The effects of slash and burn starting to show.

shortchanged_2

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18587254

Tax receipts down, increased government borrowing, resulting in an increasing deficit.
The problem with this current government is that they never had a plan for growth and we have all seen the effect of severe cuts in the rest of Europe and seeing as many of the planned cuts have yet fully come into force, tough times ahead. This combined with the fact that so much money is tied up in housing.

We could well be heading for a prolonged period of recession in the UK unless some action is taken. Simply there is no confidence in the UK economy apart from 1 or 2 posters on MSE.

ILW

Shows they are not cutting enough.

Until we get back to a situation where people are expected to support themselves and their family (except in unforeseen emergencies) it will never be solved.

Conrad

OP - the world wanted an end to the mass entitlment / something for nothing European society, where people felt entitled to live way beyond it's nations means.

The world now charges Europe more for it's indulgant borrowing that funds this entitlment greed.


YOU shop around for best value tyres etc, invaribaly made in places outside of this featherbedded greedy entitled population. Cant you see the irony nin this.

shortchanged_2

ILW wrote: »

Shows they are not cutting enough.

Until we get back to a situation where people are expected to support themselves and their family (except in unforeseen emergencies) it will never be solved.

I do actually agree that we needed some cuts. I agree with a lot of what Cameron said in his speech about welfare yesterday, but cuts alone will not solve a problem that has been escalating for years. As what is happening now becomes prevalent that tax revenues are falling as people won't or can't spend.
Cuts alone just become self defeating.

Generali

shortchanged wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18587254

Tax receipts down, increased government borrowing, resulting in an increasing deficit.
The problem with this current government is that they never had a plan for growth and we have all seen the effect of severe cuts in the rest of Europe and seeing as many of the planned cuts have yet fully come into force, tough times ahead. This combined with the fact that so much money is tied up in housing.

We could well be heading for a prolonged period of recession in the UK unless some action is taken. Simply there is no confidence in the UK economy apart from 1 or 2 posters on MSE.

The Government is spending over 20% more than it takes in tax. That's not austerity.

It's like congratulating yourself for only adding the equivalent of a week's wages to your net credit card debt this month!

Conrad

shortchanged wrote: »

Cuts alone just become self defeating.

They are doing an awful lot to stimulate growth, but where they went wrong was in the message that it was going to be all about that dreaded austerity word which sends a chill wind through the national bones.

They need a bit of spin to be frank, and yes more emphasis on growth.

Itismehonest

It's hard for any country to show growth when their customers worldwide are feeling the pinch.

Few countries have the money available in their system to make growth possible. This applies whether they have Governments from left, right or centre.

Wookster

Nonsense.

There has been no austerity in the UK yet. There will need to be real and tangible cuts rather soon.

chewmylegoff

Generali wrote: »

The Government is spending over 20% more than it takes in tax. That's not austerity.

It's like congratulating yourself for only adding the equivalent of a week's wages to your net credit card debt this month!

exactly.

the numbers are pretty straight forward.

deficit is about £125 billion
tax is about £440 billion
public spending about £565 billion (from central funding) (NB/ i believe that public spending has outstripped inflation by approx 15% since 2007).

so, in order to bridge the gap, if you don't raise taxes and cut public spending, you need the economy to grow by about 28% (without public spending increases) to balance the books.

if, as labour want, you increase public spending in order to increase growth, then you are going to need the economy to grow by a lot more than 28% due to the increased public spending you need to fund.

(alright, you don't actually need to balance the books, but the ballpark seems right to me).

are these plans realistic? no.

so, presumably any sensible person can see that the only way of solving this is to cut spending, increase taxes AND stimulate economic growth.

any bright ideas on how to achieve this? thought not - if it was easy, then it would have been done.

worldtraveller

I'm afraid to say that there is little, if any confidence in any world economy at the moment. Even China, which everyone keeps banging on about as being the great "provider" for us all, is heading for a hard landing IMHO, as I've been saying for months. Things are not looking good and I fear that there is certainly a lot worse to come before things even start to get any better and I think that's some considerable time away yet.

The_J

I'm alright jack.