Verdict on the budget?

[Old Skier]

So Osbo's budget becomes a fudget, where a £4.4bn black hole us filled from public spending - no idea from where - just 'public spending' - so if he could have found £4.4bn from general public spending why did he feel it necessary to target a specific group of society - and one of the most vulnerable. But he did. And then miraculously he 'saw the light' and realised he'd got it wrong. What a load of utter fudgery.

Bit like the time Labour went for the pensioners.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Bit like the time Labour went for the pensioners.

How like or unlike Osbo's fudgery actually is to Labour budget messes of the past - this is now - the Tories were elected on the basis of their economic competency - they crow about it enough - forever making statements about :Labour's competency. And so far both budgets that Osborne has presented without the guiding and moderating hand of the LibDems have been a shambles.

And on that we are perhaps seeing what the LibDems actually did achieve when in coalition, they prevented the Tories doing what they clearly wished to do and so with Tax Credits and PIP we see Tory values writ large.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

And so - here we are quite a few days after the fudget - and I am wondering whether or not the £4.4bn cut in PIP was actually just a cunning plan to get rid of IDS. That Osborne hasn't apologised for making this mistake (as if it came as a surprise to him that a cut in such a benefit might cause significant concern to many) - and hasn't bothered filling the £4.4bn hole he now has in the budget - suggests that maybe he never intended to make the cut in the first place. IDS gone - job done.

 

[SocketRocket]

And so - here we are quite a few days after the fudget - and I am wondering whether or not the £4.4bn cut in PIP was actually just a cunning plan to get rid of IDS. That Osborne hasn't apologised for making this mistake (as if it came as a surprise to him that a cut in such a benefit might cause significant concern to many) - and hasn't bothered filling the £4.4bn hole he now has in the budget - suggests that maybe he never intended to make the cut in the first place. IDS gone - job done.

Thats a good theory. Maybe he has a big box of money hidden on the dark side of the moon as well.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

And so I read today that Education Secretary Nicky Morgan is being urged by Tories to axe plans to force all schools to become academies and make sure it's not in the Queens speech. You might imagine that the Tory Leadership hadn't bothered asking anyone who knows about these things before Georgie Boy announced it in the last budget. And no doubt this will be portrayed as another example of the Tories 'listening to voters'. Honestly - what a bunch. Mind you next budget we could be out of the EU and have Bojo as PM and Gove as Chancellor (heaven help us - doesn't really bear thinking about)

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

And so I read today that Education Secretary Nicky Morgan is being urged by Tories to axe plans to force all schools to become academies and make sure it's not in the Queens speech. You might imagine that the Tory Leadership hadn't bothered asking anyone who knows about these things before Georgie Boy announced it in the last budget. And no doubt this will be portrayed as another example of the Tories 'listening to voters'. Honestly - what a bunch. Mind you next budget we could be out of the EU and have Bojo as PM and Gove as Chancellor (heaven help us - doesn't really bear thinking about)

And so the plan is abandoned - it's now an 'aspiration' but according to Eric Pickles it's not a U-turn or climb-down - oh no. The plan is still that all schools will become academies - just that it'll take time. But that isn't an aspiration - that's a plan.

Just as well the 'every school an academy' plan wasn't in the Tory party GE15 manifesto - though as the manifest did talk about academies, and explicitly stated Turn “failing and coasting” state secondary schools into academies the Tories never actually had a mandate for the 'every school an academy' policy. In fact you might say by including plans for academies in their manifesto they were actually saying they had no such 'every school an academy' plan.