind.
You can register to vote up until April 20. It doesn’t cost anything or incur a tax – if you’re studying, disabled, renting, or worried, sign up here and make your mark.
If you don’t, you’re telling George he can carry on ignoring you.
Don’t let him.
Thats the working class vote sorted!!! 'Oh Gideon, they will be so grateful and vote for us in their droves'.
