12th Mar 2008
Green Budget Response: Darling Bottles it in Budget That's Brown, Not Green
Wales Green Party Principle Speaker Leila Kiersch has responded with disappointment to Alistair Darling's first Budget, pointing especially to climb downs on the planned 2p increase in fuel duty and the missed opportunity of a windfall tax on energy company profits to tackle fuel poverty.
She also expressed her doubt that the government's target for reducing child poverty could be met without much greater spending commitments, with the £3.4bn calculated to be required gallingly matching the £3.3bn due to be spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations this year alone.
Mrs Kiersch said:
"This Budget isn't Green, it's Brown. After spinning extensively that we were going to see the most environmental budget ever, the government have given us more of the same.
"Under pressure from roads lobbyists, he has backed down on the already timid 2p rise in fuel duty, putting it back until autumn apparently due to high oil prices. If he really thinks oil will be cheap by October, his basic understanding of economics must surely be in doubt. Fossil fuel costs will remain high as long as demand remains high, and cowardly decisions like this will only make the problem worse, not better.
"The £20 increase in child benefit is of course welcome, but it falls well short of what is required to meet the government's laudable targets for cutting child poverty. The £3.4bn that it would take to halve child poverty by 2010 is instead being spent on occupying Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008 alone. We need a real commitment to spending on the things that matter, we need to insist that employers pay a real living wage, and we need to end the assault course of benefit traps and welfare blackmail that the government has set up on the border between benefits and work."
"He has focused on Economic Growth over long term stability and happiness -simple measures like charging for plastic bags will not 'save the planet', especially when placed next to incentives for further exploration of North Sea oil and gas reserves and planned airport expansion. Altering the way the economy is structured by raising revenue from green taxation is possible and can be ring-fenced (hypothecated). This taxation should not be in addition but as a replacement for existing taxation. Reintroducing the 10p rate of income tax is one example of how green taxation needn't mean more taxation."
ENDS
For further information contact Leila Kiersch Wales Green Party Principal Speaker - 01974 261340 / 07817 837314 or (bilingual response) Wales Green Party Press Officer Jake Griffiths on 07752754537 and cantongreens@hotmail.co.uk
