Labour Government’s budget

IF members of the two older parties in England imagined that the Labour Party would suffer in public estimation by its being elevated to office or would necessarily prove a complete failure, they must have revised their estimate by now. The budget that Mr Philip Snowden, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Cabinet, presented on Tuesday before a crowded and animated House of Commons, might, as Sir Robert Horne, former Chancellor, said, well have been made by either of the older parties. Mr Askwith, in congratulating Mr Snowden, described it as a thoroughly sound financial operation containing nothing to which the Liberals would not be able to heartily subscribe. There is nothing that smacks of socialism in the Chancellor’s various proposals nor is there the remotest hint of any discriminatory taxation. On the other hand, the capitalists, who had every reason to apprehend an attempt on the part of the Labour Government for the levy of some sort of tax on capital, have been afforded some measure of relief in the shape of the remission of the tax on corporate profits. Therefore, it should not cause surprise to anyone here if Mr Snowden’s speech in propounding his achievements before the House, a speech that lasted for well-nigh two hours, was frequently applauded by the government as well as Opposition benches and that the budget itself, excepting a proposal or two, has been very favourably received in England and has pleased both the Conservatives and the Liberals. An examination of figures reveals that the total expenditure for the year would be £790,000,000 and the total revenue on the existing basis of taxation £828,000,000, leaving a surplus of £38,000,000.