BUDGET FEARS: "It's skinny tatties we'll be eating"

Sandy Kilpatrick • Published 24 Jun 2010 11:35

A PENSIONER has blasted the Chancellor's Emergency Budget warning "the poor and working class will bear the brunt".

But Scotland's sole Tory and Upper Nithsdale MP David Mundell defended the Tory/Lib-Dem Coalition Government's tax hikes and benefit cuts as "fair to people on different incomes".

Child benefit will be frozen for the next three years. Tax credits will be reduced, housing benefit capped and VAT will rise from 17.5% to 20% next January Fuel, cigarettes and alcohol duty will remain the same.

Pensioner Jimmy Murray, 93, from Emrys Avenue, Cumnock said: "It's all very well for Chancellor George Osborne to say the Budget is fair but it's the poor and working class in the Cumnock area who will bear the brunt of increased VAT. It's skinny tatties they'll be eating.

"They say they've not raised fuel duty but petrol and diesel still goes up with VAT. I will have to do away with my car if it gets any more expensive to run. If I can't get out in the car I'm condemned to the house."

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