Budget 2010: What geeks need to know
It's budget time! Once again the nation's financial future rests in the hands of a few (hopefully) honourable men. We take you through the changes that will affect all of us nerds
As a wise man once said, mo' money, mo' problems. Thank goodness then, that the gumm'int is on hand to fiddle with the nation's expenses. That's right, it's budget day! (Sorry we didn't get you a card.) And there are a few financial adjustments bound to be of interest to the wallet-wary geek.
The worst news first: VAT in the UK will rise from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent next year. This means your pricey gadgets may well become a little more expensive, unless retailers take the hit for you. All we can recommend is that you buy as much technology as you can this year, before VAT increases on 1 January.
Chancellor George Osborne has also confirmed that the landline duty Labour tried to introduce before they were dumped out of office will be scrapped. The plan was to get everyone in the UK with a fixed phone line to pay 50p per month, cumulatively raising £170m, which would have been spent on rolling out superfast broadband to the UK.
Souping up the nation's broadband will now be left to the private sector. Here's hoping big business sees the financial sense in delivering superfast download speeds to the nation.
Finally, we're dismayed to report that Labour's planned tax cuts for the UK videogames industry have also been chucked out. Mr Osborne called the proposed plans "poorly targeted". Apparently the Conservatives have pledged their support to the UK games industry, which is rather... noncommital, and probably of little comfort to UK-based games developers.
The BBC is doing a sterling job of reporting all the budget news if you fancy checking out the less dorky side of our nation's financial future. If not, go buy some British-made videogames.