Drinkuary: Raining on the parade

This article was first posted on Drinkuary. Rejoice be glad the beer duty escalator has stopped and beer duty has been dropped by a penny!! Big whoop and it’s not even true despite the headlines. I hate to be the one to rain on the parade but the Daily Mash has it right the Chancellor has bought you for a penny. Let’s have a quick look at the parade before the rain clouds open: “Success for the TaxPayers’ Alliance MashBeerTax campaign with the scrapping of the beer duty escalator and a 1p cut in beer duty” – Tax Payers Alliance … Continue reading

Bits of budget and other stuff

One thing I hadn’t noticed in much of the budget coverage was that the idea to charge a 50p a month tax for having a telephone line, to fund rural broadband is alive and well (hat tip The Register). Though only if Labour win another term, or if the Tories decide it’s a wizard wheeze to take more money off us. Of course once they do you can bet it will be as temporary a tax measure as VAT is. Meanwhile Letters from a Tory picks up on some news that has been over shadowed by the budget. The proposed … Continue reading