Our money-man in Government is Mr Gordon Brown. Last weekend he made a slight cock-up with his adding up and told Government that our economy is growing at only 1.75%, and not the 3.5% he’d thought 8 months ago. He did, of course, blame a “tough year” and some other reasons, as this news item shows. I’m guessing his other reasons included, “bad vibes”, “people not buying stuff ‘cus they’re skint” and “not selling sh*t quick enough”.
So.. after a “hard year” you’d think he would go easy on us mere plebs who pay our income tax, council tax, blar-blar tax etc. Well… actually he did. He came up with a bright idea…
“What I’ll do is freeze petrol and diesel and road fuel gases duties for this full financial year at an Exchequer cost for the full year of 600m”
Which basically, to break that down into non-garbage-speak, means..
“I’m gonna take a huge hit and NOT increase tax on petrol and diesel. I’d cream an extra 600 million squid if I did, which would be great for filling that huge hole in the finances we’ve got right now, however you’ll probably vote me out if I do it ‘cus I’ve fecked up my sums with the Economy growth predictions already.”
So.. Hmm.. The Government still needs to grab some money back somehow – after all, they need cash for the hospitals etc.. So. What would be the best way ? Well, Gordon Brown basically decided to say this..
“What I’ll do is increase our charges on energy-producing companies to 20% from the 10% it is now. The oil companies in particular are raking it in – their profits are massive. Look at BP, they’re making about 12 billion quid a year man!”
Looking at it fairly roughly, it means that some oil companies could give the government an extra 400 million quid a year. Although the oil companies have no doubt got more than enough money washing around to pay for this, they’re greedy buggers and they do have to spend a lot on getting the oil in the first place.
Result ?
Well, the oil companies may pass on the cost to…. er…… us.
End result ?
Petrol prices rise, and you end up with the same as if Gordon Brown had increase fuel tax anyway!
Now THAT is how to be a politician! :)
Picture right from B3ta.com by “brianftang”