UK Budget

Just recently the new coalition government announced their emergency amended budget to tackle UK's growing deficit. There has been a mix reaction in the UK in the sense that it will be tough but it is fair with with VAT been raised to 20%, personal income tax to be increased & much of lower income benefits to be further cut as well as the public sector to be cut by 25%. The many executives in the city seem to welcome this news with a drop in Corporation Tax, to be the lowest in Europe as what I gathered from my brother in law who is a tax consultant at PWC.

In first instance it appears that there will be great hardship for a lot of the low single income earners especially for single mothers since child benefit is to be scraped. At the same time, the idea of dropping corporation tax will attract business growth particularly these multi-nationals in the finance sector! Similarly this will compensate many companies for the drop for local demand since the UK will be saving & spending less. Overall yield for operational income for business's may increase slightly which is theory should mean that employment should increase?

Yes employment should increase in theory but with the advent of technology as well as the cheap outsourcing that takes its roots in early conservative traditions of privatisation, & Individual greed from upper managers, I hardly think we will live through a period of job security. In fact this will probably create a culture of short term-ism in the workforce?

According to the New Economic Foundation, there is a pamphlet from Keynes from the 1920's 0r 30's which has scribbles of ‘bankruptcy’ and ‘insanity’ as written by officials of HM Treasury department as the idea in those days was for society to save their money in banks in order for the banking system to lend out. Problem is as what an article pointed out on NEF which I tend to agree is that there are hardly any banks left and that there is hardly any infrastructure for "lending" to corporations who would wish to raise capital for their business interest. True the crisis started with the banks & it will end with the banks but surely a government must create a responsible moral enterprising banking system in order to get the economy working again?

Tabula Rasa Banking - Break it up & build it again.

Overall its an interesting budget and we certainly do live in interesting times and as someone who is a straight edge skateboarder (ohh labels labels!!) I found it ridiculous that taxes on alcohol & spirits did not go up?? I thought part of addressing Cameron's Broken Britain would be to tackle some of UK's fundamental social problems? Not that we should go down to the hardcore Cromwellian approach but rather discouraging a simple social problem that is understood especially in the North.

and lets not mention BP.

Bless up!

Like two lovers looking at each others deep eyes one night realising that we would be apart for weeks months. However we were both content for the fact that we still had each other. Yes it was a rather emotional day yesterday at Heathrow Airport yesterday afternoon as Amus had to go back to Hong Kong. She had come to Europe for a few weeks where we went to Paris & spent a few days train hopping around Belgium. We had both discovered that Antwerp was probably one of our favorite livable cities in Western Europe. Its so chilled out and so accessible to other cities like Amsterdam & Brussels. But last yesterday I only wished to be aboard a Flight bound for Hong Kong! Later in the afternoon after coming back home knowing that I had just had 3 hours sleep, I managed to have a lazy skate around Southbank.

Defiantly Congo's Numero un!



Yeah! Just got to love this! There has been a lot of articles & documentaries on Africa in the last past few months mainly in light of the current football world cup. It is interesting to see where this continent, so rich with culture & resources so raped by previous colonial powers will head in the future. With currently 1 million Chinese citizens in Africa who are in great eager to mine rich resources for their construction & manufacturing back in their mother land, this would unusually be an unnatural disposition for communist China to be labeled the new colonial masters of Africa? Nevertheless, from what i read, Africa does not seek pity for its past but rather respect & fair treatment that it should received rather than food aids which are so easily given in the past from West. Still there are many problems from Aids, hunger, piracy, child soldiers, illegal mining concessions & a few unstable government regimes that I feel need to be addressed. Football won't merely resolve this.

Its nearly 4.00am & I need to wake up fairly early. Amus & I will be off to see a close friend of ours in Hertfordshire in the early evening after a round of roaming around Shoreditch/Hoxton/Whitechapel, gallery & shop hoping. a very Saturday affair, but no skateboarding this weekend.
Bless up!

holidays

Gosh so much has happened over the last few weeks. Mainly my exams and work!
I will be back to Paris & a short visit to Belgium with Amus! Nice! BTW I know I should be more concerned with what happen in Gaza & the BP crisis but I found the story with regards to the graffiti train to be funny! ha ha. Never mine, that's Singapore for you.

Bless Up!