Tomorrow (Weds 12th March) Alistair Darling will deliver one of the most critical budget speeches in a decade and it will be his first speech as Chancellor.
With the UK economy slowly grinding to a halt all attention will be on his announcements and the hope that he can kickstart our sluggish UK economy back into life. This year has been a difficult year for the global economy, firstly with the collapse of the sub prime market in the US, where US banking corporations lent too much to many people with too few concerns about their capacity to repay these sums. This on top of an increasingly competitive market that has seen China, Russia and India demanding more materials to feed the demands of their rapidly expanding consumer societies. Instability and rogue trading in the European banking sector has also caused banks to reduce the amount that they are prepared to loan to each other and as a result almost certainly contributed to the run on Northern Rock bank, which first in British society for over 100 years.
So in light of all this doom and gloom what can we expect from Alistair Darling's first speech?
Here are my hot picks:
- Tax on alcohol is almost certainly due to go up. This seems popular with the current anti binge drinking arguments that are kicking around at the moment. I think that it is more likely to happen on beers than on wines and spirits, so expect your weekly night out to cost you a few more quid.
- Fuel - I think this will remain the same, even Alistair Darling wouldn't be stupid enough to increase tax on petrol prices in the current climate that has seen wholesale oil prices raise dramatically. It would be political suicide to increase this!
We'll find out more tomorrow!!!
Labels: Alistair Darling, budget, budget speech |
