Osborne Loses It - Our Triple A Rating And Its Future

angrypirate

BertieUK wrote: »

So, every time you catch yourself telling a good excuse or putting the blame on others for a particular result, remember that you will not be taking responsibility for your outcomes and you’ll end up receiving more of the same in the future. When you accept the responsibility, questions begin to arise, such as: how can I do it differently, how can I get this or that result. In other words, you’ll start focusing on what really matters

What are you talking about? Fella was merely trying to highlight that the Tories have been branded the "nasty party" for cutting budgets and the general public now has an expectation that they are owed by the government.

People who have never worked a day in their life have chosen to have 10 kids are demanding a big house, sky tv, holidays, Iphones. And now the tory party are nasty coz they are threatening to take this away. I say good. Benefits are there as a safety net. It should allow you to get by, to exist, not have a cosy life with sky tv, holidays and Iphones.

GeorgeHowell

LauraW10 wrote: »

The Chancellor needs to borrow £100billion more than forecast....

That's a lot to do with the ridiculous UK welfare system. It's premised on the basis that the can't work/won't work contingent must not be 'socially excluded'. They have to enjoy a lifestyle equivalent to if they were working on an average income. This was the essence of Osborne's point yesterday about people leaving early for a day's work and seeing the curtains still closed at the neighbours who are on welfare while they sleep on.

There is not enough incentive to get off welfare. But as soon as this is said the bleeding hearts start whingeing, "There are no jobs", "What about the effect on children ?", "We have to be a compassionate society" etc etc. Well tough -- it's a hard world and I'm afraid that if you can't afford to keep yourself and your family then you and they should have to suffer some hardship and deprivation. That's the only way to be fair on the working taxpayers, and the only way to prevent the cost of welfare sinking the public finances.

But of course the LibDems are among those bleeding hearts, so this is not going to change substantially during the life of the coalition.

coastline

gagahouse wrote: »

Ah, statistics hey? Looking at the absolute level of debt doesn't give you the full picture, you need to look at it in terms of debt to GDP ratio's.
Kind of reverses the conclusions reached when looking at those graphs posted from 1979 to 1997 and 1997 to 2010.

http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/334/uk-economy/uk-national-debt/

The general trend from the 1970's shows debt to GDP falling...what happened in 2008 as everyone knows was a freefall throughout the Western world.
Its pretty obvious that chart will look bad if output falls...just as it began to look bad in the 1990's...but was rescued by a return to world growth..

just a reminder of what was said in Sept 2007...no mention of reckless spending or looming banking crisis.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6975536.stm

StevieJ

GeorgeHowell wrote: »

That's a lot to do with the ridiculous UK welfare system. It's premised on the basis that the can't work/won't work contingent must not be 'socially excluded'. They have to enjoy a lifestyle equivalent to if they were working on an average income. This was the essence of Osborne's point yesterday about people leaving early for a day's work and seeing the curtains still closed at the neighbours who are on welfare while they sleep on.

I thought most of the Welfare payments went to people in work, so it will be those people who will bearing the brunt.

Thrugelmir

GeneHunt wrote: »

I'm sick of listening to the Tories blaming labour for where we are - they've had to 2 years to do something about the deficit and they've done sweet FA in the cutting department - in fact, things are getting worse.

Then get used to it. As may take another decade yet.........

Thrugelmir

LauraW10 wrote: »

The Labour Party consistently proven to be right by events....sadly...

I'm struggling to recall what Labour have actually said of a constructive nature. Other than relying on a mirage of "growth". Though since the almost global slowdown. They've gone very quiet on this topic.

Remind me what is Labours plan to balance the books?

Wookster

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Remind me what is Labours plan to balance the books?

They will borrow more, and oppose any tax rises. What could possibly go wrong?

Ahem...

GeorgeHowell

StevieJ wrote: »

I thought most of the Welfare payments went to people in work, so it will be those people who will bearing the brunt.

If people don't really need the benefits eg child benefit to well off families then it will just reduce some luxuries -- they will have to get over it. To those who work but benefits subsidise their existence to an extent then they will have to undergo a little more hardship too. It's tough but the country can't afford it. But in my view the deepest cuts should be to the serial unemployed -- they won't be, but they should.

Generali

StevieJ wrote: »

I thought that was in the last Qtr, 1% x 4 = 4%


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/94d73b66-3876-11e2-bd7d-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2EHLwCjfp

Some countries annualize their growth like that, notably Japan, Aus and the US. The UK does not, mostly because it's a ridiculous thing to do!

The calculation would be ((1.01^4)-1)x100 as it would be compounded. Imaginary growth gets compounded in the same way as actual growth. Economists may be full of it but at least they're consistent, except when they're not of course.

Generali

StevieJ wrote: »

I thought most of the Welfare payments went to people in work, so it will be those people who will bearing the brunt.

It's also people in work who pay most of the tax: paying benefits to most people in work is just taking with one hand and giving with the other.

The more I see how the Aussie economy works the more I think that increasing the minimum wage and cutting in work benefits is the way to go. People should pay their own way if they can and let's face it in normal times the vast majority of us are thankfully able to do so.