Britain Has The Sad Air Of The 1970s This Autumn

[AvidFan]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/breakin...his-autumn.html

UK unemployment jumps: Britain has the sad air of the 1970s this autumn

Gordon Brown, on the defensive over the UK’s enormous deficit, is about to address the unions.

By Ian Campbell

Published: 9:47AM BST 16 Sep 2009

The opposition Tory party – and probable next government – has called for sizeable reductions in public spending. The unions are strongly resisting cuts, warning that unemployment will rise to 4m and Britain may suffer a double-dip recession.

The problem for Brown and the UK is that both the Tories and the unions are right. Public spending needs to be slashed. And the consequences for the economy are going to be bloody.

“Tinaâ€, short for “there is no alternative,†was a phrase associated with the harsh policies of Margaret Thatcher, the UK prime minister during the 1980s recession. Tina must now ride again. The UK’s £175bn budget deficit is a dangerously high 13pc of GDP. That is not just a reflection, as the unions would have it, of bank bail outs and a temporary bust. It is a structural deficit established through years of spending increases funded by buoyant revenues from housing transactions and City bonuses.

Public-sector employment was a major beneficiary of a sustained spending binge. Since 2002, when Brown’s Labour party began to increase public spending substantially, public-sector employment has risen by 549,000 to its current total of 6m. True, about one-third of that uplift reflects the nationalisation of financial institutions. The real increases have been in health, education and the police. In the past seven years, National Health Service employees have risen by 220,000, teachers and classroom assistants by 148,000 and police by 49,000.

The budget decisions facing Brown or his successor as prime minister will therefore be painful indeed. Brown put health and education at the forefront, aiming at a healthier and better-educated nation. The unions are right in saying that cuts will further increase unemployment and exacerbate the risk of the UK heading back towards recession – especially if the axe falls sooner rather than later.

But the cutting may have to start under the current government. "There is clearly a danger investors will take fright," the Institute for Fiscal Studies said in January. Investors may already have done so. The yields on UK government debt would surely be much higher had the Bank of England not bought £143bn of that paper with freshly printed money since March. But the bank cannot go on printing money and using it to purchase government debt. That is yet another day of reckoning.

Tina is coming, scythe in hand. As in the 1980s, the pain will be acute.

[General Melchett]

http://www.discounttents.org/

[Guest DissipatedYouthIsValuable]

Ah well, at least we have the police on our side if we decide to picket or riot for wage inflation.

[stormymonday_2011]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/breakin...his-autumn.html

UK unemployment jumps: Britain has the sad air of the 1970s this autumn

Gordon Brown, on the defensive over the UK’s enormous deficit, is about to address the unions.

By Ian Campbell

Published: 9:47AM BST 16 Sep 2009

Sadly for the Torygraph and it supporters this particular problem is not going to disappear just by slashing public sector jobs, pensions (even though that will doubtless happen) since the taxpayer will still be on the hook for all those massive bank bailouts. In fact the TINA this time will be sovereign debt default.

[juvenal]

http://www.discounttents.org/

Good 'un.

[monty1080]

I dunno about that, I was very happy in the 1970s, playing with my action man, drinking Tizer and having street parties.

[@contradevian]

I dunno about that, I was very happy in the 1970s, playing with my action man, drinking Tizer and having street parties.

70's were great. Much simpler times and we were actually better off! Certainly better music, and I had a Cortina Mk 1 with "ban the bomb" rear lights.

Edited September 16, 2009 by SavingForAShed

[CokeSnortingTory]

I've long believed that the UK has never solved the problems it had in the 70's - it just papered over them with North Sea oil revenues and by selling off (privatising) state assets.

This is just a long-overdue re-acqaintance with reality.

[Executive Sadman]

Doesnt add up to me. We went to the IMF in the 1970s, yet continued to pile up more debts in the 80s. Did we actually need to go to the IMF in the 70s?

[dr ray]

Interesting that Brown did a U turn on announcing cuts.

He wanted to go into the next election campaign promising to save public sector jobs and maintain services while accusing the Tories of making cuts. This would have won him a few votes and may have prevented an overwhelming Tory majority which is his aim.

Now things must be really bad and he has sacrificed these votes because he fears going into the next election with a run on the £ which he must realise won't look great for him

Even his short term vote winning lies are having to be revised. The currency speculators must be very close to pulling the plug on Sterling and he knows it.

[Guest skullingtonjoe]

I dunno about that, I was very happy in the 1970s, playing with my action man, drinking Tizer and having street parties.

You forgot to mention Space 1999

[deflation]

And the 6 million dollar man, and Starsky and Hutch, and ...... freezing winters and no central heating

[Tin Foil Hat]

I reckon it's winter 2011 which will be the kicker - enough time for the Tories to make the working and lower-middle classes really suffer from a year of proper cutbacks.

They will keep the upper-middle classes and upper class going as they are who they represent in the main, certainly in deed.

Then we will have our winter of discontent I think.

TFH

[neil324]

Space Invaders,Chopper bikes,ABBA always on the TV,radio.

[Fishfinger]

70's were great. Much simpler times and we were actually better off! Certainly better music, and I had a Cortina Mk 1 with "ban the bomb" rear lights.

You liked the Wurzels?

Only from 1977 onwards - God Save the Queen - it's a fascist regime!

[SNACR]

I dunno about that, I was very happy in the 1970s, playing with my action man, drinking Tizer and having street parties.

I struggled to get girlfriends in my youth and had to resort to doing it myself too.

[Potwalloper]

You forgot to mention Space 1999

I watched that after you last mentioned it. Fabulous!

[Guest happy?]

There were clackers. Bangers were useful for throwing at Tory boys.

[Guest happy?]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/breakin...his-autumn.html

UK unemployment jumps: Britain has the sad air of the 1970s this autumn

Gordon Brown, on the defensive over the UK’s enormous deficit, is about to address the unions.

By Ian Campbell

Published: 9:47AM BST 16 Sep 2009

Wooooo, the bogeyman's gonna git you.

[lowrentyieldmakessense(honest!)]

Doesnt add up to me. We went to the IMF in the 1970s, yet continued to pile up more debts in the 80s. Did we actually need to go to the IMF in the 70s?

for the bankers

[InternationalRockSuperstar]

I reckon it's winter 2011 which will be the kicker - enough time for the Tories to make the working and lower-middle classes really suffer from a year of proper cutbacks.

They will keep the upper-middle classes and upper class going as they are who they represent in the main, certainly in deed.

Then we will have our winter of discontent I think.

TFH

Peter Mandelson, George Osbourne and Nathan Rothschild drinking cocktails together on a Russian billionaire's yacht.

and you still think there's a differemce between Lab and Con!

[Guest happy?]

And there was T Rex, Slade, Michael Jackson was still human, and who could forget Gary Glitter (something about him I never liked - he could never quite put his finger on it though.)

[Timil]

"Gordon is a Moron" was a hit single in the 70's, if ever a single was screaming out for a re-release surely its time has come.

[M21er]

"Gordon is a Moron" was a hit single in the 70's, if ever a single was screaming out for a re-release surely its time has come.

Takes you back .....

Here we go .. Two, Three, Four

[Guest The Relaxation Suite]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/breakin...his-autumn.html

UK unemployment jumps: Britain has the sad air of the 1970s this autumn

Gordon Brown, on the defensive over the UK’s enormous deficit, is about to address the unions.

By Ian Campbell

Published: 9:47AM BST 16 Sep 2009

It's a familiar cycle. Tories sort out the economy and then cut taxes for the rich and the public gets irritated and votes for the "champions of the people", the socialists. Then the socialists destroy the economy and the currency and the people get irritated and vote them out and then vote in the Tories who sort out the economy and then cut taxes for the rich and the public gets irritated and votes for the "champions of the people", the socialists. Then the socialists destroy the economy and the currency and the people get irritated and vote them out and then vote in the Tories who sort out the economy and then cut taxes for the rich and the public gets irritated and votes for the "champions of the people", the socialists. Then the socialists destroy the economy and the currency and the people get irritated and vote them out and then vote in the Tories who....

The fact is the politicial party system in the UK no longer offers a real solution.

Edited September 16, 2009 by D-503