The Budget.

Althea · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2012 2:27 pm

Good news: Video game developers get tax credits/breaks (I forget which) - should help us bolster our developers and hopefully bring us back to the near-top in terms of development. Before you poo-poo it, remember that video gaming is a multi-million - if not multi-billion - pound/dollar industry.

Bad news: The GAME group is going into administration, so there'll be nowhere to sell the games.

new puritan · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2012 2:30 pm

Althea wrote:

Good news: Video game developers get tax credits/breaks (I forget which) - should help us bolster our developers and hopefully bring us back to the near-top in terms of development. Before you poo-poo it, remember that video gaming is a multi-million - if not multi-billion - pound/dollar industry.

I'm fairly sure Alistair Darling had planned to introduce tax credits for the gaming industry before the coalition scrapped them upon coming to power. This would appear to be little more than a u-turn.

edit: thought so. Great foresight again, Gideon.

Quote:

In March 2010, however, Alistair Darling announced Labour's intention to provide the UK development sector with tax incentives. For a few months, it looked as though the Tiga campaign had been successful. But then came the general election, and although both the Conservative and Liberal parties had given lip service to the idea of tax support for the games industry, that all dissolved in George Osborne's emergency budget, where he referred to the cause as 'poorly targeted'.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/ga ... -interview

Althea · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2012 2:32 pm

I knew it was spoken about before, but it's good that it's finally happening.

new puritan · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2012 2:42 pm

He's basically pilfering a Labour policy and claiming it as his own. Politically astute but disingenuous bearing in mind his own previous attitude to the industry.

smod · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2012 2:42 pm

Miliband is on fire.

new puritan · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2012 2:59 pm

I'm not watching it (at work) but the general consensus seems to be that Miliband has played this one pretty well. Looks like Osborne may have dropped a bollock by leaking so much of the Budget and giving Labour more time to plot their response.

smod · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2012 3:01 pm

Nick Robinson defending the stealth tax on middle income pensioners. BBC readily accept the findings of HMRC over the 50p rate. What a joke.

new puritan · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2012 3:24 pm

No sign of the Lib Dems' mansion tax, then, and yet they've still caved in on the 50p rate. What a pisspoor excuse for a political party that shower really are.

smod · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2012 3:28 pm

new puritan wrote:

No sign of the Lib Dems' mansion tax, then, and yet they've still caved in on the 50p rate. What a pisspoor excuse for a political party that shower really are.

Danny Alexander gave a half hearted "we'll keep pushing for it". David Laws attacked the Labour MP for bringing us into this financial mess. They really are idiots. Oh, and the Treasury now says almost 5 million pensioners will lose out from freezing personal allowance for over 65s. Way to alienate your voters.

new puritan · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2012 3:37 pm

That snivelling crook Laws really turns my stomach, even more so than most coalition MPs. The Lib Dems' attempts to rehabilitate him are a sign of just how desperate they are. Funding tax cuts for rich Tory backers by phasing out tax allowance for pensioners sounds like a potential blunder, though.

Messianic Trees · **Joined:** Fri Mar 18, 2011 10:50 pm **Posts:** 2900

According to Beaker:

Quote:

The negotiations on this budget were friendly but hard fought. Liberal Democrats should be proud of what we have achieved – not for ourselves, but for the millions of people who voted for us because they saw a party willing to stand up for the squeezed middle. Those people can see the difference we are making in Government for them – and that gives us a very strong message for the elections in May and beyond.

new puritan · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2012 3:42 pm

Beaker in July last year:

Quote:

We set out in the Coalition agreement, and it's something that we as Liberal Democrats pushed very hard for, that the Government's first priority in tax reductions would be tax cuts for people on low and middle incomes. Those very families who are working hard to try and make ends meet. Anyone who thinks we're going to shift our priority to reducing the tax burden for the wealthiest has got another think coming.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-s ... -alexander

Bones McCoy · **Joined:** Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:08 am **Posts:** 7419

crabcakes_windermere wrote:

Credit where credit is due - looks like they're going to simplify and speed up the steps needed to get a clinical trial underway. Which science-wise is good news.

Is that, should that be, a budget issue?

Bones McCoy · **Joined:** Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:08 am **Posts:** 7419

Althea wrote:

Good news: Video game developers get tax credits/breaks (I forget which) - should help us bolster our developers and hopefully bring us back to the near-top in terms of development. Before you poo-poo it, remember that video gaming is a multi-million - if not multi-billion - pound/dollar industry.

Bad news: The GAME group is going into administration, so there'll be nowhere to sell the games.

That Internet: It's not just for Porn.

Bones McCoy · **Joined:** Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:08 am **Posts:** 7419

smod wrote:

Miliband is on fire.

Don't tell the guy in the piss dungeon.

The Budget.

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