Brown's UK Budget is £1.5 Billion Gift to Elderly

The last budget before the general election widely expected to fall on May 5 was a gift from Chancellor Gordon Brown to Britain's seniors. Old folks can expect a £200 rebate on their council tax (local government), free local bus travel, and another hand out to cover winter fuel bills for £200, with the over-80s getting £300. This is how one wins elections when younger voters stay home.

Tory leader Michael Howard complained, "The simple fact is that if Labour get in again, taxes go up again. This Budget is not about what's good for our country. It's all about the interests of the Labour Party." The Right Honourable has part of it right. Mr. Brown put taxes up on beer by a penny a pint, a glass of wine by four pence, and a packet of ciggies are 7p more expensive now. But, really, this isn't a crushing blow to Britons. Indeed, Mr. Brown raised the threshold for the inheritance tax to kick in. And he's paying for a lot of this by revising the North Sea oil taxes to get the money in sooner.

The over-arching guide Mr. Brown has used to such good effect is to keep spending in balance over the course of the economic cycle. He's got some cash to play with because Britain's economy is growing at 3.1%, and things are not structurally our of balance as they are in tax-cut crazed America. Indeed, The Times notes that the 50 consecutive quarters of growth in Britain under Mr. Brown's Treasury is the country's longest run since 1701, the last year of William III's reign. And one wonders about the validity and accuracy of economic statistics gathered three hundred years ago.

MORI, the British pollster, noted in the 2001 election that the elderly were the last bunch Labour had to win over. There are twice as many pensioners as there are 18-24 year olds in Britain, and the youth vote there is as ephemeral as it is in the US. In fact, pensioners are twice as likely to vote as the youngest eligible voters -- twice as many twice as likely explains Mr. Brown's "grey tactics."

Mr. Brown, of course, wants very much to win this next election. Mr. Blair has promised to quit as PM after a year or so of the next parliamentary term, and Mr. Brown will get the top job, barring some strange twist of fate. With the Tories catching up to within a couple of percentage points in the latest polls, this extra cushion might be welcome.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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