Are The Government Right To Scrap The Rise In Ni Contributions For The Self-Employed?

[sp1814]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/15/philip-hammond-ditches-national-insurance-rise-for-self-employed

[dannyk13]

No.

[ichkeria]

They aren't going to now

[ichkeria]

Sorry I misread your question.
I don't mind one way or another but it's a spectacularly incompetent episode

[Gromit]

What are election promises for, if not to break them at the first possible opportunity.

It is a useful reminder that they constantly lie to us, and we should not, for a minute, believe their promises about a glorious future under the increasingly iratic May.

When the Conservatives promised no rise in NI in the manifesto, the reason they gave was:

// This means that we can commit to no increases in VAT, Income Tax or National Insurance. Tax rises on working people would harm our economy, reduce living standards and cost jobs. //
- Conservative Manifesto 2015 Page 10

That is what the nation voted for.

[andy-hughes]

If the government is going to break a manifesto promise, which is immoral, it should have the courage of its convictions.

Breaking a promise, and then cowering in the face of the predictable storm of outrage, and then backtracking makes the government look immoral, and then scared, and the immoral again for backtracking.

Then again, maybe keeping its promises in the first place is a good way to avoid this kind of situation?

[mikey4444]

Another omni-shamble of a budget it would seem !

A Government in chaos if ever there was !

[mikey4444]

Mrs May should have seen this coming...she is the PM after all. Now she is left with egg on her face....lets see if she can laugh this u-turn off.

[Gromit]

This does not bode well.
Cameron was a past master at not listening, doing the wrong thing, and then being forced into an embarrassing u-turn. It seems May is picking up, where Dave left off.

The other worrying aspect is the speed with which the Prime Minister has abandoned her Chancellor. It is inconcievable that she did not know the election pledge was being broken. So she should support her Minister and take some of the blame. But Hammond has been fed to the lions. The message is clear to Mrs May's Cabinet, Ministers and MPs - don't expect any loyalty and support from your boss. And be prepared to be abandoned if there is a public backlash.

[ToraToraTora]

No

[youngmafbog]

Yes, unless they are going to make things very fair across the board i.e. fairness in payout not just fairness in pay-in then they cannot and should not break a manifesto promise to do so.

Hammond is another incompetent Bremoaner just like Gideon.

[mikey4444]

TTT...another incompetent Bremoaner, promoted by Ms May !

[mikey4444]

Mrs May desperately trying not to drop her chancellor in the deep doo-doo, but failing miserably !

[mikey4444]

Just who was it that first realised that the Budget meant that the Government was in "flagrant" breach of their 2015 Manifesto promises ? Not Mrs May, or even Mr Hammond !

Well, it was the Ms Kuenssberg apparently, according to the Chancellor !

Well done the Beeb !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/headlines/39284084