Letter from London

The Budgetary Blues

The chief event of the past month has been the budget. No new taxes were imposed and there were a number of concessions designed to stimulate production. The principal changes were a reduction in purchase tax, a cut of twopence a pint off the tax on beer and a reduction in the standard rate of income tax from eight shillings sixpence to seven shillings ninepence with correspondingly smaller reductions for those who do not earn enough to pay the standard rate.