Darling warns that the UK is on a bumpy road
As the Labour Party conference opened today we saw the Chancellor Alistair Darling come out with his most downbeat statement to date regarding the UK economy. While he refused to mention the dreaded 'R' word he all but confirmed that the UK will be in a technical recession in the very short term. He also suggested that the government would not be increasing taxes to fund spending on public services and had decided to borrow more money to balance his budget for this year and next.
While there had been more suggestions in the weekend press that the rich would suffer increased taxes to fund the current budget deficit and that for 2009 we again appear to be playing a game of cat and mouse with government policy. The brutal truth is that there is no way on earth the current budget and that for 2009 can be balanced without a realignment of tax rates. The possible reason why this has not be announced at today's party conference is the fact it would reduce the Labour vote even more and put Gordon Brown under further pressure.
Watch out for more tax tricks over the coming couple of years as the authorities look to plug the holes in the pubic purse.
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