These are some of the lowlights of the 2008 budget: Higher taxes on high fuel consumption vehicles; not to save the planet but to be poured into the Brown Hole in Britain's finances. The taxation will be achieved by a Showroom Tax on 'gas guzzlers' and new road tax bands Duty on alcohol ; not to combat binge-drinking but as fodder for the Brown Hole. The rise is 6% above inflation for this year and 2% above inflation until 2012 Duty up 11p on 20 cigarettes and 4p on 5 cigars The planned 2p rise in fuel duty put back to October Winter fuel allowance up FOR THIS YEAR ONLY by £50, an amount which doesn't begin to make much difference, or £100 for people aged 80 and over. Council Tax up an average of 5.1% for 2008/09. Labour's claim that no Council Tax will rise by more than 5% is garbage A £90 million/year grab of gift aid to charities postponed for 3 years Increases in welfare benefits to poor families, but NOT UNTIL 2009 AT THE EARLIEST Non-domicile foreigners will have to pay £30,000/year to live here Bad schools are getting an extra £200 million to raise standards, and 3 years to do so instead of 4 but £160 million of the money was announced last year AND THERE IS NO NEW MONEY THIS YEAR Income tax up as the 10% starting rate abolished Aspirations: 30% of new government contracts to go to private small firms The government will get tough with supermarkets over plastic bags, but not this year Air fare taxes to go up next year Deliberate Lies: Public sector debt is 38.5% of GDP. As Labour has a 'golden rule' of not letting this percentage exceed 40%, the Northern Rock debt has been excluded from the calculation. The true figure is 43.5% of GDP.   #