New Conservative Budget/Financial Statement

The new Conservative party leader Liz Truss and the new chancellor of the exchequer Nadhim Zahawi produced a radical financial statement yesterday.

Their statement was criticised by the Labour Party, which is exactly what oppositions in free societies are supposed to do. 

However the media in the UK, which at first  seemed to react fairly neutrally overall, have since become quite critical. 

The BBC having moaned about Boris Johnson for years is probably wary of being too critical of Liz Truss too soon but the media's general moans about the new budget  seem so far, to outweigh the positive reactions which vanished after a couple of hours, almost as soon as the value of the pound sterling slumped against the dollar. The fact that the Euro has sunk to a 30 year low against the US dollar almost goes unnoticed. The US has heaps of its own gas and oil unlike most European countries. Currency dips tend to come and go in any event.

During the past 50 years or so under governments of all political hues, the ordinary UK population has been promised tax cuts but always in the future.

Hopefully the future has at last arrived. One of the major issues for the UK is that there are some 5 million people out of work and claiming financial benefits  from the state yet  despite the record job vacancies, most  of those 5 million souls may be prefer receiving  free state benefits to working for a living. Of course if one is disabled, or widowed, or has a family of small children, then working is difficult and such individuals must be supported by the population at large but  in my view at least, not otherwise. If I am incorrect, then the reform of the educational system started by Labour's Tony Blair, needs urgently to be taken further.

The reductions in the rates of income tax are welcome as is the freeing up the way in which bankers pay bonuses by leaving those decisions to the banks' boards rather than to civil servants; after all just under half of bankers' bonuses anyway are taken back by the state in the form of income tax and the whole regime like some of that of limiting insurers' investing powers, is caused by EU rules. Yet most EU countries do not have equivalents to the London insurance or banking markets. Such markets are not my cup of tea so to speak but without them, this country would be vastly poorer.

There are risks of course but the course of events over the past 50 years, does not seem to have assisted the nation's finances especially well so the abrupt change is in my view, most welcome.