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when I was younger, many moons ago, it was drummed into me that Labour were for the workers and would fight for the workers rights. What went wrong? I am at a loss as to who gets my vote, looking at it there is nobody who I want to run this country! Also at the time it was a good thing to work you could afford to have things that those not working could not, that was the incentive to work! Now you work, you get the feeling you are penalised for doing so. Some people who work are worse off than those claiming benefits. There should be a very big difference between working and claiming benefits, alas the minimum (slave) wage put paid to that!

well said merlin! we work our arses off n struggle. As I said in my previous rant, it took us 6 months to save £300 for a crappy laptop for our teenage daughter for xmas and them on dole got a free grant for a £500+ one and a year's free internet! My youngest can't do music lessons n stuff at school as we can't afford the fees, but them on dole get them free and money for the instrument! The budget's giving them with kids aged 1 and 2 an extra £4 per week and it's when they at school we need money. if we weren't working, we'd get free milk, trips, help with uniform etc.. I have mates on dole n they can go on holiday n buy new tv's n one mate can eat steak! we can't even afford crisps unless they on offer! it's crazy!! my partner was recently diagnosed epileptic after several severe fits-he's classed as disabled but can't get extra money for it (but someone depressed or alcoholic can!). he also has arthritis. He can be on the sick 6 months on full pay yet he goes to work every day ill or not to provide for his kids as he's that kind of bloke n we have nowt? it's not on is it when decent hard working people are worse off than them on the dole. I too have given up on who to vote for... they all promise this n that but it rarely happens!!!!

Pretty much as expected. Spent most of the time slapping himself on the back and trying to make a place for himself in history. What was interesting was the huge difference between what he said and what is in the red book. The stamp duty holiday for properties under £250K is hedged with so many conditions (15 tests) in the small print that it will benefit very few people. There were public spending cuts announced - obviously just the very first round - but he completely failed to mention them in his speech. These include a £4,200,000,000 cut in the NHS budget! Not the sort of thing you want to make a fuss about with an election imminent. Three more rises in fuel duty - that's six rises in 24 months. He's phasing them because they've learnt from the fuel protests. He's hoping people wont notice that fuel should be falling in-line with falls in the wholesale oil price, and making a steady grab at the reductions. So just another Gordon Brown type stealth tax really! The Treasury bods themselves are now on record as saying that this budget is pointless. What more needs to be said? But I did wonder how many times he'd do a "global" - thus sustaining the brainwash. He didn't disappoint: a "global" right in the very first sentence! After the first dozen globals I lost count.