Abandon hope!

'IF PEOPLE ARE to make long-term investments they need a degree of long-term certainty.' So said the chief secretary to the Treasury Des Browne in relation to the new measures for the film industry. It is a shame that long-term certainty does not seem high on the Treasury's agenda in other respects. Another of Mr Browne's assertions was equally galling: 'The tax system will be significantly simplified for small businesses by replacing the starting and non-corporate distribution rates of corporation tax with a single banding for small companies set at the current small companies rate …'. It takes some nerve to sing the praises of a measure introduced to correct the confusion created by the same Government only four years previously. But that is politics.
The furore over the sudden withdrawal of the home computer initiative scheme was similarly glossed over by Mr Browne saying that the...