Pre budget report

Our darling Mr Darling found himself in a very difficult situation. The pre budget report did not of course have any good news for any one. The only people who might benefit are those on incomes less than 20,000 but with inflation still much higher than any pay rises and with VAT going back to 17.5 % no one is gaining and there will be many losers.

The question with what we have here is whether the pre election pre budget could have been any better under the Tories or the Lib Democrats. The answer is a sure no it would have been worst. That does not mean that the Unions should not oppose the decision to impose a limit of 1% for pay rises (this means a real terms cut with inflation above 2%)

I am in two minds as to how to react and whilst I am certainly not happy with the fact that we are all being forced to pay for the mistakes committed by bankers who were allowed to do what they liked for 10 years with no real controls I am reminded that the reality of the situation is that we are in a real financial mess. What amazes me is the fact that no government is brave enough to follow standard audit rules which would allow for the tracing of those who put the country in such a mess. I worked in an audit division for years and I know that the audit commission insists that standards should be adhered to (as does Cipfa) so tracing the trail and finding who did what and trying to recover fund misuse should be used in this instance and the bankers should not be allowed to get away with the crisis they have created. But of course that in itself will not resolve the problems we have so the question must be do we work with what the Chancellor has proposed or do we oppose them? The debate will no doubt start. The one thing that is sure is that under the Tories more than one million jobs would be removed to pay for the bankers mistakes so it would appear that the choice is between financial hardship or job loses. The debate will start now