Sunday, Apr 25, 2010
What crisis?
The Guardian: Please, no more guff about change and fairness. What about the fiscal crisis?
The most powerful forces in the world of UK domestic policy are not our politicians, but the international bond markets.
Nine of the 10 fund managers surveyed by the Financial Times said that they didn't mind which of the two main parties won the election, because the spending cuts would happen anyway.
The cuts are going to happen. They will be the most severe that modern Britain has experienced.
Like a desperate family, taking out new credit cards to pay off the loans on the ones we'd already maxed out. That's the point at which we would have to turn to the moneylenders...
Posted by devo @ 10:23 PM (1585 views) Add Comment
16 Comments
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1. devo said...
my friends and family are in for one hell of a shock when they learn the truth
2. Devo said...
i tried telling them
but they look at me as if i'm a lunatic!
3. drewster said...
If Ireland's cuts were applied to the UK, it would be a spending cut of £50bn. (Compare with our erstwhile leaders debating over £6bn cuts.) However I'm not sure the UK is in quite such dire straits as Ireland. Thoughts?
4. enuii said...
Devo, but will they understand why, the I'm a celebrity britains got talent strictly come dancing on ice eastenders don't have much comprehension of their finances, economics or anything much above 6-10pm TV programming.
5. devo said...
@ drewster
roger bootle has just put the figure at £100 billion
see for yourself
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/rogerbootle/7632761/Weve-got-to-find-100bn-in-cuts-or-tax-give-thanks-were-not-in-the-euro.html
6. dbc reed said...
If the financial institutions are lending us all this money ,where are they getting it from? Were n't they all supposed to be broke?Needing to be propped up with quantitative easing money?So we are paying them to borrow the money which the Gov has created.Brilliant.Why does n't the Gov pay the bills with quantitative easing money?Like Lincoln did.Cut out the middleman.Mind you look what happened to him.
7. devo said...
The next government will have to cut public sector pay, freeze benefits, slash jobs, abolish a range of welfare entitlements and take the axe to programmes such as school building and road maintenance – or make a set of equally politically perilous choices...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c95e4d10-50ad-11df-bc86-00144feab49a.html
the focus of the third and final debate, on thursday, is... the economy
who will dare tell the truth; gordon, dave or nick?
8. markj69 str05 said...
Not sure Gordon would have let Dave or Nick know the true situation, therefore we are left to believe what Browny says. With his recent record of truth and honest, he doesn't stand a chance. Expect a lot of 'lip-service'.
Is it just me or does he seem to come across as a bit of a dinosaur. I can't help but ridicule him whenever I see him on the box, and I can't bring myself to actually listen to a word he is saying. More than a little bias, but with good reason i'd say/
9. Simon said...
@4 Devo , not much hope of any politician uttering that on Thursday is there .
There are things a new government can do immediately to improve the long term situation which will not impact people in the pockets just yet and will allow people to plan for a more austere future .
For instance , public sector pensions should be made defined contribution straight away and fully funded so liabilities are not built up for the next generation . This will also make it possible to compare public sector and private sector pay packages .
I'm currently making 8% less than 3 years ago and those of my friends who are still working have seen their income simmilarly reduced . No way we can keep writing I.O.U's our children will be expected to honour to pay a significant proportion of public sector workers a premium .
10. vacuouspolitician said...
Agree with this article. Time the politicians stopped using glib soundbites and told the public some real facts. Perhaps the tide has turned - they have been sussed by the public - and its time to take off the mask. So far it's all been so boringly predictable. It all comes down to the fog created by the government of the day and in turn all the parties (to more or less effect) trying to hoodwink the electorate - "vote for me, I'm the political colour you want to be, trust me, believe in me, I don't have to tell you facts/figures just trust in me..." ...it reminds me of the snake from Jungle book. The worst so far have been the Bullingdon club - I watched Osbourne on Daily Politics Chancellors debate this evening on Iplayer - he was pathetic, negative, nothing but hot air, no costing, nothing new at all. A close second came New Labour, who are hoodwinking people and trying to get away with it (by not having a full spending review) and arguing over fractions of the massive amount of money we owe the markets.
Hope the third debate concentrates on these issues and doesn't go off at a tangent. The second debate was poor. It needs some decent, salient, probing questions and for it to be chaired and managed by an experienced crafty chair person. Don't hold your breath...no one will give full in-depth answers until they have been voted in for 5 years...
11. gone-to-colombia said...
How true, all the above including the article.
I'm not sure of the value of the cuts, I am sure it will feel brutal.
There are few other choices.
And....what chance then for house prices to rise?
12. Simon said...
Labour talk about "halving the deficit within one parliament" .
It's reasonable to assume that that is the absolute highest rate of cuts that could be made anywhere near palatable to the public .
In that time our national debt will have doubled and the interest we are paying on is likely to have doubled if not trebled .
Thus to remove the remaining half of the deficit we are going to need pretty much the same level of cuts again .
If we don't cut deeper now , won't it just be a case of the IMF doing it later ?
13. powerofnow said...
It probably the reason the powers that be have allowed the Lib Dems to tdo so well - when it goes really horribly wrong the Blues and the Reds can blame it on the Yellows and consign them to history once and for all.
14. tyrellcorporation said...
It's laughable that Brown talks about the Conservatives 'taking' 6bn out of the economy. This bafoon really does believe that the Government can spend money more efficiently than if it was left in the hands of the people that earned it.
This non-argument should be stuffed with vigour up his proverbial!
15. alan said...
@ devo (1),
Its not just YOUR friends and family "in for one hell of a shock when they learn the truth" - its mine too!
16. Nick said...
Well last year Osbourne and Cameron tried to be trueful but then there ratings just went down. So the notion that people want to hear the truth is not quite true - most of the electorate can't handle the truth, if they did then they wouldn't penalise a party for being honest just cause they don't like what they say. So as the Tories have learn't being honest is not going to win them an election because the Brown will make them out to be the bad guys even though he knows that his govt would have to make the cuts anyway!