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The fastest u-turn yet? (around 15 hours)

June 26, 2012 3:03 pm

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This morning, Ed Balls wrote:

“The Government should be giving our economy a boost — not clobbering families, businesses and pensioners just at the wrong time. That’s why Labour is calling on the Chancellor to stop August’s fuel duty rise — at least until next January.”

This afternoon:

George Osborne has told MPs that the Treasury will stop the planned 3p rise in fuel duty planned for this autumn and freeze fuel duty for the rest of the year.

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  • AnotherOldBoy

    Post hoc, propter hoc?  Perhaps not.

  • Just_Another_Voter

    More likely that Balls got wind that Osborne was going to freeze this (Labour introduced) tax rise and started shouting about it all over the media.
    Not sure how it can be a U-turn if this govt didn’t actually bring in the proposed rise.

    • treborc

      But did not the Tories say they would be doing it, if you then state your not, that’s a U turn surely

  • Bill Lockhart

    Ed Balls campaigning against a duty rise announced in the 2010 Labour budget. Are there no depths to which this man will not sink?

    • LordElpus

       Er! . . . . . NO!

    • Samuel Rushworth

      What an idiotic thing to say. That manifesto was written two years ago when the economic facts were very different. Back then the economy was growing at an annualised 4.8% per year, unemployment was falling, our AAA credit rating was secure and borrowing was going down. The Tories reversed all that and put up VAT (which Labour would not have done). So naturally when the facts change so does the best policy solution.

  • Jules Wright

    Don’t be naive. Balls was obviously tipped off it was coming and made some opportunistic hay. You think anyone in the treasury listens so acutely to the siren voice of a man with so little credibility? Not in this universe.

  • Dave Postles

    Bonkers, anyway.  The price of petrol has been falling.  OPEC has indicated that it will not reduce production.  Tax revenues have fallen against the same time last year.  Expenditure is up against the same time last year.  Borrowing has accordingly increased.  Osborne should simply have waived it for diesel haulage, industry and agriculture, but raised the price of petrol at the pumps.

    • Bill Lockhart

       And to hell with anyone who lives in the countryside on agricultural wages.  They don’t vote Labour anyway.  Anyone who has a car is a toff.

      etc. etc. ad bloody nauseam.

      • Dave Postles

         You obviously don’t realize when a terrible mess Osborne has induced.  Not only should the excise duty be raised, but means testing should be introduced for the benefits enjoyed by pensioners.  The position is dire – thanks to Osborne.  Both of those increases will affect me, but it’s now a case of needs must.

        • Bill Lockhart

           Bullshit. The economy was already tanking when Labour handed over, without a Euro crisis to exacerbate it.  “There’s no money left”. The ridiculous Euro project fulfiliing its destiny by going tits up to the pained disbelief of the Euromanic Left simply adds to the problems left behind by Brown and his pay-never economic soufflé. “Borrow shedloads in bad times, borrow even more in good times, the grandkids can pay when we’re dead” plays well at union conferences and PFI seminars, but it’s the rest of us who are suffering as a result.

          • Dave Postles

             Bullshit yourself.  This financial year to date: tax revenues are down; expenditure is up; the current account deficit is rising; borrowing is increasing.

          • Bill Lockhart

            Correct. How’s the rest of the Western world doing? Those beacons of borrow-and-spend, Greece, Italy, Spain- how’s growth going for them? How’s unemployment doing in the USA?
            Your parochialism is laughable.

        • jaime taurosangastre candelas

          I fully agree on the means testing, and also the exactly comparable argument for regional values for benefits.  A recipient in rural Lancashire is not faced with the same costs as a recipient in London.

      • Dave Postles

        ‘They don’t vote Labour anyway.’
        Neither do I, FWIW. 

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