But what have Labour got, to put in its place? Still a cuts party, no sign of investment from them. More misery, just a slower descent and longer sojourn.
Labour opened up the economy to abuse by the banks, what are they going to do to decouple themselves from the uber-capitalists now?
You’re reaching for scant comfort, here; Labour may well have forced the Tories to play to their agenda; shame it’s the wrong agenda.

Labour may well have forced the Tories to play to their agenda; shame it’s the wrong agenda.

This sounds like a slogan than anything meaningful. You want Labour to do more than oppose cuts (they’re the opposition, not in govt) while lamenting they’re doing nothing about the banks. The comment doesn’t make any sense.

I have little doubt Osborne will fail: the rising cost of living is affected more by the structure of the economy (stagnating wages and growing inequality)

It’s true, every time a millionaire makes money my standard of living falls. Just last week Alan Sugar bought a new Merc and as a result I became more deprived.

You say you have no doubt that Osborne will fail. That depends on his intention: This is a very tabloid-pleasing budget.

I do agree that more should have been done – aiming a tax break at smaller companies would have been better imo than targeting larger ones.

With the larger companies the money tends to go to shareholders whilst smaller ones it’s in the pockets of the owners and staff.

Will 12-18 months of stagnation matter if things do improve before the election? I suspect not as it will prove that the government knew what they were doing. It may also consign Labour to being “the party that can’t handle finances” like in the late 70′s.

I do think Miliband and Balls were a bit rich (pun intended) over fuel increases and bankers (again). Have they forgotten how much fuel went up under Labour? Or how the banks could have been focused on when they bailed them out but were failed to by Brown and co?

Believe me I would like to see 3 strong parties – even Labour. I’m not convinced the likes of Miliband and Balls are the ones to give it to us.

The economic aspects like ‘growth’ ‘ prices’, especially fuel , will become ongoing debating topics. it would be useful if such debates could be conducted in the context of an ethical perspective.David Miliband has recently that debates on future policy should ‘ start with an ethic not a policy.’ He went on to suggest: that the starting point should be how to build a ‘moral economy’.
Would this not be a worthwhile path for discovery and policy development.

You say you have no doubt that Osborne will fail. That depends on his intention: This is a very tabloid-pleasing budget.

The tabloids can’t make people feel their lot is improving simply by headlines. What I mean is – his policies will fail even if he gets a short-term media bump.

aiming a tax break at smaller companies would have been better imo than targeting larger ones.

I agree with this. But its not surprising is it? Osborne has always been a corporatist.

@ Sunny

“The tabloids can’t make people feel their lot is improving simply by headlines. What I mean is – his policies will fail even if he gets a short-term media bump.”

I agree, but this was a “steady as she goes” budget. The changes the tories are really concerned with are elswhere, EG health. They know they are pretty safe because they have fixed the term of the government and they are gambling that economically things will pick up by the election.

At the moment I’m disgusted. I’m seeing a NO2AV “soldier needs body armour” at the bottom of this article. Don’t Lib Con have better taste in who they accept advertising revenue from?

“Naturally, the right-wing ideologues are outraged that it did not focus enough on tax cuts for rich corporations.”

Good Lord , talk about one trick ponies. Their solution to every problem is tax cuts for the rich.

“Well I am sorry Mr Smith you have cancer” …………….Mr Smith “ Give me tax cuts.”

“Mr Smith your daughter has been kidnapped” …………Mr Smith “ Give me tax cuts.”

“Mr Smith your family has been caught up in an earthquake ….. Mr Smith “ Give me tax cuts.”

No wonder Tim Worstall’s posts are all the same. Tax cuts are all they got.

@10 To be fair Tim’s posts are getting increasingly condescending and snarky, so they ain’t exactly the same…

@9

Use AdBlockPlus. I’ve not seen an advert for years

@12

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be available for chrome though I might switch back to firefox now version 4 has come out.

@12 – who’s going to fund Sunny’s iPhone bill?

(Why the need for adverts, anyway? I thought this site had a little more class…)

@Get Labour Out – Balls was hawking a statistic today. He pointed out that from 1990 to 1997 the element of petrol prices that was made up of tax went from 59% to 75%.

From 1997 to 2010 it dropped from 75% to 65%.

That’s still a lot of tax, but the rises were in no small part due to sky-rocketing oil prices.

Jeez, I’d be shocked if anyone actually saw that ad and was convinced, given I’ve trashed it several times on here. Can people stop taking the ads as endorsements? I’d block it but I’d rather they wasted their money online….

They know they are pretty safe because they have fixed the term of the government and they are gambling that economically things will pick up by the election.

Yes but this is my point. If the terms of the debate are on living standards – then the metric people will look at in 4 years time isn’t the employment or inflation levels necessarily but whether they feel better off. If they don’t, they blame the Coalition for that.

I think you should read The Sun and the Mail more often Sunny. There you’ll find the “debate” on the need for a fuel cut was well “framed”. And it probably had little to do with the “genius” of the Labour leader.

How about this for a subtle Mail hint?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1368327/Almost-half-Britons-change-political-party-committed-reducing-fuel-duty.html