BUDGET GRUMBLING IN BRITAIN

Grey River Argus, 19 April 1948, Page 7

BUDGET GRUMBLING IN BRITAIN

LONDON, April 11. The Chancellor of'the Exchequer (Sir Stafford Cripps) has been the. main topic in Britain in the past week. There were the usual criticisms of the -Budget. Some said it was good, others thought it was bad, arid others thought it was wrong and inept—this latter criticism from a Labour Member of Parliament. Another 500,000 people with small in? comes’ learned that they would have to pay no income tax in future while everyone else found that they would have to nay less. This was liked and • so' were. some of the purchase tax reductions. Mrs- Jean Mann, a Labour- back-bencher, thought that Sir Stafford might have gone further. She regarded these reductions as a “niggardly peck—like a stepmother’s kiss.” .Attacking the 33 1-3 per cent tax on utility fullyfashioined stockings, • she asked: “Doesn’t Sir Stafford like to see neat stockings. Does he like the corrugated iron ankle type of stockings?” Most grumbling, perhaps came over the higher prices that will have to be paid for whisky, and beer. . Sir Stafford Cripps came m for publicity during the week. One report described him as a “vegetarian, teetotaller, cold bath addict, exercise fiend, and pre-dawn insomniac.” It was stated that he goes to. bed at 10 pirn., rises at 4 a.m., writes for two hours, takes a walk in St. James’s Park, just before 7 a.m., and then has a cold shower before breakfast. The secret of his energy and power of concentration. is said to be vogourt, a sour milk junket, which can be spelt in thirteen different Ways and served in as many dishes. Mr Churchill described his speech as a ‘comprehensive, lucid statement, ‘in which few words' were wasted,” and “worthy of Budget occasions in the past.”