No one likes austerity.
People agree that we need to cut the DEFICIT, (no the debt as I keep hearing!!) just as long as THEY don't get the pinch.
Labour said they would cut 18% and the Tories 19% when the policies were looked at by the IESR before the last election. Labour said these would be ACROSS THE BOARD.......including the beloved NHS, which the Tories are protecting in real terms but there are still cuts in some areas due to the ever increasing demands for new drugs, an aging population and epidemic levels of obesity.
To pretend they could do any different is a fudging joke.
The reason the UK can currently finance is ?ú130 billion DEFICIT per year at German rates of interest, around 2%, is because the markets see we have a plan to balance the books and we are actually hitting the targets to reduce the deficit, (down ?ú60 BILLION in 2 years) France is 2% higher than us and Spain and Italy are above 6%.
If we have 6% interest rates it would increase the national annual DEBT interest bill from ?ú60 billion to around ?ú100 billion+ So another ?ú40 billion of cuts would need to be made.
In effect, NO ONE wants to cut, but it really is the lesser of two evils. Cut what YOU decide and balance the books or take orders from Berlin once the IMF need to be called in.
If you think i'm overstating this issue you're FLAT WRONG. Just look at Italy, (similar sized economy and population) absolutely fudged.
Spain has a higher GDP per capita than the UK but 25% unemployment and 50% for 18-25 year olds!! This is after a socialist government for 12 years.
Socialist government in Greece as well.
Now France will vote in a socialist who is peddling gonads about 75% tax rates and telling the 'markets' to fudge themselves.........lets just see how things pan out for France shall we??
Bottom line, when you aint got a fudging pot to tinkle YOU don't call the shots when you get the begging bowl out.
The UK is spending more this year than last year, (?ú700 billion +!!!!) and will keep spending more every fudging year for the rest of the parliament.
I argued before the last election that it would be a good one to lose. Looks like i'm being proved right!! But Labour are a bunch of lying ****s to pretend they have a fudging plan.
And just to add, if our interest rates go up, the banks will put up those on SVR mortgages immediately....completely wrecking the economy and any chance of a recovery.
Also - because the eurozone is such a fudging train wreck and we do 60% of our trade with them, it doesn't matter one fudging iota what we do, we will follow them into recession.
The US is being trumpeted as the plan to follow, but they have higher rates of poverty than us, higher unemployment and no social protection at all and a rip off healthcare system for the rich.
Even after the stimulus package their growth is also stalling now and people are asking, how is the $15 TRILLION, that's $15,000,000,000,000 by the way, FIFTEEN MILLION MILLIONS......is going to be paid back??
Of all the major economies I would rather be the UK, after Germany. Unemployment around 8%, a welfare state to speak of, (?ú200 billion a year, the single largest thing we spend money on and double the NHS budget) a house over everyones head, we will grow this year......of course things are brick. But the growth we had in the 2000's was fuelled by a housing bubble and record levels of personal credit, ?ú1.5 TRILLION worth!!
It was NEVER sustainable and was always going to end in tears. And even when we had a perfect opportunity to invest in infrastucture and pay down the debt for a rainy day what did we do? Employs thousands of extra 'community lesbian awareness consultants'
The mind boggles how fudging stupid the people of this country are.
