Wasn't thrilling, was it, but I'd side with the talking heads that said if he tried to pull any giveaways it'd just be greeted with cynicism.
I'm going off The Guardian's key points here so it might not be a good starting point, but here's my take on things that potentially affect or interest me:
More systematic tax on banks is needed. It should be internationally co-ordinated
I happen to agree with this rather than the conservative unilateral stance. It's so easy to send your talent scurrying to another country by making things relatively bad in your country. I've heard of quite a few people leaving britain as their research areas were cut a couple of years back
Doubling of stamp duty allowance, from £125,000 to £250,000, funded by 5% stamp duty for properties worth more than £1m
Ideologically this works for me and might help me some time.
Tax information agreements with Dominica, Grenada and Belize
This was a political shot, no doubt about it, but if you're making sure your revenue is reliable then that's no bad thing. I'd question how significant this move actually is in terms of improving tax collection.
No further announcements on VAT, national insurance and income tax
OK (i think?)
Jobs
Total of 15,000 civil servants relocated, including 1,000 Ministry of Justice posts moved out of London
I like this since a shit area of manchester city centre gets redeveloped
Duty on cider will increase by 10% above inflation from Sunday. Duty on beer, wine and spirits will increase as planned from midnight Sunday
Not a cider fan, I can see why it'd piss people off. I'd have liked to see something addressing the fact supermarkets can sell booze at a loss. That doesn't seem right.
Tobacco duty will rise immediately by 1% above inflation this year, then 2%
I've been getting towards the opinion that we should tax the shit out of cigarettes and spirits, they really aren't helpful things in the world.
Education
A £35m university enterprise capital fund to support university innovation and spin-off companies
A £270m fund to create 20,000 university places in subjects such as science, maths, engineering
Here's my rant, and it's probably because I know vaguely about this bit that I can rant
What is the point in investing a load of money in undergrad programmes if you're cutting funding into research? The message I'm taking away from the above two measures are that they want the private sector to step into the gulf between pure science funding and highly skilled economic benefit, and I don't think it works like that. Private companies don't do blue skies stuff, that's why we have inefficiency creaky universities. At any rate, the amounts we're talking about are pissing in the wind compared to the amount the US and European countries are investing in science research
