£140m Christmas Present for the WAG

From yesterday’s pre-Budget report, £140m is for us in Wales.

And the Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy has urged the Assembly Government to spend it on road building and social housing soon (before it starts to run out…).

There were also tax cuts. But because of the massive public spending the Tories weren’t very keen on the plan at all (Cheryl Gillian MP called it a “Christmas tax bombshell”).

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru didn’t think it went far enough – check out Adam Price’s recent blogs on the issue.

I am not an economics expert but I would think that cutting taxes and making it easier to buy stuff will only boost the economy if people do buy stuff…

Labour are being optimistic it seems and assuming we will (which isn’t unreasonable I suppose with Christmas just round the corner) while the Lib Dems and Plaid are not so sure we will (which isn’t unreasonable either – we’re in a recession don’t you know?!).

The Conservatives just don’t like the debt; their argument is basically what good is helping people now if we’re all going to be paying for it in the future?

By the way, Betsan Powys has just written a great blog on the pre-Budget report - worth a look.

Dewi Tri