The Eurosceptic lie

The Eurosceptics claim the UK could be like Norway, which is not a member of the EU but has access to the single market.  What they don't tell you is (a) that Norway is a liberal social welfare state where people pay higher taxes in return for greater social benefits of all kinds, and (b) that in order to get its access, Norway has to obey EU rules and pay into the EU budget.

If the UK did the same we would have to implement the rules with no say of what they are, and continue to pay our dues without a say over how much.  I somehow don't think rabid anti-European Tory backbenchers would be keen on that arrangement!

Labour's response to Osborne's Budget

Ed Balls says:

“George Osborne boasted once again today that everything was going well. Perhaps it is for the people he mixes with. But in the real world, people on middle and low incomes are still not feeling any recovery. And after today’s Budget, they still won’t be feeling it. Wages are down £1,600 a year since David Cameron came to office. And independent forecasts today showed people will be worse off at next year’s election than in 2010.

 

 

So it’s official: You’re worse off under the Tories. Yet there was no action in the Budget to deal with this cost-of-living crisis. No energy prices freeze to help pensioners and families struggling with soaring bills. No help for families with rising childcare costs this side of the election. And no action to get young people stuck on the dole into paid work. Despite all the hype, the Budget totally failed to deliver, except for the very richest who will still get a £3billion a year tax cut. And when Ed Miliband challenged David Cameron and the Chancellor in the Commons, they refused to rule out giving millionaires another tax cut.

Specifically...

 

Real wages are forecast to fall by 5.6% over the Parliament meaning people will be worse off in 2015 than when David Cameron came to power.

Three years of flat-lining and falling living standards has led to more borrowing than planned to pay for the costs of economic failure.

 Let's hope the measures in this Budget are better than the Government's Export Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme which helped just five firms before it folded.

 

It looks like the dear old threepenny bit.  Coincidentally, in real terms it will have about the same purchasing power.

The Budget failed to cap pension fees and charges which leave pensioners paying up to £230,000 over their lifetimes.



 

In summary...