Virgins, money & little George Osborne..

I suppose the event of the week was the Budget, although an even bigger farce was the spectacle of the French special forces hanging around that Toulouse apartment for a couple of days wondering what to do next. At last they have sent him off to meet his virgins. Sadly, they are all seventy-year old Ethiopian Jews.

Little George Osborne stimulated the economy by jacking up the tax on ciggies, booze and petrol. That should do the trick. Tobacco accounts for about £10 bn in tax revenue. It is estimated that £2.5 bn is lost to contraband. Smuggling fags should get easier when plain packets are introduced as they will not have to bother with counterfeiting expensive packaging. So we can look forward to a bull-market in the cross-Channel trade from Ostend.

No political fall-out, of course, since smoking is now almost the exclusive preserve of the lower orders.

He reduced the top rate of tax sufficient to cause a political row but not enough to do any good. Instead he should have introduced a ‘sports’ tax to clobber people who earn millions for kicking a round ball for 90 minutes once a week, or racing drivers who earn even more by taking part in what is now an expensive computer game. 90% would seem a reasonable rate.

And he could have abolished child benefit altogether. Why must we pay other people to have kids?

Instead of clobbering pensioners he should have raised pensions by abolishing all the silly allowances that go with them, like free TV licences for the over-75s and winter fuel allowance, sacking all the drones who administer them and adding the whole pot to the basic pension.

As for alcohol, here is a press report:

‘Dr Sarah Wollaston MP has called for a minimum price for alcohol to reduce binge drinking during a Parliamentary debate’.

And another thing. The EU budget contribution by UK will rise by £1.8 bn over the next couple of years.

‘It’s the same the whole world over;

It’s the poor wot gits the blame.

It’s the rich wot gits the gravy.

Ain’t it all a blooming shame!’