Paxman has ripped Chloe Smith to pieces on newsnight over the lastest U-turn on fuel duty.

Seeing sense is U-turn nowadays?

The cynic in me suggests petrol companies will put the price up themselves now the Chancellor isn't going to and he will be left slightly annoyed.
Either way we lose.
I do hope I am wrong.

I am aware that petrol prices have been falling slightly lately.

Its a good job they have made a U turn, seeing as the HMRC have dropped the claim rate to 12p a mile for 1600cc diesels (it was 15p not so long back, when fuel was cheaper). Cost me £43 out of my own pocket last month to do company business, all you get is 'well thats what HMRC say is the rate, nothing we can do'. They soon 'do' something if you are making a couple of quid.

It's your company that's taking the pi[is[/is mate. They could pay you £1m a mile if they wanted to, you'd just be liable for 45% tax on the £999,999.88p per mile remaining

For anyone who missed it, there's a Guardian article and the relevant video clip [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jun/27/tory-minister-chloe-smith-newsnight-disaster?newsfeed=trueHERE[/url

I would hope that the Monty Python lads will be suing the government over what amounts to unashamed plagiarism of the Anne Elk sketch:

[iChloe Smith: "The plan overall has not changed. The plan, overall, remains those departmental budgets as they were laid out. We are looking to use the underspends, however, in a way that is really valued by households and businesses, and I think anyone listening tonight who drives a car does know that."[/i

I'm fooking amazed Tory Central put her out for a second innings on Newsnight.

I witnessed her first innings earlier in the evening on Channel 4 News. Krishnan Guru-Murthy ripped a new one into her, and frankly, it was embarrassing. She must be a debutant to this tv interviewing m'larkey. Gideon needs to do a little more homework before feeding his Chief Economic Secretary to the wolves!

Apparently Gideon & Danny Alexander were at a business dinner, they enjoyed the steak while Paxo put Chloe Smith to the stake

IMHO the government knew this was an indefensible U-turn after the recent comments.
So instead of Osbourne or Alexander facing the music they have just sacrificed a junior minister.

It's a U-turn when a Government minister has spent the last few weeks insisting that it's not going to happen under any circumstances and then the Chancellor implements it out of the blue.

Oh good god!

it's like something from The Thick of It she's that bad!


It's good to see Paxo ripping into people again, it doesn't happen often enough.

Yup.
It's also a U-turn when the pasty tax is announced (in the budget, not some consultation paper) and then the chancer of the exchequer goes back on it.
It's also a U-turn when the taxing of charitable donations is announced (in the budget, not some consultation paper) and then the chancer of the exchequer goes back on it.

But let's not forget that Ozzy isn't the only one.
Nick Clegg, for example, went back on his "pledge" not to increase tuition fees, apparently he hadn't realised that he might be in government.
He also completely reversed his view on the economic plan for the future, that he had been shouting all the way through the run-up to the election, after a 15 minute chat with Mervyn King (a long deliberation there, then).

Thoroughly entertaining (waits for Dally to come on and complain about it being bullying).

Is there much of this budget left now?