Be Grateful , You Working Class Plebs

[Bazile]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26658742

The online advert said the 1p cut in beer duty and the halving of bingo duty to 10% would help "hardworking people do more of the things they enjoy".

Patronising ? - What's your view ?

[sandyRoe]

What about tax on cakes and circuses have they been reduced too?

[ludwig]

// Patronising ? - What's your view ? //

Yes. Ridiculously so, and especially daft because now all the talk is about Bingo, 1p off a pint (wow, let's paaaarty!), this stupid advert, and not the fairly radical change that you can essentially draw out your pension savings and spend them as you see fit, instead of having to buy an annuity from a company that pays you an annual pittance, and hopes you die as soon as possible.

[Old_Geezer]

Whilst it can be interpreted that way, so can many things said in good faith. I think some are just making political capital from a genuine attempt to point out the budget held some welcome stuff for those who enjoy simple pleasures. And anyway most like a beer don't we ? My old mum used to like her bingo.

[jno]

I love the way it says "THEY enjoy"... like "hardworking" can't mean US.

[sandyRoe]

The people who consider that they've made something of themselves by reaching a 40p tax bracket would surely be ashamed to admit that they still enjoy plebian pleasures like beer and bingo

[douglas9401]

Beer and bingo, they're what I live for.
Well done chancer of the exchequer, you know how to keep us in our pens.
If the penny off a pint is going to be such a big deal, give the equivalent to the NHS you blood sucking parasitic bawbag.

[youngmafbog]

Balls is peed off because he would just have taxed it more.

It does not say be grateful you working class plebs that is the lefts interpretation. Plus of course everyone will enjoy the raise in tax threshold too, including the working class.

[scorpiojo]

:D

[youngmafbog]

If he had reduced it more I can hear you all banging on about him buying voytes.

[ToraToraTora]

I'm going to take up bingo now!

[Bazile]

I'm going to take up drinking , so i can take advantage of the 1p saving

[New Judge]

A prize will be available for the first person to find that his local has reduced the price of a pint by a penny (or indeed by any other amount). Pubs only revise prices upwards and then only in multiples of 5p. With the honourable exception of Wetherspoons most of them charge for half pints in multiples of 5p (rounded up, natch) and many of them have stopped holding "brown money" in their tills entirely.

Had the Chancellor announced a penny increase your local would have increased the price by 5p this morning (or more probably last night). And they wonder why many of them are going to the wall.

[mikey4444]

I think that beer is drunk across the classes these, but Bingo may not fall into the same category. I can't see many middle class people going to Bingo, but if I am wrong, I'm quite sure that somebody here on AB will tell me so !

Just as patronising is a remark I heard behind me in Tesco on Thursday morning. A couple were talking about the rise in tobacco duty and person said that "they" were taxing the working man's pleasures again !

[youngmafbog]

I dont go myself Mickey but I have friends who do. There is no way you could call then 'working class' if such a thing actually still exists these days.

[mikey4444]

Interesting ymb. You may very well be right. I have very little contact with Bingo, as nobody in my family have ever gone, and I certainly wouldn't.

But class may be a state of mind these days, rather than a reality. I still think I am working class, and would be highly offended if someone suggested I was middle class. But...horses for courses I suppose ( that is twice I have used that phrase today ! )

[scooping]

Even as a former Conservative Party press officer I am constantly amazed at the stupidity of political advisors and politicians. This was crass, insensitive and self-evidently counter-productive. The Tory Party needs staff who didn't go to private schools - it really is that simple.

[heathfield]

As Judge says, d'you think any pub is going to knock 1p off the price of a pint? So much for letting the working class make more affordable use of their pleasures. What world is Osborne in?