Budget: a personal response

I've had a few days to let the budget changes sink in - or to find out about them at least.  According to the BBC's calculator (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12773565), I'm going to be £26 a month worse off.  It won't break the bank.  Here are my comments on the changes.

Fuel Duty Cut - 1 (new) penny
It makes a nice headline when the petrol price is rising 10 pence per litre per quarter.  The real effect as we all observed was nothing at all.  To say that the corresponding tax increase on oil companies cannot be passed on was clearly rubbish.  Do we import petrol (refined and ready for the car) from outside of the EU - no we don't - it's all made locally.

Personal tax allowance rises by £630 to £8,105 in April 2012.
A year is a long time to wait.  I'm also waiting for the National Insurance (NI) & Income Tax merger, which I'm broadly against. NI should be a ring fenced fund for pensions, NHS etc. - so we can all see how much it costs us.  Income tax (which should be scrapped, in favour of higher VAT) should mean that anyone on the minimum wage (£5.93 per hour @ 40 hours per week = £12,334.40 per year) should not pay income tax, so £12,334 should be the personal allowance.  This would take many people out of the tax system and save money on expensive tax inspectors. This is a step in the right direction.

Corporation tax to be cut by 2% 
Instead of the one planned, and is now targeted to come down to 23% by 2015.  Probably helpful for small businesses.  It might stop a few companies re-locating overseas.

Gift Aid & Charities
Some relief on the administration side but little incentive for the 'Big Society' to pick up new roles and take over government functions.  Gift Aid means that tax is refunded to the charity from the Income Tax I paid on the money I earned and gave to a charity. Now up to £5000 of unaccredited donations can be used to claim back gift aid.  In theory it should be at the basic rate of income tax, but when that was last reduced charities could still claim the 21% back.  So If I gave £1 they got £1.28.  Now they will get £1.25, that relief should have been extended.
As someone who respects the requirement to tithe and does it from Gross income, not Net income, this change will have an additional impact on me. I haven't calculated the cost of that yet.

Overall
If I was in as much debt, proportionally, as the country is and still borrowing to keep my life afloat, as the country is then I would want it fixed as quickly as it could be.  So I have to support the cuts and I expect them to hurt.  Time like these should be use to re-structure and set the foundations for the next decades.  I haven't seen much of that, if any.