The Budget 2015 – 12:30

[Amp34]

We already have a lot of clean water reservoirs that we use for supplying our homes and water companies are looking at installing small turbines to take advantage of the potential energy. It could be to do with that.

Regardless, your comment is daft because in many ways dams are an extremely 'environmently and economically friendly way to generate electricity' minus the sarcasm.

Retrofitting turbines into existing dams seems a good idea. It will be interesting to see if it's economically viable though.

Yes, dams are extremely environmentally and economically friendly, if you ignore the fact they are usually placed in environmentally sensitive, more natural areas, involve huge building works and habitat destruction, cause problems for both water migrating creatures (such as fish) and land migrating creatures, reduce flow of water downstream* and silt up after a few years, reducing their effectiveness. That's ignoring the human impacts, which include relocating potentially whole villages and going overbudget, almost bancrutping entire nations (or at the very least causing huge loans to be needed).

That's ignoring the methane problems from the rotting vegetation.

*Causing knock on effects for the environment downstream.

Other than that what have the romans ever done for ... sorry... what environmental impacts do dams cause?

Dams are way down the list of environmentally friendly electricity generating apparatus. Yes, many of those issues listed above are more related to megadams but even small dams tick most of those boxes (and more). They really aren't as environmetally friendly as most people think, especially larger dams.

We should be pushing ahead with things like wave, wind and solar energy before we start building more big dams and reservoirs.

Example articles

http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-10/how-clean-power-dams-actually-damage-environment

http://www.internationalrivers.org/environmental-impacts-of-dams

 

[Glaucus]

Why are they adding new 'help to buy' schemes which only inflate house prices?

They need to reduce demand, and increase supply. It's quite simple but they don't want to see house price falls because it will hit them.

No one wants to do that, mainly as it's to unpopular.
People think there houses are being devalued.
Protestors will protest to hell and back to stop any mass buildings especially in green belts.

It's a shame as you are absolutely correct, but most people are happy, they have a mortgage already, don't want new builds. Annoyingly my parents are exactly like this. They live in a village and council wants to build, they are protesting like mad and there reasoning is build on brown sites. Brown sites don't exist, I live in said city and the brown sites have either been built on or being built on.

 

[atpbx]

I'm a noob with this stuff, but listening to George Osborne, I do get the impression that he knows his onions and the things he's saying seem pretty coherent.. (or maybe I'm just gullible)

Then in the cross-examination, Ed Miliband just starts ranting and it just totally kills any chance of me voting labour (if I even vote at all)

You would have to be certifiable to want the country governed by two of Gordon browns chief economic advisors.

Ed balls hasn't made a single correct economic call in his entire career.

 

[WillyNelson]

God it's the same old tired and empty rhetoric from Labour. I could've written Ed(d)'s response; zero hours contracts, tax avoidance, the NHS, the city, 'bankers', Bullington Club, and the mysterious 'hard working family' who are always worse off that seems to cover the majority of the population.

 

[AGD]

The lagoon power scheme will be expensive initially but could turn out quite well in the long term.

 

[Freakbro]

.

LOL


Some people just don't like the truth.

Especially when it contradicts their personal convictions almost entirely.

What truth is that?

Maybe the truth that they were going to eradicate the deficit in this parliament, no ifs no buts and the halving of the deficit proposed by labour was inadequate and now the halving of the deficit is lauded as a triumph[/milliband]

 

[Skidder]

God it's the same old tired and empty rhetoric from Labour. I could've written Ed(d)'s response; zero hours contracts, tax avoidance, the NHS, the city, 'bankers', Bullington Club, and the mysterious 'hard working family' who are always worse off that seems to cover the majority of the population.

yes, his speech is devoid of actual content

 

[mid_gen]

More tax money being ****ed down the drain on propping up the property market.

Glad it's not mine.

 

[Freakbro]

yes, his speech is devoid of actual content

He does have a point about not a mention of public spending plans, with all the drastic cuts they want to make

 

[AGD]

No one wants to do that, mainly as it's to unpopular.
People think there houses are being devalued.
Protestors will protest to hell and back to stop any mass buildings especially in green belts.

It's a shame as you are absolutely correct, but most people are happy, they have a mortgage already, don't want new builds. Annoyingly my parents are exactly like this. They live in a village and council wants to build, they are protesting like mad and there reasoning is build on brown sites. Brown sites don't exist, I live in said city and the brown sites have either been built on or being built on.

I think we can do a lot more without touching green-belt land. At the very least, we should be avoiding inflationary schemes which only make the problem worse.

 

[LordSplodge]

God it's the same old tired and empty rhetoric from Labour. I could've written Ed(d)'s response; zero hours contracts, tax avoidance, the NHS, the city, 'bankers', Bullington Club, and the mysterious 'hard working family' who are always worse off that seems to cover the majority of the population.

Opposition response is always limited as they don't get hardly any time to prepare. The whole think is a circus anyway!

 

[booyaka]

Only 4% of the population have that sort of cash in pension pot at the moment. If you're in your 30's like myself by the time we retire the lifetime allowance will have gone back up again.

will it? it's come down massively over the last few years.

I'm in my 30's and my pension is projected to hit £1million by the time i'm 62 (i.e not state pension age yet)

I'm a very average payer into my pension, don't earn anything ridiculous but just because I started a pension at 17 years old, i'm going to have to stop paying into it, or suffer a tax penalty on it, unless they put the limit back up in the future.

 

[Freakbro]

will it? it's come down massively over the last few years.

I'm in my 30's and my pension is projected to hit £1million by the time i'm 62 (i.e not state pension age yet)

I'm a very average payer into my pension, don't earn anything ridiculous but just because I started a pension at 17 years old, i'm going to have to stop paying into it, or suffer a tax penalty on it, unless they put the limit back up in the future.

He said it would be index linked in the future so it rises in line with inflation.

 

[Judgeneo]

will it? it's come down massively over the last few years.

I'm in my 30's and my pension is projected to hit £1million by the time i'm 62 (i.e not state pension age yet)

I'm a very average payer into my pension, don't earn anything ridiculous but just because I started a pension at 17 years old, i'm going to have to stop paying into it, or suffer a tax penalty on it, unless they put the limit back up in the future.

The Allowance will be indexed to inflation from 2016/17, so yes it will increase.

 

[Freddie1980]

I would hardly call the cuts drastic, comparison to total government spending the 13bn cut from government departments and 12bn from welfare over the next parliament is a fraction of total government spending. I wish they would go further and cut harder especially on welfare, soft Tories.

Putting aside their weakness on spending cuts I would the last government has done a good job, I would happily have another 5 years of the same especially so when I consider the alternative.

 

[Freddie1980]

will it? it's come down massively over the last few years.

I'm in my 30's and my pension is projected to hit £1million by the time i'm 62 (i.e not state pension age yet)

I'm a very average payer into my pension, don't earn anything ridiculous but just because I started a pension at 17 years old, i'm going to have to stop paying into it, or suffer a tax penalty on it, unless they put the limit back up in the future.

30 years in inflation will mean the allowance will increase, it can't stay the same.

 

[Felon]

I would happily have another 5 years of the same especially so when I consider the alternative.

This is my take on it, things haven't been that bad (for me anyway) I'd rather let them continue what they've started and at least give them a chance to finish it, rather than start over - with what appears to be a party led by a muppet.

 

[Castiel]

yes, his speech is devoid of actual content

Which is my problem...the opposition never actually over any opposition.

On one side, whether you agree with them or not, you have people who at least sound competent and know what they are talking about...on the other you have people who, well, to put it simply...don't.

 

[Vanilla]

Disappointed by lack of any movement on Inheritance Tax

 

[Tunney]

More cuts on welfare and the public sector.

I'd love to see teachers or nurses see a decent pay rise rather than helping FTB fuel the demand for homes that don't exist.