£6 per year broadband tax to go ahead

Move over Darling

The UK government will borrow a total £178 billion this year and expects to match that figure next year.

But all is not lost, a new levy of 50p per month on all households with a fixed line phone, confirmed today by the Chancellor of the Exchequer - Alistair Darling - in his pre-budget report will bring in £170 million a year of fresh, new cash.

OK, we're being a bit unfair there; the broadband tax isn't intended to tackle our suffocating national debt. That will be achieved by cutting the number of people on the public payroll. No? OK, how about paying them less? Not that either? What about just spending less in general? Nope.

But he will restore VAT to 17.5 percent, raise National Insurance by 0.5 percent in a couple of years and tax bankers slightly more, for a bit, so everything's going to be fine.

Back to the broadband tax; that's intended to ensure access to ‘super-fast' broadband to 90 percent of the country by 2018 - no time to waste, then. BT apparently reckons the cost of getting everyone onto super-fast broadband is around five billion pounds. Not £1.36 billion.

Nice to see everything's under control.

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The bigger question…. do we believe politicians, whether in power or trying to get in, will be open, clear and honest about what's coming in the next few years?

I sure as hell don't.

Whatever they say, however they try to present it, it (IMHO, of course) is going to involve heavy spending cuts, and is going to involve tax rises. I'd be astonished if we get a clear annunciation of much more than about 20% of what's coming. After all, the patronising attitude from politicians is that they mustn't frighten the children. And that's us, by the way, the voters, the people they work for (in theory).

But this time, they've got a problem. Both main parties are worried that if they're too hair shirt about the future, it'll cost them votes. And if they're not hair shirt enough, the markets will panic, the UK's credit rating sill be downgraded, and they either won't be able to get the huge borrowing they need at all or, at best, the rates WE and up paying for it will go up.

So what this PBR is is a balance between trying to look responsible without scaring us too much, whilst still not panicking those they need to borrow from in the future.

We shouldn't pay too much attention to what they say they're going to do, because in my opinion, it'll only be a pale shadow of what they actually do, once safely past a General Election. The PBR is at least as much, if not more, about election positioning than it is about economics.

If this helps improve the poor speeds people are getting and helps improve the infastructure so faster speeds can be offered then I'm all for this to be implemented.

50p a month is not that much in my eyes. I probably loose more than that in a month through a small hole in my pocket and I'm sure you can go without 1 chocolate bar a month in order to get a faster net connection ;)

I dont trust them as far as I could throw an African Elephant.

The question is, what do we do about it, we vote for the other guy, who, also a group of politicians are also bound to lie to us.

I'd be Prime Minister but somehow I dont think I'd get many votes once I become a politician and would be tarred with the lying b'stard brush. Ok so I've already got my party slogan but somehow I really dont think “No smoke, no mirrors, no BS” would go down well on roadside adverts..
Its great having ideas but until you get in power and know all of whats going on and see all the figures you dont know the whole story, you end up trying to get out of holes the previous government got you in and then your screwed blaming them, borrowing more and putting up taxes, your screwed too..

Is it me or are the simple things missed by the government now a days?. We lack funding so we need to borrow (fair enough) but with that we shouldnt just tax the tax payers more, they should be giving less money to people on benefits because at the moment its a piss take especailly with them going to give them BB and sky in a few years!.

They should reduce the number of people on the dole by simply forcing them to do manual labour, get them to all turn turbines for a day and produce some electric for the country or something?. That would save us crap loads especially for the tax payer, we may eventually get a rate similar to those on benefits!.

Oh and one crucial crucial factor i believe should be changed is… No votes if your on the dole, it sounds harsh but these changes wont happen for the good of england because politicians are always worried about the votes(like saracen pointed out), so anything negative to the dole system isnt going to give good votes for them!.

Or is this just my own opinion?

Lee @ SCAN;1832366
If this helps improve the poor speeds people are getting and helps improve the infastructure so faster speeds can be offered then I'm all for this to be implemented.

50p a month is not that much in my eyes. I probably loose more than that in a month through a small hole in my pocket and I'm sure you can go without 1 chocolate bar a month in order to get a faster net connection ;)

Although I agree faster speeds will be nice are you really that naive, you know it will get used to fund their second homes and VIP lifestyle.

I very much doubt we will see a faster infulstructure by 2020 and the worlds supposed end by 2012!

£6 per year broadband tax to go ahead

Move over Darling

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