Beer duty escalator scrapped AND a penny a pint off beer duty.

I take back everything I ever said about Gideon.

That should save me 6p a week - I'm a responsible drinker - not much else I can see yet

I bet he looked after his rich friends too seeing as he'll need to get a job off one of them soon.

I love all this 'we have inherited this debt from a wreckless labour government' followed a few minutes later by 'don't blame us, its a global problem'

Make your mind up Gideon

He doesn't have a brain, let alone a mind.

He does have arrogance, though.

Which, combined with his lack of a brain, would explain why he chose the day before budget that was bound, once again, to reveal his failure by the measures he set himself, to open a Twitter account.

working in the public sector and with the pat freezes etc i will have had wage rises of 3% in the five years of this government with inflation running at 2.5 % to 3 % per year over the same five years i will have had a a 9 to 12% cut in income during the five years of the government.

No wonder i am not spending any money to get the economy moving

Well by opening a twitter account he walked right into this from Ed M

"Growth down, borrowing up, families hit, and millionaires laughing all the way to the bank #downgradedchancellor"

He doesn't seem to get it that paying people less means there is less money to spend. Drive wages ever downward and tax receipts are lower as well. So pay freezes and workfare undermining the minimum wage etc do nothing to fix the problem of low growth.

He says the budget is fiscally neutral so he [umust[/u be robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The devil will be in the detail as to who is losing out to fund the cuts in corporation tax, the increase in personal allowance (that obviously doesn't benefit those out of work or already earning less then the threshold) and the other headline grabbing things (like beer duty) that ultimately won't do a thing to promote growth.

At least you are getting something.

Do you seriously expect that you'll walk into the pub on Sunday and find the price of a pint has gone down?

He may yet have another hangover from theis budget announcement: it's reckoned that EU regulations mean he'll have to treat wine in a similar manner to beer

I reckon he [udoes[/u get it but simply isn't bothered by it because his main aim is reduce the size of the state ... and if it's ordinary people who suffer for it, all the better to manipulate them with the fear of redundancy.

But his weakness is his arrogance ... eventually people will see through the veil of divisive rhetoric about strivers and scroungers.
Eventually people will see that he is looking after those who created the crisis.