The Cancellor

[expat]

The chancellor made a mistake in raising duty on Scotch whisky, which would have led to a 29p rise in the price of a bottle.

Mr Darling told the Commons:

I said on Monday that what I wanted to do was to make sure the level of taxation on alcohol and on cigarettes remained the same. So that broadly the reduction in VAT would be cancelled out by a change in duty.
I think in relation to spirits what we announced on Monday didn't actually achieve that so I'm tabling a further order today to ensure that on spirits the duty there is at a slightly lower rate, which I think will hugely benefit the spirits industry wherever it is.

Can anyone find anywhere in Darling's speech the use of a word like "mistake", "error", or "wrong"? No. They never make them, do they?

[BrilloPad]

The chancellor made a mistake in raising duty on Scotch whisky, which would have led to a 29p rise in the price of a bottle.

Mr Darling told the Commons:


Can anyone find anywhere in Darling's speech the use of a word like "mistake", "error", or "wrong"? No. They never make them, do they?

Rather like coders calling a bug an "opportunity for a solution"?

[expat]

Rather like coders calling a bug an "opportunity for a solution"?

When he was told about it, he probably did the same as a programmer being confronted with evidence of a bug in his program: you stare at it, frown, and drawl "strange....".

[Drewster]

"....what I wanted to do........ didn't actually achieve that......." - ergo "I got it wrong"

Perhaps not the best example of Political Shysters being economical with the truth.....

[d000hg]

Seems a fairly honest admission of a cockup compared to normal politician-speak.

[expat]

Seems a fairly honest admission of a cockup compared to normal politician-speak.

Yes, that's what's sad.

[Doggy Styles]

I don't remember so many failures of Her Majesty's Government to perform basic arithmetic.

VAT is reduced, so increase duty to keep the price of whisky the same. How many here would have got that wrong?

My favourite is when civil servants needed several days to make Gordon realise that more people lost out from him abolishing the 10p tax rate than gained from it.

It's worrying really - for all we know the public finances could be in the red and the government could be oblivious to it.

[Solidec]

It's worrying really - for all we know the public finances could be in the red and the government could be oblivious to it.

could be in the red? Where have you been since 1999? they have been in the red for 9 straight years.