Budget deficit: news goes from bad to worse

Wookster

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=480705&in_page_id=2&ct=5

Budget in disarray as UK falls deeper into red

The Chancellor was today given a splitting headache over the Budget as recession plunged Britain deeper into the red.

Official figures showed a shocking deterioration in public finances and left borrowing forecasts by Alistair Darling in disarray. City experts warned the Government could now have to borrow £460bn over just three years - four times more than expected a year ago and almost £160bn more than forecast in November.

A further £460BN onto the national debt in 3 years would be enormously bad.
Its time for some tough decisions to be made - I just can't see Crash and Darling having the balls to do so before the election.

It looks like the best salvation for the UK's levels of national debt is a fiscally conservative government.

mewbie_2

460Bn? Pah! They can just ease and squeeze that.

Cat695

Labour will do what they have always done....stealth tax us to death.

And then blame Iran so we can go to war with them. (I should add...so they can stay as Americas best buddy)

amcluesent

No.11 had best phone a friend to see what to do. I'm sure that nice Mr.Mugabe can advise, since Clown has been mimicking all his policies...

Wookster

amcluesent wrote: »

I'm sure that nice Mr.Mugabe can advise

I think his novel Print-a-solution (R) method might be patented and cost Crash in royalty fees

kabayiri

I don't know about others here, but I've grown weary with the politicking taking place over recent times.

I can't remember one government estimate where they came even close on the actuals, can you?

Amount to bail out banks :- fail
Olympics cost :- fail
Tax Credits running costs :- fail (3 times the prediction if you're interested)
Budget deficit :- fail
NPfIT :- mega fail

After a while you suspect it's policy not to disclose the real numbers, in case we are really spooked.

amcluesent

Number of immigrants :- fail

RetroBob

As usual Labour leave office in a mess, the Tories will come in have to sort it out. They'll have to make unpopular public service cuts to stop the country from imploding and people will whine.

lynzpower

Everything fails in terms of budget constraints- wanna know why? Private finance.

Heres a few belting examples:

SNP MSPs have accused the PFI firm behind Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary of making extortionate claims after they demanded £14.5 million to buy out the car parking contract at the hospital.
The SNP Government has instructed health boards to re-introduce free parking at all hospitals. The PFI contracts put in place by Labour and the Lib Dems mean car parking charges are still in place at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Ninewells in Dundee.
Responding to the demand SNP Lothians MSP Dr Ian Mckee said;
"This shows the enormous folly of building public services through private finance.
"This claim is extortionate. Edinburgh's PFI deal has allowed a private company to hold the health board and its employees to ransom.
"To take £14 million from frontline services to line the pockets of a private company is simply wrong.”

So what this is telling us is that some company has been allowed to make 14 million pounds out of us who visit sick relatives- OR that if this is to be chargeable- and I think it should be - then that 14mil should be going back to the STATE -ie extra for those hospitals-not to a company?

From Moneyweek in 07
http://www.moneyweek.com/news-and-charts/economics/whats-wrong-with-pfi.aspx

PFI: What’s in it for the state?

That’s more contentious. Supporters of PFI argue that it allows the state greater access to private capital and gives the private sector more confidence to get involved with government projects. That was certainly the reasoning so enthusiastically taken up by the Labour party from 1997 onwards, when Tony Blair’s first health secretary, Alan Milburn, declared that when it came to building hospitals, it was “PFI or bust”. However, sceptics have frequently argued that PFI is little more than a gigantic accounting fiddle or hire-purchase scheme, keeping current infrastructural spending off the government’s current accounts and shifting it on to future generations so that Gordon Brown keeps his much-vaunted reputation for prudence.
Is there any truth in that?

Yes. In theory, there is nothing wrong with PFI. But in practice, the numbers haven’t always quite added up for the taxpayer. Instead, the private-sector companies involved in the deals appear to be making spectacular profits and the government is getting stuck with nasty looking long-term payment commitments. So far, for example, £54bn has been spent on infrastructure and services under PFI, but – and these are the government’s own figures – the long-term cost to the taxpayer of that £54bn is going to be more like £160bn.

Controversy has always surrounded the government's predilection for paying private companies to borrow on its behalf – paying off the mortgage using a credit card, the critics said, because of the higher interest involved. Until recently, however, no one doubted that the PFI was something that could be done. Sixty or more projects were agreed annually from 1998, with the new schools and hospitals of which New Labour made much being bankrolled by private money. But in 2007 the commercial bond market dried up as a source of cash during the credit crunch's first act; then, during the saga's more dramatic phase in the autumn, the banks grew reticent too. The result has been a halving in the number of projects agreed in the past year.
The NHS has been warned of a "capital desert", and the much-vaunted plan to rebuild every English secondary school is under threat. The M25 widening may not be completed in time for the Olympics, and the National Audit Office warns that delays besetting new waste management plants will lead to excessive landfill dumping that could trigger European fines running to hundreds of millions of pounds. All of this would be grave enough news at any time for a government that has made public investment its defining mission. But it is all the more so now that the chancellor is relying on public works to pump-prime the economy. His desperation to turn the taps back on is understandable enough. Desperation, however, is a poor guide in deciding what to do next.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/03/pfi-labour

Whether you are left or right leaning ( hell im both!) there is no question that we are being royally ripped off here. Started by the tories, expanded by labour !!!!!! I dont care whos next as long as they are prudent !

Graham_Devon

kabayiri wrote: »

I don't know about others here, but I've grown weary with the politicking taking place over recent times.

I can't remember one government estimate where they came even close on the actuals, can you?

Amount to bail out banks :- fail
Olympics cost :- fail
Tax Credits running costs :- fail (3 times the prediction if you're interested)
Budget deficit :- fail
NPfIT :- mega fail

After a while you suspect it's policy not to disclose the real numbers, in case we are really spooked.

"I won't put fuel duty up in 2008/9" - fail.
"an end to sleaze" - fail.

lynzpower

amd end to boom and bust :- BIG FAT FAIL