Be Excellent To Each Other

So far fags up 2% above inflation, whisky and cider the same, beer down 1p per pint, fuel the same.

Oh, and bingo duty cut to 10%, in case anyone cares.

Ooh, personal allowance up to £10,500, and higher rate increased to £41,856.

ISA allowance up to £15,000 for you rich folk.

And something about pensions that I don't understand because I'm not old.

And that's it.

Unemployment falls another 70,000-odd; UK economy growing faster than any advanced western economy @ 3%/annum; £15K ISA savings limit; seems to be moving in the right kind of direction.

I love the way the Tories have said this was their idea all along. The brazen cheek of it is strangely admirable.

I think you mean "the coalition".

The pensions thing is very interesting. Basically they are going to remove a lot of the limitations on taking your money out of the pot once you are a pensioner, and also reduce the tax liability on taking your cash out early from 55% to "around 20%".

I wonder if I could get all my wages paid into my pension, then take it all out again early at a 20% rate

As listeners to More or Less will know, the unemployment figures are rather untrustworthy as the ONS can't differentiate between proper paid work and the unpaid "workfare" stuff (potentially about 200,000.... People being paid is not part of the defintion of "being employed" as the ONS does it!). It also, obviously, includes zero hours and part timers. So it's not necessarily as great as the headline numbers suggest.

Also worth reading:

http://timharford.com/2013/10/unemploym ... t-working/

And 99.whatever percent of the country are yet to see a benefit of the recovery, so it, whilst good, is not something to crow about. I'd also query the extent to which any recovery has happend because of, rather than in spite of, the government's economic policy.

Worth noting that the economic growth doesn't seem to be based on the "rebalanced" economy that Osborne was promising us - it's all consumer spending again, largely fuelled by credit.

Fuck off out of my cheap beer thread, naysayers

You can't even buy anything with 1p any more. Not even a penny sweet.

<insert mum joke>

I inserted myself in your mum for a joke.

Well, it bought me an hour with your mum.

Trooper beat you to it, and with more class, matey.

Damn, thought I was getting the hang of this at last!

Err, no. Raising the income tax allowance was a 2010 Lib Dem manifesto policy. Now the Tories have turned around and say it was their plan all along.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... nce-pledge

And if there's anything worse than an hour with Kissyfur's mum, it's an hour with Kissyfur's mum after Trooper's beaten you to it.

The childcare stuff could be of she to me.

Does that mean we are all £500 a year better off?

No. Think about it.

Tax does my head in

So we can earn £10500 no tax (still national insurance?)
10500 to 41k 25% tax
41k+ 40% tax

Oh, that snuck past me somehow.

So we've just lost child benefit, and now they're offering to give us money?

It's reasonably simple at that level, it's just an extra £500 that isn't taxed at all, rather than taxed at 20%. So we're all £100 better off. Except that's not strictly true because of the change to the 40% rate, so you might be even better off than that.

OH SHIT! Just noticed I'm in the 40% bracket now.

Time to vote Tory.

so i don't gain much... ah well

Pretty sure that means you can dig up £2 a month.

Only if you use childcare, and spend £££ on it.

I'm still gobsmacked that the supposedly pro-higher rate tax payer party was so happy to take my bloody money off me. Although not from a couple where their combined earning is almost double the threshold.

Sure we do. He can't stay at home on his own (sadly).

Well, fine for you then. It's a tax rebate, so to get the full £2k you have to have spent £10k.

As Ruth works at home and the kids are at school, this means nothing to us.

Oooooh, Vienna.

?!

"This means nothing to me...."

IDGI.

Is this part of Cras' s current song lyrics Tourettes?

Tchoh! It's "Vienna" by Ultravox, the first single I ever bought (it's not a 78 ).

Famously kept off the No.1 spot by "Shuddup A Yer Face" I bet Midge Ure was fucking delighted with that...

The first single I bought was "Do they know it's christmas" by Band Aid.

Also Midge Ure!

"Tripping On Sunshine" by Pizzaman.

"Opposites Attract" by Paula Abdul.

Is that fiction, or a natural fact?

Innuendo by Queen.

Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson.

Love City Groove by Love City Groove

Hobo humpin slobo babe by Whale.

I bought 3 in one go (either birthday or christmas money/vouchers) Chicken Song by Spitting Image, Snooker Loopy by Chas and Dave, and Spirit in the Sky by Dr and the Medics

Malc

Now 1

That was the first single you bought?

Bart Simpsons's 'Do the Bartman'