Chancellor delivers Budget at 12.30pm

Don't forget we will still be paying for all those things on top of this £352bn. That money is just on the measures taken to tackle the virus, it does not include the rest of it!

You evidently don't appreciate the precarious state of the UK finances. This financial year will see us borrow more far far more than in 08/09. Debt as percentage of GDP is already far higher than at any point since around 1960. We will spend decades paying off the amount of government borrowing occurring now because the Conservatives have been shaking that magic money tree far too hard.

As I've previously explained to you, the actions of The Conservative Party over the last decade have left the economy in a state of relative stagnation. We are not prepared for this sort of economic shock.

May I suggest you read up on some basic economics? As you really seem to be out of your depth here.

You evidently don't appreciate the precarious state of the UK finances. This financial year will see us borrow more far far more than in 08/09. Debt as percentage of GDP is already far higher than at any point since around 1960. We will spend decades paying off the amount of government borrowing occurring now because the Conservatives have been shaking that magic money tree far too hard.

As I've previously explained to you, the actions of The Conservative Party over the last decade have left the economy in a state of relative stagnation. We are not prepared for this sort of economic shock.

May I suggest you read up on some basic economics? As you really seem to be out of your depth here.

Sunak's three fiscal principles:

1. It is right to help people through an acute public crisis but in normal times the state should not be borrowing to pay for everyday public spending.
2. We cannot allow debt to keep rising.
3. It is sensible to take advantage of lower interest rates to invest in capital projects.

Largest debt interest as a proportion of revenues since the 60’s - this is money which could be spent on other priorities or tax cuts.

Largest net tax rises of any budget since the Lamont budget of 1993.

I dont think thats true, just delete interest and its fine, but then means your point doesn't work.

Was the largest before that also after a decade of conservatives at the tiller too?

You could be correct. I have looked elsewhere and the cost to GDP of servicing the debt reached 4.5% in 1985 which was the highest since the 50's.

Not sure to the second albeit looking at tax to GDP is probably a better guide of which governments actually talked the talk.

Where's this magic money tree that the Conservatives are getting all this extra cash from?

The poor state of the nation's finances is more than about coronavirus. It is a consequence of a government that simultaneously borrowed recklessly for over a decade and failed to invest in the country. As The Times point out, it is the middle classes and profitable businesses, the very backbone of the economy, that will pay for the government's folly.

It always is those people in the middle who are squeezed the most, this is nothing new.

It always is those people in the middle who are squeezed the most, this is nothing new.

It always is those people in the middle who are squeezed the most, this is nothing new.

The simple way the taxation system works you get penalised for earning more money and being successful. And people wonder why millionaires hide money in the Caymans.

Hide money in a British Overseas Territory...?

Indeed, the Laffer Curve is why Norway has a tax to gdp ratio 5% higher than the UK for tax revenue optimisation.