| According to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, we have no need to worry too much; all is going to be well, after all. Everything’s under control and by 2011 Britain will be showing growth of 3.25 per cent. As that will be the fastest growth rate in ten years or more, this will be truly wonderful – some would say nothing short of a miracle, in fact.We’d no doubt all be delighted if the above scenario was to come about but unless things improve on a global basis, Sir Alistair could be proved to have been over-optimistic. As far as most people can see, there’s not a lot of cause for such optimism. Business confidence is failing in Europe and the USA’s appalling house price falls are continuing, without any sign of an upturn. Despite Prime Minister Brown’s oft repeated claims about his vision of leading the world into a bright new dawn, the tax plan which he led and gained international agreement on, is not looking too bright and far from being new, it’s slightly tarnished. As the problem solving and wonderful news of the value added tax reduction – a whole 2 pounds 50 pence on an item costing 117.50 pounds by the way – hit the world-wide news channels, it seems that some of Europe were not too impressed. Both Germany and France failed to be impressed and instead chose an attempt to try and bail out their beleaguered car industries rather than following the leader and reducing the tax on the consumer. This must have been somewhat disappointing for Gordon Brown, who must have expected that there would have been some co-ordination of action.As the recession continues, and the scale of the financial problems become obvious it seems that there may be no choice other than the raising of taxes. Despite the fact that small businesses are in a state of collapse and High Street names that have been there for a lifetime are disappearing at a frightening rate, the government is planning to increase taxes on smaller businesses. Within this announcement comes a half point increase in national insurance costs. Our Labour Government is set to charge both companies and workers with tax rises of more than 12 billion pounds. This may be disastrous but it looks as though the government is going to find it unavoidable, which is not going to increase the popularity of either the Chancellor or Gordon Brown. There are many people who doubt the wisdom of what is in effect a rise in a tax on jobs – particularly in these times of high and spiralling unemployment.Tax receipts of 73 billion pounds less than predicted, the national debt on line to rise two fold in five years, resulting in a figure of 1 trillion pounds – and where’s the money gone? The good times, which now seem a little distant, should have resulted in a surplus of money – ready for the bad times. We all know that. So much for the ex-Chancellors talks of good housekeeping and good old prudence. No wonder the Conservatives are up in arms at every chance – David Cameron’s talk is of help to the prudent and old people, but with the best will in the world, the debts they’re likely to inherit will tie their hands, too.There are promises of financial stability returning at the end of all this, but in fairness and as Mr Brown is so fond of telling us, it’s a global problem – a world downturn. It seems at though there’s a long, long way to go.Visit Brokers Online to find out more about Home Insurance Cover , Life Assurance Cover and much much more. Brokers Online also provides its clients access to a specialist forum when they can ask questions about their financial problems. |
