Just imagine your phone rings. You pick up and the voice on the line says: Hello, Philip Hammond here. I’m just looking for some ideas for my Budget. What is the one thing you want me to do?”
How would you respond? What is the one thing you want to see?
I know we could all rattle off about two dozen things, but you only have one. Be disciplined. When I asked on Twitter last night, the first person said what I was going to say:
Borrow to invest. Bit general, I know. Really I just want him, in a moment of clarity, get up to the despatch box and scream, "Brexit is madness! We're all doomed!"
— Lisajane Ellis (@DancinJuicyLane) November 21, 2017
My alternative would be funding to extend Child and Adolescent Mental Health services to 25. Going through this transition is pure hell. You have kids who have lost half their secondary education to mental ill health due to waits in getting seen and then they end up going from well-supported and organised CAMHS services to next to nothing at a time of other huge transitions in their lives at 18.
A smattering of the eclectic responses:
A fair deal for the North East. New rolling stock for the metro. A1 converted to three lane motorway up to team valley and upgrade to metro lines. New lines new stations. Down to Durham.
— PLANET MONDAS FORUM (@planetmondas) November 21, 2017
Guaranteed school spending … perhaps even an increase in funding or small pay rise for teachers?
— RoisIN Miller (@roisinmiller) November 21, 2017
That's not all that far fetched. I once got a text from my MP asking "have you got any shovel-ready transport schemes that the Chancellor can announce in the budget next week?".
— Tim Ward (@TimWardCam) November 21, 2017
Let councils opt out of right to buy and borrow to build social housing for rent.
— Chris Stanbra (@Corbychris) November 21, 2017
This is particularly topical:
Maximum 2 week waiting time for UC with option of payment direct to landlord.
— ruth waterton (@mefinx) November 21, 2017
1p on the £ tax increase ringfenced for frontline NHS services. And if I can have a second then get rid of Jeremy Hunt. It’s now or never to save our NHS and goodness knows, if Brexit happens then we are going to need it more than ever.
— LibDemsRichmondshire (@RichmondshireLD) November 21, 2017
Genuine, real ongoing help for R&D in tech companies. Not the current lip service that disintegrates into farce in the real world that we have now. Want to see unicorns grow? Stop killing them at birth.
— Bradley Kieser (@bradkieser) November 21, 2017
Genuine, real ongoing help for R&D in tech companies. Not the current lip service that disintegrates into farce in the real world that we have now. Want to see unicorns grow? Stop killing them at birth.
— Bradley Kieser (@bradkieser) November 21, 2017
I’d settle for some sense of a plan for what will replace all the science funding Brexit will likely deprive us of
— Stewart Bosier (@vinguard) November 21, 2017
A Pay Rise for those of us who NEVER get one – disabled people who only have their disability Benefits to live off and have no other form of income or any ability to get a job. Housebound and bedbound people.
— Poppy (@Poppy_Hasted) November 21, 2017
And finally, this is the Lib Dems. There’s always one.
Land value tax
— Tom Bevan (@DrTom13628346) November 21, 2017
What would you like to see on Phil’s Spreadsheet?
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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10 Comments
Reverse all the cuts to benefits made since 2015 and restore the real value of out-work benefits to their 2009 levels and scrapping the bedroom tax.
If I was allowed a second, introduce a voluntary Job Guarantee scheme for those unemployed or on ESA for more than 1 year, which provide jobs tailored to the needs of the person and their future well-being.
@ Michael BG Spot on, Michael, but you and I know it’s not in their DNA. There’s a strong Benthamite punishment element in their thinking about ‘the undeserving poor’.
I’m with Lisajane Ellis, “Borrow to invest”…No matter what we want/need it has to be paid for,,,
Although a book entitled “What to feed your free Unicorn” is a good second choice…
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Raise all benefits except Pensions/Pension Credit, drop all the compulsory “Interviews, Training ” etc. Cut staff in “Job Centres” by half, scrap Signing On.
I reckon these measures would mostly pay for themselves by savings on Wages & Rents for swanky Offices first & later by rises in Tax Revenues. The War on Benefits is a major factor in holding Wages down in a time of Low Unemployment.
@ Paul Barker “Raise all benefits except Pensions/Pension Credit”.
Why ?
What’s the argument for corporation tax? Surely if you want to tax those at the top then do more with a dividend tax? Don’t see a point in corporation tax when it hits SMEs the hardest while they’re the backbone for our economy. Would be in favour of scrapping corporation tax, higher dividend tax, couple capital gains tax with income tax, and bring national living wage up to a proper one, one that you can actually live off of.
Bit disappointed in Vince that he’s not pushed for something that’d encourage business/SMEs. Feels more New Labour than actual liberal, pro-business and pro-worker policies.
Replace the million council houses lost……. with council houses.
Stop Brexit. That’s the only fiscal policy that makes unquestionable sense at the moment.
Not even a mouse of a budget – It’s a dead mouse of a budget.
Mine would be a 50% discount to bring all homes up to a minimum environmental standard regarding insulation, heating and power use.