Why should ordinary people have to pay more for Britain’s ineptitude?
Posted by Jim on November 27, 2025
THE IRISH NEWS:
Why should ordinary people have to pay more for Britain’s ineptitude? – The Irish News view.
Chancellor’s budget will do nothing to ease pressure on many squeezed household incomes.
Rachel Reeves delivers her Budget in the House of Commons
By The Irish News
November 27, 2025 at 6:00am GMT
First, the good news. The Conservative government’s cruel decision almost a decade ago to limit some benefit entitlements to the first two children in a family is being scrapped.
The change will have a particularly big impact in Northern Ireland, where around one in five families have more than two children.
Campaigners say it could be transformative in tackling rising levels of child poverty. In fact, in a single budget announcement, the Labour government has probably achieved more than the entire contents of Stormont’s widely-criticised anti-poverty strategy.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves also said the Northern Ireland Executive would be given an additional £370m in block funding over the next three to four years.
This will certainly be welcomed but only go so far – ministers say they face a shortfall of at least £400m this year.
A small increase in the minimum wage will also mean a deserved pay rise for many workers.
But it was about there the good news ended, in what will be remembered as one of the most chaotic budgets in recent history.
Every family is acutely aware that the cost of living has risen sharply – it can be felt every time we visit a shop or pay for other services.
And the decision to freeze income tax and national insurance thresholds for a further three years will only further squeeze household incomes.
The number of taxpayers in Northern Ireland paying the 40% rate has already doubled in recent years and will now rise further – the very definition of a ‘stealth tax’.
The chancellor’s admission that she is asking “ordinary people to pay a little bit more” might be more convincing if the tax burden was not at its highest level in decades. People here will not even benefit from savings on energy or prescriptions in England.
A wide range of other taxes were also announced, targeting everyone from latte-drinkers to electric car owners, but conspicuous by its absence was a coherent plan to boost growth in the anemic British economy.
Yet again, the elephant at Westminster was the catastrophic impact of the UK’s kamikaze decision to turn its back on its biggest trading market.
Until Brexit is reversed, and with Stormont clearly unwilling or incapable of taking the tough decisions required for the economy and public services, the voices calling for a fundamental rethink of relationships on these islands will only grow louder.
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