h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4354159.stm

Insofar as we can still talk politics before the election ban on discussions happens what do people think of budget?

IMHO any lingering doubt as to the result is gone for me. Labour might loose a few seats but I reckon they romp home.

And what's the first thing that I look at - how much more on fags and booze.

Does that mean that a packet of 20 fags is past the £5.00 mark yet?

My kid brother said he would give up smoking as soon as a pack of 20 Marlborough Lights cost more than a fiver.

I wondered why the usual queues stretching out of petrol stations weren't there - fuel duty put off until Sept.

Do we think the budget 'gains' will outweight the crossness about the war?

Given that one is about money and the other a long way away, I guess the answer will be yes (I'm not saying I prefer a particular party as an alternative here)

Jules

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Is there an election coming up soon? I couldn't tell from the budget.

There were a few white lies within it. The council tax rebate is a one off. The cheap pension bus pass is for off peak only (whether it always has been I am not sure). The 'extra £150 million' for primiary schools is news over a year old and hence not new money.

Marlboro bought from petrol stations and corner shops have been over a fiver for some considerable time. Off licences and supermarkets are somewhat cheaper at around £4.85

I guess the inheritance allowance rises are in line with rising housing prices? Maybe? But that still irks a little.

If the election was fought on the economy alone, then yes, I agree, Labour would romp home.

However, it should be remembered that the economy was doing well when John Major was defeated. He lost the election for other reasons, not least of all the sleaze factor.

The same could still happen to Labour.

Donald

It's a good and sensible budget. IF the sums add up. (It makes very very little difference to me. I'd guess the whopping £12 a month our household is better off will be mostly swallowed by tax and the price of booze and fags going up.)

Whether or not it's sufficient to see them back into power is debatable.

Can anybody tell me why a memorial to the Queen Mother should be announced in a Budget speach or am I being cynical.....

"Whether or not it's sufficient to see them back into power is debatable."

You reckon Blues?

I think this is one of the easiest to call elections for ages.

Massive majority, Check
Healthy economy, Check
Opposition in disarray, Check
Mid term government lead in polls, Check

The first and last being particularly important. I will say this if Labour fail to win this election it will be unprecedented in moder British political history. I for one will be hat eating if they dont win.

Iraq. Check.
Blair versus Brown. Check.
Milburn versus Brown. Check.
NHS. Check.
Education. Check.
Scottish Prime Minister versus Scottish Assembly. Check

The Opposition are not in disarray. This is the healthiest and most organized the Tories have been since Thatcher's departure. Write them off at your peril.

They may be talking what we all know to be bullsh*t, but the early signs are that the Red Tops are going to encourage their readers to vote Tory at the next election. Add into that the splintering of the Labour vote over the war and this is far, far from a foregone conclusion.

Well we will see. I can and have put curerency on this. All my lecturers seem to think it is a forgone conclusion pretty much as well. We shall see eh?

I see a *hugely* reduced majority and an ever more desperate Blair hanging on for dear life much as Major did in the run up to the '97 election.

He should of course have the guts to quit immediately after the elction andf hand power over to Brown.

Will England accept a Scottish MP being Prime Minister when Scotland has it's own assembly. Can an English MP be Scotland's First Minister.

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Cynical - the vague link to the budget is that the funds are to be raised via the profits from a special coin.

I believe the memorial is to be a ten foot tall Gin bottle.

Well Parliament is Britains parliament and not Englands so I dont see that it matters. There have I think been Scottish PMs in the past....

Wonders off vaguely to check....

Seems good news to me!

But I don't smoke and my place at medschool was funded by an increase in the price of fags in 1998, so that's an increase in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.

*hides from mob of angry smokers*

*points them towards the computer cluster they've kindly paid for at medical school*

And it seems that I'll benifit from the rise in stamp duty as well, if my plan to buy a house goes to plan anyway. I was looking at something around the price bettween the old stamp duty price and the new one.

I hope Labour win but the masssive swing to the Lib Dems gives us a proper Left Wing opposition.

The Red Tops are going to back the Tory's this time. Today's headline in The Sun: 'Beware the Bribes of March'.

*apoligies to Non-UKians to whom none of this will make sense*

Putting my Mr Mean Spirited hat on for a minute, why should we apologise to our oversees friends and fellow hootizens on a site paid for by our license fee. I fully appreciate the variety and depth of debate the global village enables and zenophobia is an adjective never associated with me but I don't, in any way, feel at all apologetic for discussing UK issues.