I watched with interest the recent Budget. Despite the current global economic doom and gloom there were many positive actions taken and some good news.

The Budget included that we should be out of recession this year, with growth predicted for 2010. There will be a massive increase in tax-free savings allowance, with ISA limits going up from £7,200 to £10,200. The biggest single investment is in fighting unemployment. Job Centres will get an extra £1.7 billion. Every under 25-year-old will be guaranteed a job or training, if out of work for 12 months. There will also be an extra 54,000 places at school or college for 16 and 17-year-olds. Only those on a very, very high income will pay more tax. Those on low incomes will be better off. The state pension will rise by 2.5 per cent, irrespective of inflation. Child tax credits will go up by £20. Grandparents who look after their grandchildren will now qualify for state pension credits. Anyone who scraps a ten-year-old car will get £2,000 towards the cost of a new one. This will help low earners, the car industry and the environment at one stroke.

There is also to be massive investment in renewable fuels, as well as £1 billion extra to combat climate change and help us cut emissions by 34 per cent in the next ten years.

However, as soon as these announcements were made the typical Conservative attacks began. This is because Labour are trying to help during the global economic crisis and the Conservatives want to do nothing and talk the British economy down.

This is because the longer we have a recession and ordinary people suffer, the more it helps the Conservatives in the polls.

Coun James Alexander
Prospective Labour Parliamentary candidate for York Outer, Holgate Road, York.



• We have just seen our Chancellor deliver the worst Budget in history by trying to con the public by announcing enormous sums of money for projects that are totally irrelevant, to kick-start the economy.

It has been proven in the past that you build your way out of a recession, and not spend your way out of it.

The Chancellor has tried to con people by announcing he will give £500 million to start building housing projects. Included in this figure is a sum of £100 million to build energy-efficient homes.

Taken in context, this equates to that if an energy-efficient home cost £100,000 to build, with his none-too-generous donation we can build 1,000 homes nationwide; hardly enough to solve the country’s housing problem.

With the remaining £400 million, if the figures are true, that the alteration at Clifton Green for the cycle lane cost £500,000, then he can have 800 such alterations nationwide.

He has tried to con the public by speaking about sums of money that we can only dream about, but like his predecessor he tries to fool people by using smoke and mirrors.

TJ Ryder, North Lane, Dringhouses, York.