Budget

I wonder if I'm too old to understand but this budget has confused me.

It's not just how different George Osborne's sandwich box looks in every picture.

Although that is confusing, it's more the content of the budget that has puzzled me.

I don't understand how making all schools into academies is going to help anyone. I don't understand which big business are clamouring to sponsor the failing schools. I don't understand how paying some senior schools (but not all) to run after school arts and sports clubs will help. If a teacher moves from a school that pays them to run a club to a school that expects them to do it for free then this will have a terrible effect on morale.

I don't understand the sugar tax. Milk based drinks are exempt, as are Jamie Oliver's decadent puddings but fizzy drinks incur the fine. The companies who make fizzy drinks will probably spread the cost of this tax over all their products, so that low sugar fizzy drink guzzlers will also pay and the price of high sugar drinks won't be so huge that it puts people off.

Most of all, I am confused about the new lifetime ISA. I get the idea that governments want people to save (although I'm sure it's better to have money flowing around the economy being spent on goods and services). I also understand that freeing people from paying tax on their savings might encourage them to put a little of their earnings in a bank account. I also understand that young people don't save because they have to spend every penny on living. It's only when you get to my age that you've given up on living and you might as well stash your money under the mattress. So, a product that encourages young people to save is a good thing. Of course it is. But I'm confused. The government claims to have no money to help the disabled or those who earn so little that they can't feed their children but they can give £1000 a year to everyone under 40 who earns £4000 a year more than they need.

I was explaining my confusion to the Long Suffering Husband this morning and his usual half listening state he got quite excited about a lifetime ISA. 

"You can't have one, you're too old. You have to be under forty."

"Well, that's not fair," he said smoothing down the greying edges of his hair.

"Everyone is so selfish," I said, throwing a pillow at him.

"You've only just worked that out? Everyone is selfish and the rich are louder , better educated and more articulate."

I'm still confused, though. I don't know what has happened to compassion.