For those of you not in the know about British politics, the Chancellor to the Labour Party, Alistair Darling (that’s the guy who controls all the money), has today announced the budget for 2010. Alongside a raft of half measures to cut our one trillion pound deficit (the government will borrow less than we expected this year, down from the £178 billion we expected- hurrah!) he has also announced, and acknowledge that:
“the creative industries, including the video games industry, make a valuable economic and cultural contribution to the UK. Following consultation on design, it (being the UK) will introduce a tax relief for the UK’s video games industry, subject to state aid approval from the European Commission.”
Sadly the budget proposal does not go into detail on how this will be achieved, or specifically what bearing the EU Commission has on it becoming a reality (no doubt Mr. Darling expects them to pay for it all) however it must surely be a good move to acknowledge the industry within the UK so publicly. Perhaps this will be the financial catalyst the games industry within the UK has needed for quite some time, as opposed to seeing developers hopping across the pond to Canada and their luxurious incentives.
For an industry worth £4 billion pounds in the UK, there is little wonder Mr. Darling is desperate to encourage more of it. We need all the money we can get.
You can view the Supporting Business and Growth budget report here, and can find the Chancellors sentiments under point 4.33
I’m almost certain there are more caveats to this than you can shake a stick at, but in the interim, isn’t it lovely to see an article about the gaming industry that doesn’t involve banning everything in sight or generally taking swipes at gamers or our past time?
In solid real terms, what does this mean for development both now and going forward? The UK has produced some excellent games and franchises over the years and it would be nice to see our role in the industry take a leaf from Canada’s book.
I’m pleased to see that MPs are beginning to take the role of the industry in the UK seriously. The nation has suffered a terrible brain drain recently due to those Canadian tax credits. It’s been a while since companies like Psygnosis and Bullfrog, when UK development was a big, big deal. Here’s to hoping this tax relief will bring the industry back.
Also, I’m not sure if this is appropriate to air in a public domain but.. I have a REALLY hard time trusting aman who has a combination of jet black eyebrows and pure white hair.
Plus his last name is “Darling.” You Brits, such a bunch of girly girls. We have a congresswoman whose last name is Slaughter. Beat that! 😉
A congress woman? 🙂 No doubt shes a Republican with a name like that! 😉
Ironically I think she’s a democrat, because I just read that she was getting death threats for voting yes on health care. Here in the States we’re all about not being healthy.
I don’t understand how people can be against health care, who doesn’t it benefit?
The Old White Boys Club, who can already afford it 🙂
I really hope that changes for all the poor sods who can’t afford it. Doesn’t Canada have a similar health care system to the UK, xtal?
Hm. Derailed.
Politics isn’t my strong point despite trying to follow it but isn’t Darling and his cronies being voted out in May anyway? Isn’t this budget just a last minute vain attempt at turning some heads ie. it doesn’t really matter?
We have free health care coverage in Canada, yes. Here in Ontario, OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan…duh) is usually reliable, but the definitions for what constitutes an essential service, i.e. one that is free of charge to the user, is a bit cloudy to me.
For example, last year I was plagued with warts on my hands and feet; After trying unsuccessfully several basic methods to begin with (creams, creating an antibody allergin in me (a particular catastrophic favourite of mine), liquid nitrogen spray) I eventually went to a laser surgery clinic where they removed them with a funny– and relatively painless– laser gun. Somehow my feet were deemed “covered by OHIP” and were free of charge. However my hands were apparently deemed “not as useful as feet” and I was charged $35 to remove the warts on them. “Cosmetic,” as they say.
It’s a fickle but ultimately positive system. Just be prepared for disbelief in the level of taxation if you ever move here. 🙂
In the US a lot of people on the right are convinced that they stand to lose if a law is passed that benefits everyone. Also they believe that only the “right kind” of people should benefit. It reinforces their world view when others suffer and they don’t.
You also get the whole “I don’t want to pay MY HARD EARNED MONEY so some freeloader can get medicine” argument. See, in the US, a large percentage of people don’t believe that what separates us from the beasts is our willingness to help others of our kind in need.
To them, health care is a way of the government… I don’t know, secretly shoving a chip up your ass or something. I’d be okay with a chip up my ass if my prescriptions didn’t set me back $250 a month. Or if a visit to the doctor’s office – just for a checkup, mind you – didn’t cost $50.
And these things are after my copay. I have a job. In fact, I’m fortunate enough to be what most people would describe as “well-insured,” thanks to my employer’s plan.
Several years ago I was uninsured because I was working as a freelance consultant. I got pneumonia – bad. I actually did go to the doctor, but they (correctly) tried conservative treatments first – antibiotic pills and so on. My doctor was nice enough to give me a pile of the free samples doctors always get from drug reps, because the antibiotic he wanted to use was really expensive. But the pills didn’t work. I went from 165lbs to 130 in about three weeks. Around that time my friends and family essentially kidnapped me and dragged me back to the doctor. They called out the big guns – I got a shot and my pneumonia cleared right up. Total cost: $1800.
As Scout says, we in America like to watch other people suffer, and laugh at those who really need help. It’s sort of like a game to us.
Wow. I’m absolutely stunned at your stories and the lack of compassion many people in America seem to show for those poorer than themselves. As a heavily religious nation (not all obviously) Americans seem all too quick to disregard others misfortunes, as if it is their own fault. Perhaps they place too much emphasis on personal responsibility (a good and a bad thing). It’s all very well and good Republicans and some Democrats opposing the healthcare bill, but they unlike many millions of Americans don’t have any financial worries and so can afford the best treatment money can buy, and that is the crooks of the matter.
What also drives me wild with rage, is the fact Americans keep throwing the word “socialist” around in reference to the healthcare bill. I’m not even sure that many know what the word socialist means. For those that opposed the healthcare bill, and for those that continue to beat the NHS in the UK with a stick and false news, I look forward to the day they need treatment and their premiums won’t cover it! (horrible I know!)
I earn around £23k per year, and get taxed well over £600 a month. Am I happy to be taxed that heavily to support the NHS and for those that need its care when I myself am fit and healthy? Absolutely.
I had for a spell, a horrendous time with Tonsillitis, and visited the hospital multiple times, it got that bad I couldn’t eat. After being given two courses of anti-biotic’s, I finally got better, but it kept coming back. I was so fed up I phoned the doctor and made an appointment that day to see her. After a chat, I asked to have them removed and she made me an appointment with the hospitals surgeon there and then. A few days later and I was in the surgeons office talking about the surgery and how it would happen. Two months later and my tonsils were removed, I stayed in hospital for a night, and got given enough medication to sedate a cow before being sent home. Total cost? Nothing.
Then there are the countless times I’ve visited the doctors for coughs, colds, flu, a bad knee, a pulled groin muscle or even being hit by a car. The list is long after 25 years! So although I technically pay my taxes to fund my ability to use the NHS, I’m confident what I pay each month, for me to use every single service in the UK is far, far cheaper than US premiums.
$1800 dollars for a shot to cure pneumonia Steerpike? You would have been better off paying for a flight to the UK (around £400) and walking into our local NHS service. They would have admitted you to hospital straight away!
80% of Americans are complete morons, Lewis. The remaining 20% are really decent people, but they’re definitely the minority. Any time you hear someone raving about how great America is, always remember that they’re talking about the country, not the people! The country’s nice. We have really pretty landmarks.
You’re also right about the “socialist” thing. Whenever some fool calls Obama socialist I ask them to define the word. They never can.
Auuu, they were lovely in Florida. But then again they are paid to be smiley and nice, haha. Unless you go to Bush Gardens, in which case they are far more “normal”.
On a side note: I SHALL DEFEAT THEE ON THE CHESS BOARD!!!!!!!!!!
Florida elected W, Lewis. Florida is responsible for 2000-2008. I have often advocated cutting Florida off and letting it float away, despite the fact that Editor Emeritus Old Rooster lives there, and despite the fact that land masses don’t float. That place has gotta go!
Your knight is mine.
I don’t understand!? I shall investigate who W Lewis is!
Love Disney Land though! 😀
W is Bush, no? As in George W Bush. If my memory serves me right wasn’t Florida involved with a load of re-count shenanigans that got him elected?
I prefer to call him The Adversary, though that gives him more credit than he deserves. W was quite literally dumb as a post. You should hear some of the stuff he’s babbled, he’s like a brainless 15-year-old cheerleader… who has the power to kill millions. He wasn’t evil, he just surrounded himself with people who were.
But yeah, in Florida he stole the election from what should have been the Gore presidency; our system is broken so though more people voted for Gore, W was able to steal it using his daddy’s connections to our Supreme Court.
Sorry. bitter. 2000-2008 shouldn’t have been what they were.
I remember reading about the whole thing in Stupid White Men and it made ME angry so Christ knows what it felt like living under his presidency. Every time me and my mum watched him do his speeches on the news we just couldn’t take him seriously. He just looked ridiculous all the time.
RE: 2000-2008, I’d like to use the old saying “whatever doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger” but it’s scary: some of the … hmm what can I call them without being too rude? … some of the crazies, yes that’s the word… some of the crazies actually seem to think that 2000-2008 were the good times and that they’re somehow worse off now post-Bush. Crazy, right?
One of the strangest things I have ever seen was in the closing clips of a documentary, of which the name escapes me right now, which detailed the 2008 Republican campaign: grown men and women, and children crying over their defeat. Real tears, sobbing, weeping human beings, somehow genuinely frightened for their lives that this New World Order would soon be arriving to rape and pillage their village. The children crying was actually the worst part, only because the sight of children crying over politics is disgusting; right out of the womb clearly brainwashed into the mold instead of just being able to live a semi-normal existence.
Sigh. Don’t even get me started on trend-word of 2009: socialism. They don’t even know what it means, they don’t even grasp comprehension of the language they speak; only shouting out the slurs that were fed into their mouths as children.
Jeez it’s Friday, I gotta lighten up!