Met Ltd Nm Share Discussion Threads

[m.t.glass] 22/3/2006 13:33

61 minute speech length.

So, which share prices will now move on the budget proposals??

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:32

Finished. The country as well as the budget.

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:30

Free bus travel everywhere for pensioners and disabled. National not just local. Won't be able to get in seaside chippies with all those tables blocked with cups of tea.

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:30

Investment in schools to rise to £8bn per year.

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:29

Investment for all pupils to be raised to private school levels - spend spend, every body to be given a free degree, so we will have the best qualified MCDonald's workers in the world.

[jonc] 22/3/2006 13:27

Mart,

Yes I think so.

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:27

Schoololympics - something else for Sheffield to bid for?

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:25

2nd chance at education up to a-level free up to age 25.

[m.t.glass] 22/3/2006 13:24

schoololympics - annual school olympics

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:24

Something about efficiency savings to pay for stuff - heard that before.

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:22

£30bn of government asset sales by 2010. Westinghouse. British Energy.

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:20

Waffle waffle. social schemes bits here and there. Young people. Spend spend."investments" - I'm going to ask if he'll paint my house next year.

[alf godson] 22/3/2006 13:19

Obviously not .

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:18

£200m for athletes, with lottery money and sponsrship to £600m.

[alf godson] 22/3/2006 13:17

Has he finished ?

UK BUDGET Full text of Brown's speech
LONDON (AFX) - Most of all a budget for Britain's future to secure fairness
for each
child by investing in every child.

A modern Britain which leads on enterprise and prosperity, because we
lead in opportunity and fairness.

For fifty years Britain's economy was prone to high and volatile
levels of inflation.

And our first challenge was and is not just achieving low inflation
today, but entrenching a culture of stability that allows Britain to
invest for the long term.

Today I can report that we have met our inflation target this year
and every year since 1997; and looking five years ahead and even ten
years ahead under current policies inflation is still expected to be
in line with our target.

In just a decade long-term inflationary expectations have virtually
halved to 2 per cent. And today long-term interest rates are the
lowest they have been for forty years - at just 4 per cent.

Indeed even when facing, in succession, the Asian crisis, the it
bubble, an American recession, Euro area stagnation, and most
recently the challenge of the oil shock and house price inflation -
challenges which in previous decades led to British recessions - our
economic framework for stability has proved robust and prudent.

On Black Wednesday - September 1992 -interest rates reached 15 per
cent. Since 1997 interest rates have averaged 5 per cent.

And mortgage rates which averaged 111/2 per cent between 1979 and
1997, have since then averaged just half that --- at 6 per cent.

As I have said before Mr Deputy Speaker: No return to boom and bust.

And in new measures entrenching stability today, we will continue to
have the strength to take the right long term decisions.

First since 1997 my approach has been that day to day management of
monetary policy be independent and the same principled approach be
applied in other areas: to competition policy, industrial policy,
small business policy and the management of debt, where today I am
today publishing a new remit. Last year our stability enabled us for
the first time in a generation to issue bonds with maturities of up
to fifty years. I can announce that in the next issue, long dated
gilts will increase from just under half to up to two thirds,
reflecting the benefits we now gain from long term stability.

Today I am also publishing the detailed proposals, modelled on Bank
of England independence, for official statistics to be the
responsibility of an independent board, and for enhanced
accountability to parliament.

And I am publishing a new memorandum of understanding agreed between
the treasury, bank of England and financial services authority, so
that Britain has in place the most up to date early warning and
response system to deal with risks to economic stability.

Mr Deputy Speaker, we will continue to be vigilant internationally
over global imbalances and oil prices.

And we will take no risks with inflation at home. The public sector
pay settlements will show settlements averaging just 21/4 per cent -
combining fairness in pay, with more for nurses, with vigilance and
discipline in the fight against inflation.

It is Britain's new economic stability, and also our commitment to
free trade, to scientific progress, and our willingness to invest
that make our country now better placed than ever to be one of the
global economy's success stories.

A year ago some said that the doubling of oil prices would push
inflation far beyond our target and that a recession was required to
slow the increase in house prices.

Instead I can confirm to the house, as stated in the pre budget
report, that growth will be 2 to 21/2 per cent, followed in 2007 and
2008 by growth of between 23/4 to 31/4 per cent.

Domestic demand is expected to grow by 2 to 21/4 per cent this year,
strengthening to 23/4 to 31/4 per cent in 2007 and 2008. And as
industrial production grows, exports are projected to rise by between
5 to 51/2 per cent this year and 43/4 to 51/4 per cent in 2007 and
2008.

Mr Deputy Speaker, since 1997 economic growth in the euro area has
averaged just 2 per cent, in France just over 2 per cent, Germany 1.4
per cent, Italy 1.4 per cent; Japan just over 1 per cent; but in
Britain growth has averaged 2.8 per cent a year since 1997 - Britain
with the USA and Canada the fastest growing economies of the G7.

This is the tenth successive year we have grown faster than the Euro
area.

In fact we have not only achieved growth in every quarter of every
year since 1997, but averaging 2.8 per cent, our growth rate now is
significantly higher than the 2.1 per cent average of the period 1979
to 1997.

Before we came to office, Britain was seventh of seven in the G7 for
national income per head.

Figures published today show that since 1997 as a result of stability
and sustained growth Britain has risen from 7th out of 7 to sixth,
then fifth, then fourth, then third, now second in the G7 - second
only to America in national income per head.

The test of our monetary policy is that we are achieving sustained
stability and growth, not just for a year or two but for the long
term.

And the test of our fiscal policy is that we match a commitment to
balance the current budget over the economic cycle with an ability to
make the necessary long-term investments.

Figures for the current budget from now to 2010-11 are minus 11,
minus 7 and then surpluses of 1, 7, 10, and 12 billion pounds in
successive years.

So we meet our first fiscal rule - the golden rule - in this economic
cycle with a margin of £16 billion.

This £16 billion surplus contrasts with a deficit in the last
economic cycle from 1986 - 1997 of £157 billion -- and we are well
placed to meet our golden rule in the next cycle too.

The purpose of our second fiscal rule - the sustainable investment
rule --- to keep debt at a prudent and sustainable level of national
income --- is to end the situation where under past governments of
both parties, Britain was plagued not just by stop go in our economy,
but by stop go in capital investment.

So meeting our second rule allows us to combine stability with the
necessary sustained investment in transport infrastructure, health,
education and science.

As a result of our success so far, total net public investment which
was just £5 billion a year in 1997 is this year five times as high -
£26 billion.

Schools capital investment which was just £600 million in 1997, will
in the coming year be £6 billion. Even after inflation we have
invested a total of £32 billion in modernising our schools in just
nine years compared to just £14 billion in the eighteen years before
- twice as much in half the time.

And to meet the infrastructure needs of business we have been able to
double investment in skills, transport, and science.

Yet even with such levels of investment vital to our economy, we are
still comfortably meeting our second fiscal rule.

Net debt is now 47 per cent of national income in France, 47 per cent
in America, in Germany 62 per cent, in Japan 83 per cent and in Italy
over 100 per cent -- but this year in Britain 36.4 per cent.

I can report that in future years debt will be 37.5, 38.1, 38.3,
38.4, and 38.4 per cent of national income. So we meet our second
rule over the cycle and in every year and we do so by a margin of £26
billion.

Net borrowing - which was £90 billion just over a decade ago - will
be £37 billions this year, £36 next year, then 30, falling to 25, 24
and 23 billions in 2010-11 as we borrow to invest, borrowing in that
year 1.5 per cent of national income compared to 8 per cent just over
a decade ago.

In line with what I said in the pre budget report, net borrowing
adjusted for the economic cycle, will fall from 2.4 per cent of
national income to, in future years, 1.9 and then in successive years
1.6, 1.6, 1.6 and 1.5 per cent.

For this budget I have received representations to increase
investment in skills, transport, infrastructure and science.

I have also received representations that we should adopt a third
fiscal rule, that over the economic cycle and regardless of the needs
of the economy, infrastructure and services - public spending and
investment must, as a matter of principle, always rise slower than
growth.

Having analysed this proposal against our published plans I have
found it would require in the coming year public spending £17 billion
lower and £16 billion lower the year after, closing off the
possibility of additional investment. I have rejected these
representations.

We are consistent that facing the economic challenges ahead we still
need as a country to invest more.

So meeting the two fiscal rules and in line with our published plans,
public investment to meet our infrastructure needs will rise from £26
billion this year to £29 billion, then 31, 32, 34 and 36 billions in
the years ahead. And gross investment will rise from £48 billion this
year to £63 billion in 2010-11.

Sustained long term investment in our education in infrastructure and
in our future: possible because of our stability.

So we can meet our fiscal rules, support the needs of business and
make necessary long term investments: first in science, innovation
and enterprise; second in infrastructure and transport; third in
security and defence; and fourth in skills and education.

First, science, innovation and enterprise.

With the right long term decisions Britain can lead in some of the
fastest growing and highest value added sectors - city and business
services, education and health, creative and science based industries
- once small, now one third of our economy and exports, soon a much
higher share of jobs and wealth.

And in each one of these growth areas I propose that we do more to
support the dynamism and enterprise of business - and I start with
the importance of Britain leading in scientific invention and
discovery.

The secretaries for health and trade are today announcing that to
strengthen medical science and excellence in basic research, Britain
will in future have a single budget for the medical research council
and NHS research. And it will be worth at least £1 billion a year.

America has its path-breaking national institutes of health. And we
will now build agreement on the right design and institutional
arrangements for the British model.

To make best use of the additional £1.5 billion a year we invest in
scientific discovery, we are today setting out plans for radically
simplified allocation of the research funding that goes direct to
universities.

[END TEXT]


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jc

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[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:14

Inheritance tax up to £325k. I think he said stamp duty £125k.

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:13

ISA limits static.

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:11

9p on cigs. 4p on wine. 1p on beer. nothing on cider, champagne, spirits.

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:10

At least £250 extra per 7 year old for child trust finds. Where's the money coming from?

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:09

Raising child tax credit (£70p.a.each I think - but not lowest tax band?) Hitting childless again.

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:06

35p a litre less tax on "clean" fuel.

[mart] 22/3/2006 13:06

JonC
Is that Monkswood ITE?

[aleman] 22/3/2006 13:05

Zero duty on a few very efficient vehicles up £210 on gas guzzlers with £40, £100 and £150 on way I think.

[m.t.glass] 22/3/2006 13:03

(small) new fund to promote microgeneration