Stephanomics on austerity.

Wookster

Then David Cameron pulls a Claude Rains, declaring himself "shocked, shocked" to find that the British government had been running a massive deficit. (And it's going to have to pay loads of interest on it - who knew?)
Now we have a report from Fitch, the ratings agency, reminding the world that fixing the UK public finances will be a "formidable task".
It all makes for the perfect run-up to George Osborne's statement on the comprehensive spending review this afternoon - not to mention his hair-shirt Budget in two weeks' time.
Before the election, the chancellor set "eight benchmarks" by which a Conservative government's economic policies ought to be judged, of which the most concrete was keeping the UK's triple A credit rating.
A few weeks ago, Fitch downgraded the Spanish government's credit rating - from AAA to AA+. Spain has problems we don't: it has a bigger current account deficit than us, and it's in the single currency so I can't easily adjust.
But its government made some of the same mistakes as ours in the lead up to the crisis, and its public finances are in a similar state.
This latest Fitch Report makes clear that it would think hard about downgrading the UK, too, if the coalition stuck with the old government's timetable for cutting the deficit.
As I've noted before, the maturity of Britain's debt - and the Treasury's past record of bringing down deficits - give the UK leeway with the ratings agencies that Spain and others do not enjoy. Quite apart from the flexibility provided by not being in the euro.
But even with all that, Britain's vital fiscal statistics do stand out from the rest. A year ago, the goal of halving the deficit over five years looked unambitious, but just about respectable.
However, since the start of this year nearly all of the major European economies have accelerated their plans to cut borrowing; Germany announced another round of consolidation only yesterday. That has put the UK out of step. In polite company, it is no longer respectable to say you expect to still have a deficit of 4% of GDP in 2015.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/stephanieflanders/2010/06/bad_news_is_good_news.html

Seems like austerity is the new fashion accessory.

Good article with some interesting thoughts.

Thrugelmir

A KPI that is easy to remember and an indicator as to progress made.

Of course, there's a reason why our deficit ends up higher than the others' - it starts off a lot higher. In fact, the primary deficit - ie the gap between spending and revenues, before taking account of the cost of servicing the debt - is a whopping 9.3% of GDP.

amcluesent

Shopping at Lidls, make do & mend, patched trousers, taking fish-paste sarnies to work, hand-me-downs for the kids, charity shops not John Lewis, spam fritters again, wearing wollens and no central heating, shared baths, 'national bread', 50mph speed limit on motorways, coffee made from acorns, grow-your-own turnips, no ready meals, caravans holidays in Gwent, scrimping for the sake of the kiddies, cycling everywhere, cancelling Sky Sports, ...

Welcome to austerity!

ILW

amcluesent wrote: »

Shopping at Lidls, make do & mend, patched trousers, taking fish-paste sarnies to work, hand-me-downs for the kids, charity shops not John Lewis, spam fritters again, wearing wollens and no central heating, shared baths, 'national bread', 50mph speed limit on motorways, coffee made from acorns, grow-your-own turnips, no ready meals, caravans holidays in Gwent, scrimping for the sake of the kiddies, cycling everywhere, cancelling Sky Sports, ...

Welcome to austerity!

Sounds pretty much like my lifestyle until a paid the mortgage off a couple of years ago. (I am not joking apart from the growing turnips bit)

fc123

Wookster wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/stephanieflanders/2010/06/bad_news_is_good_news.html

Seems like austerity is the new fashion accessory.

Good article with some interesting thoughts.

I am feeling a range developing.....in my head .....soon to be in a shop near you.

fc123

amcluesent wrote: »

Shopping at Lidls, make do & mend, patched trousers, taking fish-paste sarnies to work, hand-me-downs for the kids, charity shops not John Lewis, spam fritters again, wearing wollens and no central heating, shared baths, 'national bread', 50mph speed limit on motorways, coffee made from acorns, grow-your-own turnips, no ready meals, caravans holidays in Gwent, scrimping for the sake of the kiddies, cycling everywhere, cancelling Sky Sports, ...

Welcome to austerity!

I like the essence of the post but reclaimed fish waste made into fish paste? It's not going to happen...like wise...no-one, absolutely no-one eats Spam anymore...OK they may eat chicken nuggets (same principle of mashing up waste meat and spiking it with chemicals) but the new mood of 'Thrift' is throwing up different consumer choices.

Fashions change but what you write holds true. For my son's generation it means ''Brown rice, leftover veg from the market and old style cooking''. If good meat is too pricey, then they eat veggie.


I while away time on here so what you write seems normal to me but I was chatting to a sibling last night (who could be looking a big drop in safe income soon) and much of the above she has never had to do at all..ever. It was more ''do we have 5 hols instead of 4''.

She doesn't remember much of our lean mean 70's childhood either.....but I am older.

The only one I wouldn't say was cutting back is the shared baths...I thought that was a special treat.:cool:

lostinrates

We share baths every weekend and I love fish paste. Its one of my dark secrets: a denied longing for plastic white bread and fish paste sandwiches...with no crusts.

fc123

Actually, as I am in chatty kind of mood....I have just had a very MSE result (said with a staccato).


We moved into derelict rental 3 years ago and it had nothing in it..not a fitted shelf or cupboard, fridge broken and so on.

We were on a DFW fest so I had to furnish as best we could on a miniscule budget of 'as little as possible''.

The new fridge was from Comet so no savings but I am keeping it but most of the furniture I bought from a local flea market and auction. One old chair I found in a skip and OH repaired it and stained it.
I got very into 'Extreme Shabby Chic''...so this isn't the sanitised Argos version...this was the hard core one. I bought a Victorian kitchen table in pine riddled with woodworm, treated it, painted the legs duck egg blue and sanded down the top...so you can see all the tunnels and shapes the worms made.......coupled with 150 years of stains, dents and marks..the surface is like a visual record of previous owners and uses.

We used it for 2 and half years and now it's on Ebay...3 day auction and after one day 43 watchers and more £££ than it cost us.

All the other pieces are sold with a few hours to go for final bids and I am in profit on everything.:j

I was packing today and found the book that inspired me.

Recycled Home by Mark and Sally Bailey


It's def going to go mainstream.:D

fc123

lostinrates wrote: »

We share baths every weekend and I love fish paste. Its one of my dark secrets: a denied longing for plastic white bread and fish paste sandwiches...with no crusts.

Isn't it funny? My grandmother would do us tea of white bread (no crusts and cut into triangles) and fish paste as a treat.
My parents were very wholefoody and disaproved very much.:)

I am allergic to shellfish so fish paste has never been something I liked..but my DD would look at me like I had gone madwoman if I offerred her fish paste. :rotfl:

What do they put in it?

treliac

fc123 wrote: »

I like the essence of the post ....

Me too. Sounds like my childhood... in the days before we became a society of debt junkies.

Everything moved too far, too fast. It's all very well expecting people to take personal responsibility but human nature leaves too many only able to focus on the here and now with an insatiable greed to feed.

Times were much happier when we didn't reach out to grasp the very latest of anything and everything in a lemming like aquisitive drive, fed by credit card and debt and advertising which implied we were worthless if we didn't have it all.

fc123

treliac wrote: »

Me too. Sounds like my childhood... in the days before we became a society of debt junkies.

Everything moved too far, too fast. It's all very well expecting people to take personal responsibility but human nature leaves too many only able to focus on the here and now with an insatiable greed to feed.

Times were much happier when we didn't reach out to grasp the very latest of anything and everything in a lemming like aquisitive drive, fed by credit card and debt and advertising which implied we were worthless if we didn't have it all.

I understand what your saying but I really can't remember enjoying the austerity of the 70's and I do recall being a bit jealous (along with a few others) of a kid at primary who was bought everything nice, shiny and new.
We loved going to her house for tea and parties as they had central heating, processed food (cakes) and we would try on all her new clothes. This must have been in 1972/73? You could play and not have to wear an itchy jumper.

My mother kept in touch with hers over the years and, sadly, her Dad went bankrupt in about 1978/9 and then died quite young of alcoholism...maybe aged 50 something.

I don't know if it's true but the same things make people sad/happy regardless of material comfort?