I wish we pensioners on small fixed incomes could help ourselves to expenses like that lot in Parliament. Getting rid of the 10% tax band has cost many women dearly, those who do a few hours part time. I really do not think any of them understand how the ordinary woman/man in the street actually balances their books - how can they when they can help themselves to huge TAX FREE benefits and yet everything that we get is taxed to the hilt.NONE of them are worth voting for. Look at the Wintertons, MP's for Congleton and Cheshire!!!!

Mo Bednal, Congleton, Cheshire

Council tax to rise by an average of 3.9%. Haven't got my bill yet but have spoken to my parents and their's has gone up by about 10%, not to mention they'll fall fowl of the 10% on income being removed. As usual it is a budget that taxes the lower income people more and more.

Roll on the next elections.

Cameron, Boston, Lincs

What can be said about a schizophrenic PUPPET government which has given the Country away to the EU and is then happy to allow Brussels,Scotland,Wales and Northern Ireland to govern England(there is still such a place)and any other minority with loud voice. It takes millions in so called "green" tax to save the planet from pollution but is happy to see more airports Now without proper jobs MP's want more money for meddling with our lives.

Doug, Gosport,

Ha ha ha. Plastic bag tax. Ha ha ha. Oh I'm sorry, this isn't jim Hacker is it.

Keith, France,

You voted for them with "things can only get better", now reap the rewards-
My budget - 50p on a packet of fags, 20% reduction in benefits for anyone who has been on benefits for more than 6 months - sorted.

Phil, Northallerton, UK

lets face it old great britain is in the mire and they will not admit it,we are not daft it is just that if we protest to strongly we will be arrested just l;ike soviet times, with all the benefits they pay to recent arrivals it is only a matter of time before the plug is pulled and a new goverment steps in to get all the blame as usuall,long live labour so they can reap the blame they deserve for spoiling a bouyant economy in the late 1990s

d g kenna, old coulsdon, surrey

An average rise of 3.9% for Council Tax in 2008/09. Fat chance. I live in the North Kesteven District Council area and my forthcoming bill shows a 11.35% rise over 2007/08... up from £1129pa to £1258pa.

All due to this inept Government's failure to fund the Lincolnshire Police allocation properly... and they wonder why they are losing votes. This is one voter who will never, ever vote Labour again.

Geoff, Lincoln, UK

Watch my lips! 'VOTE THEM OUT'

Andrew Lamont, Barcombe, East Sussex

And silly me thought that Labour had said they would increase Inheritance allowance to around £650k when the Tories did their bit about £1million..........
Maybe I was in with the Mad Hatters tea party..............oh no I was just living a bog standard life in England where I pay more for things in this UNITED KINGDOM than others who live in Scotland and Wales........
Roll on the Election then we can get rid of this load of incompetents who have no experience of running a business let alone OUR economy........

Peter, Birmingham,

When will the electorate realise tha the so-called increases in spending on education, poverty etc. actually get eaten up by more quangos, agencies, committees and inspectorates, leaving very little to reach the end of the line! If most of the non-productive (and in many cases, counterproductive) bodies were axed, the deficit would have a big hole knocked in it!

Whenever Labour (old or new) gets into power, the number of local government, national government & quasi-government bodies & employees goes through the roof, This leaves comparatively few productive workers to pay the costs and the wages of the non-productive workers, many of whom are in 'non-jobs' such as 'facilitators', whatever that is.

If Labour are elected again, they will totally ruin this country's economy, tradition & position in the world. Please - learn the lesson - GET THEM OUT!

Patrick Harries, Stalbridge, Dorset

how much is given to the royal family? is it part of this budget? i would like to know

AA, London,

As usual, this shambles of a government continue to stealth tax the average hard-working person to the eyeballs and feed us with constant untruths while the minorities and super rich enjoy special treatment.

Why?

Simply because they can and we do nothing about it.

Shame on you all that voted these conmen in to power and roll-on the next election

Dean Carpenter, Brentwood, Essex

Why do disabled people, using motability vehicles, not get an additional allowance for fuel costs. A lot of us can only afford to go out once or twice a week, and are becoming more and more isolated. In the last 12 months I have only been able to drive my car for 1800 miles including a holiday.

K Hunt, Scunthorpe,

Dear Jane Notts
I'm not sure if the grass is greener on the other side, but it is still poss to buy a house in France (Mayenne region) for Euros 80,000 and for two hundred quid one can purchase enough good tapes to master the language quite well.
I'm a single parent and my rent and coucnil tax exceeds £7,400 p.a. Life is a grind and I'm planning to go.
Worth a thought cos life for those at the bottom is pretty poor here.

jane, oxfordshire, uk

There has NEVER been an increase in the £3600 gross pension contribution limit for the unwaged - including many full time carers.Chancellor Brown seemed determined to allow this small incentive to the poor to wither away until it became worthless, while encouraging high earners to avoid tax altogether on personal pensions of over £1.5 million. I suppose it would have been unreasonable to have expected Chancellor Darling not to share the now Prime Minister's bizarre sense of social justice.

Paul, London, England

Just as I expected - no tax increase on false eyebrows.

R Bowden, London,

Why not organize a MOTORISTS FIGHT BACK day, say once a month.
Go to the petrol station, put £40 worth of fuel in your tank and give the attendant a £10 note and your name and address so that Customs and Excise can come and pick up the remainder!!
They'll probably put all our details on a disc and lose it!!

Mike Durham, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Maths Quiz

If the Chancellor increases the price of cider by 3p a litre, how many more mobile phones do you need to steal each year to continue binge drinking?

Paul, Singapore,

If we were in the euro, we wouldn't have this mess.
We would have low interest rates, and low inflation and the government would be obliged to keep its house in order.

So when are we going to join the euro zone and start to share the success of the euro in England?

Peter Goddard, Epsom, England, EU

Can't wait to finally retire to Italy at last. This means it will be this year! Just wish he would restore the euro exchange rate, or better still adopt the euro so that last uncertainty is removed. What a labour legacy - driving us all abroad!!

Ian Catmull, Welwyn, UK

I agree with Nicholas above as I am in a similar position. We are moving the bulk of our information and IT business down to New Zealand, where there is zero CGT, and leaving a skeleton office here. There is no way I am paying this duplicitous government an additional 80% tax when I sell up after paying a lifetime of heavy taxes.

Chris B, London,

can't afford to drink, smoke,drive or go out so why should anyone want to live to 80 to get an extra alowance on heating. give decent pensions to all and then maybe we will enjoy our retirement.

joyce browning, Ashford,

33 years spent running a business and looking forward to selling up to retire. When 18% CGT was proposed, I started to re-plan but hoped someone in the Chancellor's office would see the sense of a sensible threshold before the 18%. Over the past 12 years my company has downsized our "manufacturing" in favour of importing from China, etc. We had to, our competitors were doing the same. We can land finished goods in the UK for a little over the price of the UK raw material cost.
My re-plan, now to be put in to action, is to move my family and business abroad leaving two salesmen and warehouse. We already export 20%. Using IT everthing done from abroad. 23 UK jobs will be lost. My son emigrated seven years ago and can't understand why I have waited so long.
This looks like rats leaving a sinking ship but then we didn't open the ships scuttling valve and burn the lifeboats!

Nicholas, Milton Keynes, UK

i see pensionioners no rise again have to try and live on small pensions wwhile evrything else increases what a budget all for the rijch as usual

Gordon, Llandudno, conwy

Well as expected, The pensioner gets an extra £50 for the fuel bill. This was so unexpected. Gives us a couple of litres of oil to last a day longer. Not many have gas in my neck of the woods. Pensioners are in dia-trouble the cost of living is screaming ahead of pensions. I for one was robbed by pension companies and now left to collect a national pension and a few benefits. Every penny to us and thousands of others is so very important. Pensioner are near the poverty line and many are even getting into finantial trouble. Why again is the pensioner forgotten. Its so frustrating seeing so much government money spent to get votes and raging wars costing billions.

Roger Letts, Blakeney, Norfolk

I have been running a village store for 35 years and we are trying to sell it to retire. Our plans were based around the graduated scale but now at 18% accross the board we may have to rethink retiring. Surely after dedicating so much of our lives to being a service to rhe community we shouldn't have to pay the same as someone selling at a high profit after a very short time

Roger Gauler, Beddgelert, Gwynedd

Am I the only pensioner who would like to know what the increase, however small, is going to be on the basic pension? It is never thought to be worth a mention by the media.

Jennie, bath,

It is not only single childless people who have to suffer but also childless couples. My husband was made redundant 2 years ago and has been struggling in vain to get a business off the ground ever since (he has tried to get another job but he is 50 and this seems impossible). We have an old Landrover which we use once or twice a week to shop (at Lidl) and visit relatives who live nearby whilst others in their "more efficient" vehicles are up and down the motorway every day. I am unable to pay all our bills on my meagre salary - and we don't have credit cards or huge loans. We feel well and truly ground down and soon we will be forced to sell our house of 12 years.

Jane, Nottingham,

Just a couple of observations

a) its not his ! - its ours and anything he spends comes from you and me. So we ain't got it - he can't spend it ...
b) I thought that the 'plan' was to save a bit in the good times to see us through the bad times. Now this feels a bit like bad times so shouldn't he have reserves built up during the good times to soften the crunch and get away from boom and bust cycles - or was that just another initiative not carried through?

Tony , Cardiff,

Roll on the next election and we can finally put this not so new labour behind us...

Rick, Chesterfield, UK

Same old, same old...

What makes me laugh is that this bunch of parasites we call the government are more interested in appeasing the super wealthy than they are the average Joe! I heard thet following statistic being quoted on the radio this afternoon;

The super wealth pay on average,1% income tax per year..!

How is this fair??

It appears that this government would rather appease these people rather than the people who pay their wages! My wife and I are currently looking in to leaving this god forsaken place permanently; mind you we’d probably get taxed for doing so….

I would make two additional points;

1. How can we take Darling seriously? The man has no presence!
2. How can a man who has never been elected in to post be taken seriously as PM?


Rant over now tax me some more and get me a flight out of here!

Matt, Sheffield,

Once again, as always, nothing in the budget for hard working childless people. (except higher costs, that is). Why do all parties deny the existence of single people?

Mike , Soham, Cambs,

Why did he not reduce the fuel tax and road tax as this increase will push up the cost of living - another stealth tax ??
Mr Darling why not just take all our salaries and give us an allowance - non taxable of course!!

Tony, Slough, Berkshire

This government is a shambles. Nothiing improves, too much immigration taking resources from our own. It is always teh middles class families who get taxed more and more each year because they pay for things twice. Fininacia markets are not giving true facts to avoid panic. Sack him and Gordon asap before recssion deepens.

Ellie, croydon, Surrey

More millionaires! That's great raise the minimum wage to a milliona year job done. High salaries are not the problems it is the percieved lack of hard work for that salary that most people object to.

john, london,

Did not explain why the British government now holds £100 bln worth of mortgage debt on its books!!!

Costas, Cyprus,

Golden Brown is a coward and does not display any pro activeness at all.
All his actions, since he has become a prime minister, were targeted to cover an embarrassment and his & his government incompetence. And we are paying for it!!!
We want TO ELECT a prime minister as well as to have a PROMISED referendum.

S, Liverpool, Merseyside

Im definately no fan of Nu-Labour, Ive just watched the rude antics of our so-called education Minister on tv, no wonder children have no manners if thats your example.
Two good points Ive read here, yes Michael I agree, petrol receipts should show tax paid like in the Us, so we can see how much the Govt pockets, and I agree to that stealth or in-direct taxes are better, that way we pay proportionately, I believe its BNP policy to do away altogether with Income tax and replace it with a higher rate of vat-then no-one can evade tax.

steve, coventry, uk

Good - he should put up cigarrettes by £5 a packet not just a measly 11p

Lesley, Peterborough,

If we are worried about pollution, why not to introduce GOOD public transport, take tracks of the road & use trains, and instead of paying EU farmers & fly everything in, scrap it and grow most of veg & fruit in UK. Imaging how much money could be saved on a long run? Plus new local jobs…
If government introduces road prices I bet small businesses will be out of business straight away together with many local jobs. What are they thinking about? Are they punishing their own people?

S, Liverpool, Merseyside

UK debt is now 36.6 per cent of GDP??? What about the accumulative net interest of that 36.6 per debt? or is it interest free public debt?????

Who is paying the interest for the MONEY loaned to NORTHERN ROCK??????

Expect, Chicken Tikka Masala not to be taxed in next Budget!!!

Good LUCK Brits!!!

Uma Shankar, UK,

"New measures at Heathrow and other airports to increase the use of biometric technology to speed up air travel".

What exactly does trashing our civil rights have to do with the economy? Did Gordon forget which hat he was supposed to be wearing when dictating his five year plan for the soviet, sorry "budget", to Darling? Or did Darling inadvertently scribble down the orders for another member of the Politbureau?

John, Edinburgh, UK

How much good could be done with the billions of pounds being spent on two wars that the British public never supported in the first place?

white, Toronto, Canada

"New measures at Heathrow and other airports to increase the use of biometric technology to speed up air travel. "

Of course this has nothing to do with the governments intention to introduce compulsory biometric ID cards.

R Bingham, Lauzun, France

Why this view that it is always pensioners who are most hit by the high cost of domestic fuel? We dole out an annual payment [now increased to £400 for over-80s] regardless of individual income, when it is usually families on middle income who struggle. I've 4 children and just had a £400 winter quarter gas and electric bill courtesy of EON. Yes there are a lot of poor pensioners who struggle with the cold and have trouble paying their bills, but there are also quite a lot who are doing very nicely thank you and don't need this subsidy

Richard, Bexhill, UK

corporation tax for small businesses should have been reduced especially if invested in the followin year,

David McClaren, Northampton, United Kingdom

Sustainable - an academic pipedream that will be expensive, unpopular and fail badly. As always.

Regeneration - read as for sustainable above.

Climate change measure - a good excuse to generate more tax income.

Green measure - same as climate change above.

Carbon footprint - oh dear! How can you believe people who say that your carbon footprint will be worse if you travel in a half empty car rather than a full one?

Net effect of above - lovely money for the Government to waste on half baked projects and daily initiatives

Bryan, Deal, England

Same old lacklustre drivel - booze, fags, cars - easy targets. More on child benefits, the usual vote catcher - have more kids - that's good for an overpopulated country. Nothing for pensioners, of course, except for a miserable 50 quid on heating. As predicted, things green are increasingly being used as excuse for soaking the public. No mention of value for money, no mention of streamlining the civil service. More public debt and borrowing, and jolly good Northern Rock.
It's enough to make anyone despair - where's the vision for the future? And they want us to swear an oath of allegiance!

Dwight Vandryver, Scholar Green, Cheshire, UK

The labour Government constantly ignoring the pleas of the electorate to revise unfairness of the stamp duty limits alone should be reason to bring in a colour change at Downing Street from Red to Blue....

mind you - this Government has already proved it ignores the decision of the electorate when thousands took to the streets protesting about the Iraq war.

And 4p on beer and 14p on wine won't affect teenagers pockets - the media frenzy aimed at stopping the binge drinking culture through taxation has merely resulted in a seemingly more acceptable opportunity for the Governemnt to cream more cash from the pockets of us all - an already worse off with the ever increasing fuel and grocery prices - under the guise of doing good !!

Matt, London, UK

"Because of the actions we took last year with Northern Rock we have maintained confidence and stability in the banking system"

What? it was, Mr. Darling, and continues to be, one of the many huge cock-ups this incompetent government has made. The bare-faced cheek of this government beggars belief.

tommo_111, Redhill,

So the new £250 winter fuel payment is to be reduced back to £200 in what is highly likely to be an election year. Has Gordon Brown written off the over 60's vote? Interesting!

DavidT, Biggar, UK

Don't forget that the "Duty" on petrol is subjet to VAT at 17.5% as well, an unbelivable tax on a tax !!!

Gordon, Hockley,

I am waiting for the next election so my wife and I can vote CONSERVATIVE!

Mark , Maidstone, UK

When are they going to tax me for breathing air?

(plz don't say when BNP gets elected. :-I)

Think it's impossible?

The phrase 'daylight robbery' comes from when William III (1690s) used to tax homes for Installing additional windows. It was known as the 'Window Tax'. Look out for houses with bricked up windows where people tried to avoid paying. The People were robbed of their daylight/air by the Window Tax.

Think again.

Mohammed, London, UK

Help for small and medium size businesses doesn't seem quite consistent with a threat to increase fuel tax and charge for driving anywhere! Many business depend upon mobility.

John, Colchester,

The section ref. globing warming is what I have always believed i.e. not man caused. The taxes raised under guise of green polices in my opinion are to fill the trillion £ black hole in the public sector golden pensions.

Terry Pearson, Greater Manchester, Cheshire

A perfect example of a YES man. The type of politician who when told to jump, says ".....how high PM?" He came across as a YES man when I was a member of the Labour Party and I haven't changed my mind since leaving in 2003.

Expect anything today and don't be surprised !!!

Ian Payne, WALSALL,

The 2 pence rise per litre would have been inserted in the budget proposals last year when petrol was 93 pence per litre not the current 105.

Given duty is around 80% of fuel price the Chancellor has already had his 2 pence rise four times over.

On these figures there should be a reduction in duty not a deferral of another rise!

Kevin Thompson, Reading, UK

If the problem was CO2 I would be the first in line, however, independent scientists in charge of the huge telescopes that can measure the temperature on the suface of the other planets in the solar syaytenm confirm the problem comes from the sun. The SUN not Co2 as revealed in ice the core samples is the problem. The Sun pulses in and out but on top of that phenomena is the fact that for the last hundred years this huge furnace in the heavens has been heating up. CO2 is an excuse for extra taxes loaded onto the middle class who the gvmt are out to destroy. The assault on the Pension funds sinalled that. Bottom Brown (His city name when he sold half our gold at near one quarter todays prices against Bof E advice) destroyed a £100billion pound pension industry supported by the middle class. He paid £150 billions over 13 yrs to the EU. EU auditors wont sign off the books as 95% is unnacounted for/missing. Co2 is nonsense & for tax.
see web site (no www)- freecheapfuel.toamazing.com

Jas, Alders, UK

The delayed rise in fuel costs will not stop profiteering fuel vendors from charging exactly what they like. There is a petrol station (owned by a major Company) In Bucks Horn Oak, in-between Aldershot and Bordon which is currently selling Diesel at 118.9p per litre: a staggering £5.65 a gallon. Can this not be considered a touch exuberant?

Sean Hughes, Portsmouth,

Tax on fuel is already massive. Instead of taxing the end user who often has no alternative but to use their cars to get to work etc, the Chancellor should tax new vehicles sold. Vehicles that pollute the most should be taxed more, making them less affordable and, therefore, giving car manufacturers more of an incentive to speed up the production of greener, less polluting vehicles.

Nick, London, UK

When you filled your tank up the receipt should give details of the amount of tax paid i.e. petrol £10 + Tax £30 = you pay £40 this would enforce how governments are fleecing the motorist. Its no wonder food as become more expensive to fill the HGV that’s transports it to the shop with diesel is costing thousands of pounds. Nu labour is hitting the working person yet again.

Michael, Sheffield,

We have a government that is too big and tries to do too much and is consequently costing us all far too much : As Ronald Reagan said ...

"The government can't solve the problem, the government IS the problem !"

Pedro, Stratford,

It is becoming ever more clear to me that the reason that some taxes are called 'green' is because of their association with 'envy'.

Figurewizard, Petersfield, UK

So-called green taxes cannot be said to be "green", unless they are channelled towards environmental benefits. This government's priority is is to raise as much tax revenue as possible to pay for Brown's borrowing and for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His pigeons are all coming home to roost!

David, Edinburgh,

Badly thought through idea number 6, 7 or is it 8? Another enforced U turn. The word Jokers comes to mind.

James, Blackpool,

The so called green taxes are a smokescreen for raising taxes as there are no corresponding reductions: do the politicians treat us all as fools?

William, Sevenoaks, England

I got worried for a moment. I thought the headline said "cancelled", but its actually a delay. So I can look forward to paying even more taxes in the near future.

Hamad Lone, London, England

Tax will have to be raised at some point to help pay for the budget defecit. I am all for an increase in indirect taxes as this pulls in people from outside the tax system.

Peter Johnson, High Wycombe, England

"The real cost of motoring has fallen under Labour"

What planet is she on?

Dean, Southampton, England

He should be cutting the tax by 2p - he has made a fortune by the increase in oil price

john, clevedon,

2p more on fuel and more inflation followed by higher not lower interest rates results total economic disaster in the UK.

Its time the idiotic green gang learnt to live in the real world evan if we in the UK never flew on planes,drove only electric powered cars,never burnt any fossel fuel or breath air it would not make a dent on so called global warming, because the largest polluting countries in the world refuse to reduce their greenhouse gases so the perfectly green UK would still go down the pan along with everyone else on the planet.

Time to get real and relalise giving politicians excuses to higher taxation is like giving a donkey strawberries,he can never get enough.

Dave, Mold, Flintshire

Well, Mr Huton wants to celebrate the high salary. Yet, likes people who can work below the minimum wages. A huge cry in political and media circles if doctors get six figure pay, yet seven figure pay will be celebrated. what a hypocrisy

raveendran, Potters Bar,

Thank goodness for that! Fuel tax is already high enough.

James, London,

Apply the 2p or not apply the 2p, that is the question, he should not be dithering at this late stage, Chancellor or chancer. He would be out of his depth in a puddle.

Michael Shaw, Languidic, France

Its funny how every recent article i have read that mentions the word 'green' leaves me 'red' with anger and ever more 'blue' or 'yellow' with my views.

Grant, london,

Not green then are they?

Ubi, Edinburgh, UK

So does he really think that oil prices will be lower in October, or that the pound will be any stronger? How else does he expect petrol prices to have come down by then to make the 2p increase in fuel duty any more acceptable?

Darling knows that the real rate of inflation experienced by most people in this country is far, far higher than the specially massaged CPI figure and he is running scared of anything which will push that real rate of inflation up even further.

Paul, Coventry,

What about Tata cars in Indra!
A car for evrryone under $1000.
I bet they are Green!!!
What about the Smog in Beiging?
it is so stupid to tax us for other country's Failures!!

David, Dunstable, UK

It`s six of one and half a dozen of the other ie half the commentators are telling Alistair Darling to be bold and half are telling him to be dull. I await with great anticipation ; all will be revealed tomorrow.

Jo Sullivan, Liverpool, Merseyside

I read in an article in Private Eye that the government was unaware how much tax was being avoided by large companies and yet they continue to tax the easiest target... You & Me.

Is'nt our government a bit like the water companies who put up their prices rather than fixing the leaking pipes??? The non dom fiasco is a classic example of playing to the gallery.

More efficient tax collection would cover any spending gaps!!!

Jamesg, Shanghai, China

The increasing costs will have the same effect of increasing efficiency of use as the tax would have so that is that.

Wes Byrd, Iowa City, Iowa USA