It's The Budget!

[Philipnet]

George Osborne due to announce Budget at 12:30 GMT:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/business-31874987

Can things only get better? or are we heading for the dogs?

[Philipnet]

Beer duty is being cut for the third year in a row - another penny is coming off the pint. Cider duty comes down by 2%, as does the duty on Scotch whisky and other spirits

[Philipnet]

The personal tax free allowance is to go up to £10,800 next year and then £11,000 in the year after next

The petrol/fuel duty increase scheduled for September is cancelled

[SiHart]

Barclays and BT to provide free Wifi in libraries? What's the catch? What are they getting out of it? I'm very suspicious.

[Philipnet]

Here's the BBC's Budget at a glance:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31928641

[Stuart Wallis]

Barclays and BT to provide free Wifi in libraries? What's the catch? What are they getting out of it? I'm very suspicious.

Essex Libraries provide free wifi as it is, except that it comes out of the council tax. With the tax having been frozen in Epping Forest District again, Essex County Council will doubtlesshave considered ways of countering inflation, and they have, by campaigning for ways in which the library can be used to make a bit extra cash.

This means, whether we like it or not, renting ourselves out. Loughton library is already the HQ of the National Jazz Archive, and we're already being used to sponsor a campaign to promote the planting of fruit trees in the area. Other campaigns are in the works, such as using our services to see if books are still in print by checking their ISBN numbers. (And yes, I can see where that would raise money with booksellers, and at the same time being counter-productive.)

In short, I can see therefore, ATMs popping up in libraries in exchange for the free wifi - send in the armed robbers! The alternative is giving over the likes of the Jazz Archive and the admittedly almost never used area for council staff who are passing through and who need a computer to do some work in a hurry on, turning into the proposed coffee shop at a greater profitability rate. The chase for the mighty dollar, eh?

[Rob McCow]

Barclays were a terrible partner for the London hire bikes, apparently they never paid everything they pledged.

http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2012/...ke-sponsorship