Budget 2010 – some reaction

A series of articles giving a trade union reaction to yesterday’s Budget over at ToUChstone and some politics from Hopi Sen. Prospect members can also download a summary of the highlights here.

And some cider reaction over at Liberal Conspiracy – and a petition, too, of course. Not, methinks, a move guaranteed to win much support from the more hirsute members of the labour movement – but then, I can’t recall Alistair Darling ever had a time as a beard wearer within the Labour Party, as the reference in this story seems to prove…

Budget Day 2010

ToUChstone, the TUC’s policy blog, has linked up with Left Foot Forward, Labour List and Liberal Conspiracy in the Progressives Liveblog of this afternoon’s Budget speech.

Click on the link on the right and join ToUChstone for commentary and debate on the Budget from 12 noon today, for coverage of Prime Minister’s questions, and then straight through into the Budget.

Meanwhile, the TUC’s pre-Budget statement calls for:

a Budget for growth, jobs and a better balanced economy that moves away from sucking up to the finance sector and instead invests in productive industries and green jobs,

The statement also calls for honesty in the continuing debate about public services and for politicians to spell out what they mean rather than hiding behind smokescreens and euphemisms.

As far as pensions are concerned, a debate which focuses on the facts rather than the myths would also be helpful.