Softly Spoken

The speaker 'regrets' that the Police had been able to raid Damian Green's office without a warrant. Apparently, yes, ladies and gentlemen, the House of Commons speaker really is that wet. He spoke not so much with conviction, but with a whimper. Grow a spine, man, and stand up for democracy!

In other news, amongst the other Bills contained in the Queen's Speech was the Savings Gateway Account Bill, whereby the Government intends to pay 50p for every £1 that low earners manage to squirrel away into this special new account, up to a maximum Government contribution of £300. Without massaging the figures, that's a 50% interest rate for the first £600 saved. Now I'm sure there must be stringent controls over how this works, but hold on just one second, I'm all for incentives to save, but isn't that what ISAs are all about?

It is important for people to have savings - you need that cushion for a rainy day. Furthermore, it encourages financial discipline, and in my opinion, saving for something makes far more sense than borrowing the money to buy it. Not only do you feel like you have earned your purchase, but you don't have to pay ridiculous interest on it.

So what we have here is the Government telling us to go out and spend (wait, isn't that how we ended up in this mess?), while at the same time telling us to save (which could contribute towards stagnating the economy) which it will encourage by spending taxpayers money at a time when we have a budget deficit. Talk about mixed messages.

I is payin fur mah guverment. I wantz refund.