Has the Chancellor made the right decisions?
Who'd want to be a Chancellor? Britain is in the sharpest recession, has the highest borrowing and is about to experience the biggest public spending squeeze since the war. So what's Alastair Darling going to do about it? Here are some of the headlines:
- 50% tax rate for earnings over £150,000
- Big debt and deficit increases
- Economy shrinks at record rate
- Public spending squeeze planned
- Books not balanced until 2018
- 2p on fuel, 1p on a pint of beer and 7p on cigarettes
- £15bn public sector 'efficiency savings'
- Claw back tax relief on top earners' pension
- £2bn help for young unemployed
- £1bn to boost housing market
- £2,000 car scrappage scheme
The decision to make the rich pay more for the cost of what's gone wrong has dominated most of the headlines this morning. Does this spell the end of New Labour? Is that a good thing?
And what about the ? It seems we're entering a period of public austerity which will dominate politics for years to come. But despite the Chancellor's promise to grow our way out of recession rather than cut our way out of it, the Finance Secretary John Swinney told Good Morning Scotland that the Scottish government faces a £500m cut in 2010/11, at a cost of 9,000 jobs north of the border. But with Westminster also making efficiency savings, is it only right that Scotland takes its share of the pain?
That was the subject of today's Morning Extra. Another busy one, so keep your comments coming.
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