Taxing beer won't hide the froth of this strange budget
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Alistair Darling's 58-minute Budget opus
was delivered with quiet authority and was probably one of his best
performances on Budget Day. A slow burner, he could become a real
contender for Gordon Brown's job whenever the time comes. Eyebrows
instead of jowl, you might say.
But style did not conceal the lack of content or the omission of
crucial details that emerged later.
As with almost every Budget, the Chancellor takes away more than
he gives, and that was especially true of a Budget in the context
of a whopping deficit and a global economic downturn.
It was crass to yet again tax beer,
probably on the pretext that rising prices address binge drinking,
and hike cider duty by a huge amount.. Both are uniquely British
products. No wonder Jonathan Neame was incandescent with rage. Beer
duty has rocketed by 25 per cent in two years at a time when six
pubs are closing every day. And binge drinking has precious little
to do with the social and eating pubs that Sheps runs.
If the country were a company, it would
have gone bust a long time ago. If it were a family, the bailiffs
would have been turfing them out well before now. Don'tt expect the
international lenders to look favourably on a country that is en
route for a trillion-plus deficit. Just like your bank manager,
they will charge as high an interest rate as they can from a
customer massively in the red.
Given the downturn, Locate in Kent has done remarkably well to
be close to its jobs and projects' target.
The agency is naturally disposed to
optimism, but Sir Brandon Gough, its chairman, was surprisingly
chipper at a networking event last night.
He admitted things had not been easy but could have been a lot
worse. He paid tribute to the LiK team who keep at 'the top of the
Premier League' of investment agencies. And of course there was
mention of the high-speed trains that are a real USP for the Locate
people when schmoozing potential investors. His view is that the
glass half full view will soon begin to prevail over the glass half
empty mood.
But of course a lot depends on the General
Election result. A hung parliament will not please the markets,
neither will the lack of any well-planned strategy for slashing the
deficit by an incoming government. Whatever happens though, Kent
and Medway will still have those trains.
It was nice to hear Charlie Vavasour of Quantum PR in Ashford
saying at the LiK event that he had read my blog. So there's one
reader then!
And what an amazing venue. I had never visited Frasers before.
In fact, never heard of it. Neither had my colleagues who write on
lifestyle subjects (where's the marketing??).
But this venue in the middle of nowhere a couple of miles from
Egerton is delightful and a great addition to Kent's wedding and
corporate entertaining scene. I hear it has advance bookings for
wedding receptions for three years. The catering service was
excellent and the canapes unusual and delicious. Well done to the
entrepreneurs behind the imaginative project.
Friday, March 26 2010
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