budgeting

Meant to post this earlier, but oh well.

Last Wednesday, March 12, (before the Spain trip), the UK's annual government budget was released. The government official who presents it each year is the Chancellor of the Exchequer, (essentially the Secretary of the Treasury).

What's notable about this is that people here know when the budget comes, care about it, and actually change their behavior accordingly. It's amazing. No doubt, their concern is partly motivated by the UK's relatively high taxes and the frequency of the increases (apparently, annual).

But for the average person, the reason they care about the budget is that taxes are raised on very important items: beer, wine, and cigarettes. In coverage by at least one of the major newspapers, "Lifestyle taxes" were reported first. One of my coworkers actually bought several cases of wine on the 11th, in anticipation of major tax hikes. The taxes on cigarettes (11 pence on a pack) were to take place at 6 pm that day. Seems pretty far from the popular notion of slow government bureaucracy...