Budget Bit
Article by Elsie Procter
When I madly thought that this issue would be out on time, I asked Bent' Writer, Elsie Procter, for her personal thoughts on the Budget -- and here they are. And hopefully made even more out of date by yesterday...
What about the budget then, folks? Is Norman Lamont a Saviour or a Wally? Everyone has their own thoughts on what he should or should not have done. Here are mine.
Conspicuous by its absence was help for the unemployed. No help. No hope. ONLY DESPAIR.
For our children, whose education and future we desperately need to invest in: NO HOPE. NOTHING. ZILCH.
for the ailing NHS there was nothing. Patients wishing to see a specialist now have to wait for a 'cooling off' period of 20 weeks, and only then go on the waiting list if they still want to. What we have then is not a real reduction in the numbers o people on the waiting list, more a case of people just not being added to it. IT'S CALLED MANIPULATION.
By the way, prescription charges are going up to £3.75 per item. Ouch!
So what has our Norman given us then. Oh yes, £400 off a new car. Whoopee.
An extra quid or three for the lower paid. Oh Noble Norman!! There'll be dancing in the streets. Drinking less and smoking less, cos these things have gone up, but they will be dancing -- and grovelling at your feet, Norm.
Some help for small business. A bit like bolting the stable door after the horse has gone, eh Norman? I don't understand why you didn't do this last year though. Oh yes, of course. There was no election coming up last year was there.
There is to be an extra tax band of 20% which will benefit very few. Eight out of ten pensioners, for instance, do not pay tax because their income is too low. Only one in seven pensioners will benefit from Norman's handout.
The extra cash will only go to those who qualify for Income Support. From April, single pensioners must have an income of less than £57.15 per week (£88.95 for married pensioners), and they must have less than £3000 in savings to qualify. This benefit will be paid in two stages, April & October.
One tiny concession to the lower paid entitled to this 20% tax band...they will still be able to claim tthe 25% tax relief on their mortgage. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence will have realised that people in the very low pay bracket probably aren't in the market for buying or owning houses. Anyone except our Norman!
The government is going to borrow £28Billion to help themselves out. That's 28 Thousand Millions. Phew!!
What I am worrying about, and what we should all be worrying about is, who is going to pay all this money back?
In keeping with The Bentilean's Right to Reply
and attempts at political balance (most of the writers
are Labour, I'm a Liberal and I'm quite happy
to publish Conservatives, and even Natural Law
Party supporters) I'd welcome any articles or
letters replying to this article, or anything
else in The Bentilean magazine.
Copyright The Bentilean 1999
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