Budget Day?

[elle]

Listening to our Chancellor Gordon Brown today...I was wondering, is there such a thing as Budget Day in Portugal? Do you gather round the TV set or listen to radio on a special day there, to hear a round up of the country's economics..whats to go up in price and what might come down in price etc?
Can't remember all of ours except:
4wheel drivers to pay the cost of being environmentally unfriendly..fuel guzzling /going off road ..now to pay £250 road tax..
whilst lot of the smaller cars could become tax exempt!(think Ive got that right )..
Ciggies up 9p a packet of 20 (Good!..now maybe my daughter will finally give them the heave ho!)
Wine up 4p bottle
Beer up 1p
Spirits not affected (why?)
Child benefit up
I think its 36,000,000 into education?
Nothing for pensioners
what else?

[Lesley Jean]

The car tax 'band' is now G - gas guzzlers £210 per year but this includes a VW beetle 2 litre !! Band F - will pay £190. If your car emits less than 150 gramms of carbon per kilometer you will get a reduction of between £5 - £35 The only cars to be 'tax free' will be cars that do not emit any carbon ie. electric. But it was stated that it will only apply to new purchases.

Comment in the Telegraph today:

This was not a Budget but a piece of social engineering. There were no tax cuts or export incentives to support the wealth-creating private sector. Instead Brown lectured for 61 mins on how we should live now, including a raft of plans to sink more of our money into areas where HM Treasury is not welcome.

Brown cuts across every spending department, not only dictating how much they spend but what they spend it on as well. There were more than a dozen talking shops, reviews and institutes announced to nanny us from the cradle to the grave, from childhood to retirement, while the scandal of NHS waste was not mentioned once.

All the Budget rhetoric was about securing our place in the world economy but the Budget action will only serve to undermine it in the long run.

[Guest]

Golly, The Telegraph don't approve of a Labour budget, whatever next.

Does Portugal have an annual budget then?

[Ellie]

Golly, The Telegraph don't approve of a Labour budget, whatever next.

Does Portugal have an annual budget then?

Yes..thats what I wanna know too..anyone?
As for the 'NHS Waste'..its same old story....too many 'chiefs' with their lovely wages,whilst nurses are being sacked /wards closed !

[Guest]

I think Ellie that it is more likely that the hospitals just got their sums wrong. The budgets have increased substantially and they are around, I think, 1% over budget. Which is actually very good.

[Guest]

Expect you're right guest and you are probably better informed than myself
I was just thinking on the maybe 100s nurses who are worried about losing their jobs by summer?If that happens wards will close and we all lose out?
But on the other hand, we are lucky to have a national health service here in UK aren't we? I was listening to Tony Benn last night,whose wife died of cancer.He said if they'd been billed for her treatment it would have cost 10s of thousands of pounds? I had a sight saving Op 3 years ago,and good nursing care plus food for a week(of course, I pay Nat.Ins, but even so,what that might have cost me )) Benn said when you think theres millions in America that dont have access to free health treatment, we've a lot to be greatful for?
ellie
p.s. no replies about a Portuguese budget day here yet?

[digger]

….cant imagine the Portuguese buying into that budget nonsense. that’s just soo nanny state England …. the punter standing by waiting to hear how much beer, fags and petrol will cost after midnight.

The pt are beyond caring …. they could have 100% inflation before midnight and all they want is football.

[Guest]

Can't say as I blame 'em Digs!
I felt the same when I lived there....so laid back
You sure you wanna comeback here ? I'll change places with you if you like
elle