A Darling Budget?

As you may have been expecting, I obviously have felt the need to update with regards to budget set out by Alistair Darling. To be completely honest, I havnt actually read too much into it, for the economic side of politics (despite being important) is just not as interesting as many other topics. Anyway, I know enough to write with regards to a few problems the new budget gives to the people of Britain.

One of these proposals (which might concern us, the youth) is the potential "Cider Duty Hike" which Darling is proposing. His idea is that the duty should raise a further 2% to an overall 5%. This means to us that we will have to pay roughly an extra 20p for a pint of cider, making it around £3 a pint. What I dont understand is how this will benefit the people of Britain, I mean, what is his overall plan of the scheme? To cut binge drinkers? To shut down the beloved British pubs? No, its to 'help the economy' although in reality this will only deter drinkers from pubs. Like I had learnt in geography many times, this will have a snowball effect on the economy. By this I mean...

Higher price of cider ---> Less people going to pubs ---> Pubs being forced to close down (as if there isnt enough closing already) ---> Increase in taxpayers money funding bankrupt pub owners ---> Overall fail. It seems as if Darling is not only trying to destroy the economy, but destroy Britain and its culture all together. In fact this budget can only be seen as a death sentence for British culture.

Ha, just as I was about to end this I have seen that a UKIP poster I printed off is still here in the English Workroom and it has 'racially' written under it. Hmm I wonder what that means? Actually, I have something else to mention now. Last week I asked about putting up political posters around the college to bring awareness about the need for change, ie UKIP. Apparently however you are not allowed to post anything 'political or religious' as it may cause offence, and when asked what party I would be campaigning for I got greeted with a 'well you definitly cant, that would offend a lot of people'. Who exactly would it offend? I suppose this was just a naive view of right wing politics that labels anything anti immigration as 'racist'. But surely everyone in the college is a legal citizen and allowed to be in this country, so they wouldnt be effected? Getting to the point, I therefore decided to email the 'Equality and Diversity Co-ordinator' with regards to the subject and to my surprise, the response was good and helpful. She understood the fact that stopping people voicing an opinion would be taking away the freedom of speech. For some reason this subject has never come up before which seems confusing, I mean, I would like to think that 5 years ago people campaigned in the college for political parties. As well as a positive reply, the email has been forwarded to the head of Politics and the assistant principle. Fingers crossed they reply and change the college rules with regards to posters.

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