An empty PBR

Well that was a bit of a shower wasn’t it?  Whatever this was, it wasn’t a sober and honest reappraisal of Britain’s finances and analysis of what the hell we’re all going to do now.  Instead it was a hodge-podge of tiny announcements, baffling priorities (a cut in the bingo tax?  For fuck’s sake…) and an overall sense of the unreal.  Oh, and a tax increase on employment, while unemployment is rising – really brainy.

The rise in NI should actually be a gift to the Tories.  Not only can they pledge to reverse/not apply it, but they can also state that, since this is their absolute priority in straitened times, unfortunately other planned tax cuts (such as the rise in the IHT threshold) will have to take a lower priority.  That ought to shoot Labour’s class war fox at any rate.

Labour are running out of game-changers.  A quick look at today’s headlines ought to confirm to them that the PBR has turned out to be anything but.