Darling Cuts VAT from 17.5% to 15% Starting Monday

I’m currently watching the Pre-Budget report on the BBC News website and Alistair Darling has announced that VAT will be cut from 17.5% to 15% starting on Monday until 2010. Government borrowing will rise to £78bn this year and £118bn next year saying that/ doing nothing would create a “deeper and longer recession”.

I’m sure this is great for the shops; I’m sure that £9.99 DVD isn’t going to go down to £9.74 so their profits just go up by 2.5% hooray for shops! On the bright side though, the price of jaffa cakes isn’t going to change since they’re not charged VAT in the first place, being cakes and all.

The real question is; are you going to spend, spend, spend? Go on.. buy the new MacBook Pro; it’ll save the economy.. and you’ll save 2.5% :P

Inmate Escapes German Prison in Box

This clipping taken from the BBC News website:

A manhunt is under way in western Germany for a convicted drug dealer who escaped by mailing himself out of jail.

The 42-year-old Turkish citizen – who was serving a seven-year sentence – had been making stationery with other prisoners destined for the shops.

At the end of his shift, the inmate climbed into a cardboard box and was taken out of prison by express courier. His whereabouts are still unknown.

The chief warden of the jail told the BBC this was an embarrassing incident.

The prison authorities in Willich, near Duesseldorf, said the man, who was tall and broad-shouldered, had hidden in a box that was about 150cm by 120cm.

When the weekly express courier arrived to pick up several boxes of merchandise, the one containing the prisoner was also loaded into the back of the lorry.

Shortly after it had passed through the prison gates, the inmate made his dash for freedom by cutting a big hole in the tarpaulin of the lorry and jumping off.

The driver alerted the police after he noticed the tarpaulin flapping in the breeze.

I know it’s really bad that this man has escaped from prison but a big, and very childish, part of me just loves the idea of someone being posted to freedom in box; shame Andy Dufresne never thought of that.