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Small measures

Nick Robinson | 13:12 UK time, Wednesday, 12 March 2008

The clearest sign of how tight the public finances are is the small sums the chancellor's announcing. A few tens of millions of pounds may sound a lot but in Treasury terms they're a spare fiver and that's the sort of sum he's announced for many of his measures.

The big exception is measures to tackle child poverty costing around three quarters of a billion pounds. A lot but a fraction of the estimated £3.4bn required to get the government back on course for its target. We will soon discover how much new cars, pints of beer and bottles of wine and spirits will go up to pay for that.

Comments

  • 1.
  • At on 12 Mar 2008,
  • Charles E Hardwidge wrote:

I would expect crime and ill-health to fall so the long-term picture is an investment today will save much more in the future. If you play with the numbers it probably works out as creating wealth out of thin air. And that's quite the miracle.

  • 2.
  • At on 12 Mar 2008,
  • Pat Cull wrote:

Physical and mental disabilities. No mention appears to have been made of these. It should be remembered that disabled children with long-term conditions proceed to being disabled adults. There was also no mention of the prison population, many of which suffer from mental ill health. There was no mention of Care in the Community for these groups of people who struggle against odds to maintain a quality of life. There was no mention of carers, who save the Government millions. It would be interesting to know how much worse off M.Ps will be after this budget. Do you take bets?!!

  • 3.
  • At on 12 Mar 2008,
  • Nancy Edwards wrote:

No mention is made on your website about Gift Aid and the tax that can be reclaimed.We had understood a drop of 3.2% was expected. Did the chancellor's statement change this?It would make a tremendous difference to charities

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