The Budget

[theclaud]

It is what it is.

And what it is needs no excuses?

 

[Joffey]

'Rolling tobacco will also be hit – and cost of a 30g bag will increase from £8.14 to £9.02.'

I wonder where they got these prices from. I ask roll up smokers how much they pay and how much do they smoke. Even a couple of years ago rolling tobacco was over £10 for 30 grammes. Naively i'd ask how many weeks the tobacco would last. Most would laugh and say, 'not weeks but days'! One bloke i asked the other week said he does four 30 gram packets a week at £14 a packet!!!

Depends if you buy it legit from a shop or off the black market!!!

 

[DRM]

'Rolling tobacco will also be hit – and cost of a 30g bag will increase from £8.14 to £9.02.'

I wonder where they got these prices from. I ask roll up smokers how much they pay and how much do they smoke. Even a couple of years ago rolling tobacco was over £10 for 30 grammes. Naively i'd ask how many weeks the tobacco would last. Most would laugh and say, 'not weeks but days'! One bloke i asked the other week said he does four 30 gram packets a week at £14 a packet!!!

I'm thankful I personally find the habit revolting, I couldn't afford that!!

 

[Accy cyclist]

Depends if you buy it legit from a shop or off the black market!!!

Yeah, that's probably where they got their 8 to 9 quid a packet prices from.

 

[Drago]

What about chewing baccy?

 

[jowwy]

What about chewing baccy?

Do you do that drags?.

 

[craigwend]

From the Book of Faces...

Just a quick note to all my non beer focused friends.
The government have announced a 'draft beer duty tax' cut, and some may assume I think this is a good thing. It is not. All the big breweries put their beer into 50l kegs, smaller independent brewers generally use 20 or 30l kegs, for various reasons. The tax cut is for kegs above 40l. This means it is a well designed tax break for the big boys, meaning they can then cut costs and further price out the smaller craft breweries. Yet the headlines will trick people into thinking the crooks in charge have done a good thing. They are just helping out their rich friends again, and have no interest in small business or the average drinker.
This is a further blow to small independent business. I sometimes don't know why I even f***ing bother.

 

[craigwend]

What about chewing baccy?

View: https://youtu.be/Pr3sBks5o_8

Not Happy...

 

[Drago]

Do you do that drags?.

Nah, im not slack jawed enough Jowwers.

 

[Joffey]

From the Book of Faces...

Just a quick note to all my non beer focused friends.
The government have announced a 'draft beer duty tax' cut, and some may assume I think this is a good thing. It is not. All the big breweries put their beer into 50l kegs, smaller independent brewers generally use 20 or 30l kegs, for various reasons. The tax cut is for kegs above 40l. This means it is a well designed tax break for the big boys, meaning they can then cut costs and further price out the smaller craft breweries. Yet the headlines will trick people into thinking the crooks in charge have done a good thing. They are just helping out their rich friends again, and have no interest in small business or the average drinker.
This is a further blow to small independent business. I sometimes don't know why I even f***ing bother.

Tim ‘The Gilet’ Martin will be rubbing his grubby hands together.

 

[Bromptonaut]

Yep. Reduced the amount of reduction as you start earning more.

Ahh right. That's a change in Universal Credit which replaces Working Tax Credit. For the most part the structure of those 'legacy' benefits is frozen.

Not nitpicking; benefits are my profession and I was worried I'd missed something.

 

[Dolorous Edd]

From the Book of Faces...

Just a quick note to all my non beer focused friends.
The government have announced a 'draft beer duty tax' cut, and some may assume I think this is a good thing. It is not. All the big breweries put their beer into 50l kegs, smaller independent brewers generally use 20 or 30l kegs, for various reasons. The tax cut is for kegs above 40l. This means it is a well designed tax break for the big boys, meaning they can then cut costs and further price out the smaller craft breweries. Yet the headlines will trick people into thinking the crooks in charge have done a good thing. They are just helping out their rich friends again, and have no interest in small business or the average drinker.
This is a further blow to small independent business. I sometimes don't know why I even f***ing bother.

Many - probably most - small independent UK brewers offer beer in a 9 gallon / 72 pint cask (a "firkin") pretty much as their standard offer to pubs, and have done so for several hundred years. I changed the barrel on one earlier this evening. 72 pints is more than 40 litres so qualifies. Oh and by the way, in the UK it is spelled "draught" not "draft".

 

[mjr]

The cycling fund they talk about it a fudge, it's basically the promised fund with a bit on top that they mentioned a few years ago but have done jack all with so far.
So the usual smoke and mirrors when it comes to active travel funding.

Where did you find that detail? The mirrors I found only look at other mirrors, not even smoke.

 

[HMS_Dave]

Where did you find that detail? The mirrors I found only look at other mirrors, not even smoke.

It is in the 200 page budget report. I'll save you the bother and copy and paste an extract.

"4.65 The government will invest over £5 billion in buses and cycling during this Parliament.
SR21 delivers a step change in investment, delivering the commitments in Bus Back Better and
Gear Change. This includes:
• over £3 billion of bus investment across the Parliament, including £1.2 billion new funding
for bus transformation deals to deliver London-style improvements in fares, services and
infrastructure. It also confirms a further £355 million of new funding for zero emission
buses, and an allocation of £70 million Zero Emission Bus funding to deliver buses and
related infrastructure in Warrington, Leicester, Milton Keynes, Kent, and Cambridgeshire
& Peterborough. This builds on significant zero emission and bus recovery funding, a
reformed Bus Service Operators Grant, and funding for new schemes through City Region
Settlements
• more than £2 billion of investment in cycling and walking over the Parliament, including
£710 million of new active travel funding at SR21. This funding will build hundreds of miles
of high quality, segregated cycle lanes, provide cycle training for every child and deliver an
e-bike support programme to make cycling more accessible."

I think perhaps the earlier report of £5bn local road and cycling fund is a misreport as im struggling to find mention of it in the budget report statement and is probably misinterpreted from this statement,

"Improving the quality of local transport links with:
•
an unprecedented investment package of £5.7 billion for eight English city regions to transform
local transport networks through London-style integrated settlements. This includes:
– £830 million to West Yorkshire for schemes such as the A61 improvements for buses, cyclists
and pedestrians between Leeds and Wakefield;
– £1 billion to Greater Manchester for schemes such as the next generation Metrolink tram-train
vehicles;
– £1 billion to the West Midlands for schemes such as completing the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill
metro extension and Sprint Phase 2;
– £710 million to Liverpool City Region for schemes such as battery power for new Merseyrail
trains to expand the reach of the existing network;
– £570 million to South Yorkshire for schemes such as starting the renewal of the Supertram;
– £310 million to the Tees Valley for schemes such as upgrading Middlesbrough and Darlington
stations and improving local rail links;
– £540 million to the West of England for schemes such as a fully prioritised bus route between
Bristol and Bath.
• investment in cycling, fulfilling the Prime Minister’s commitments to build hundreds of miles of
high-quality cycle lanes across England, provide bike training for every child, and a new e-bike
support programme."

 

[Jenkins]

Yes, he should! 🧐 Why are they making beer cheaper instead of more expensive i ask?!🤔 They're up to summat!!

It's the hope that a small decrease in price will result in an increase in consumption, therefore raising the tax take. Using the beer duty cut as an example, if the tax take per pint is 70p* then for every 100 pints sold the exchequer receives £70. But if the tax is cut to 67p per pint, the price drop may encourage more beer sales and you only need to sell an additional 5 pints for a higher overall tax take as 105 pints would result in £70.35 to the exchequer, plus another 7p VAT at 20%.

*Random figure picked as I've not got the actual duty tables to hand at the moment