Cons Increase Deficit & National Debt Targets Missed

DecentLivingWage

This weeks big economy story looks set to be Osborne missing the 2 debt reduction targets set by the last gov and scrapped by the new one. Bloomberg have an excellent read on it but before reading that its good to see the background about how the deficit in reality is actually rising under the Cons - though they do a good job of keeping it under wraps - Cameron has been perceived to view the voters as being too stupid to understand this .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/oct/18/deficit-debt-government-borrowing-data

wotsthat

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-30/osborne-will-miss-labour-u-k-budget-deficit-target.html

There's an irony that Osborne is now forecasted to miss Labour's targets which he dismissed as too soft.

I'd suggest that Osborne misunderstood just how expensive it was going to be having to form a coalition with a bunch of hand-wringers. The Conservatives (and probably Labour) would have done better meeting targets if they'd been able to form Governments without the hindrance of coalition politics.

I'm still quite surprised that Osborne hasn't been replaced - the deficit reduction plans seem poorly explained at best and he's shown himself to be less than sure-footed on a number of occasions.

Thrugelmir

wotsthat wrote: »

There's an irony that Osborne is now forecasted to miss Labour's targets which he dismissed as too soft.

Which means under Labour we'd be even further away from the objective of removing the structural deficit.

PaulF81

Lots of one offs over the past year.

Like ridiculously large redundancy payments for civil service and ounces non jobs.

wotsthat

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Which means under Labour we'd be even further away from the objective of removing the structural deficit.

I think Gordon Brown realised that his political and economic credibility hinged upon managing the deficit hence the deficit reduction plans in law before the election. Whether he would have had the clout to implement them is clearly another matter.

What we need is a strong Government with a strong opposition to keep them honest. I'm still amazed that a party with Milliband and Balls at the helm is doing so well in the polls. It all seems a little flimsy.

Thrugelmir

wotsthat wrote: »

What we need is a strong Government with a strong opposition to keep them honest. I'm still amazed that a party with Milliband and Balls at the helm is doing so well in the polls. It all seems a little flimsy.

Maybe that's because they carefully pick their topics that they speak on. Anyone can read a speech. Different matter as to whether they can offer a real alternative. That's constructive and forward thinking. Difficult to see what. As balancing the books requires real cuts in expenditure across the board. So needs to be done with fairness.

coastline

The Tories idea that the private sector would lead a recovery has been slow to say the least.What it really says is politicians are powerless to make any significant changes to the UK economy.If by magic there hadn't been much national debt or a budget deficit then borrowing might have made a difference.
Whats got to be reckonised is all governments have borrowed and added to the national debt and as the link below shows they've done it in a growing economy.
When you look at the end of 2007 the budget deficit falls off a cliff in a situation no government had little control over.Infact its was actually slowing in 2006-2007 and would have been near balanced today..
Yes ...some will say the Labour government shouldn't have been borrowing in the mid 2000's years....but point me to an situation where the Tories ran a surplus...only a handfull can be seen in decades.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/10/19/1350656298400/UK-budget-deficit-and-par-009.jpg

chewmylegoff

whatever the situation under this government (personally i would point out that you can't really claim that the tories have made the deficit worse as it is currently about £50 billion a year less than when they took charge), assuming that we believe that the labour party is a genuine organisation which means what it says and isn't just an opportunistic bunch of liars, the deficit would be much worse if labour were in power as (regardless of the targets they may have set for this parliament) they have opposed every spending cut and consistently argued for increased economic stimulus (e.g. VAT cuts).

DecentLivingWage

wotsthat wrote: »

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-30/osborne-will-miss-labour-u-k-budget-deficit-target.html

There's an irony that Osborne is now forecasted to miss Labour's targets which he dismissed as too soft.

I'd suggest that Osborne misunderstood just how expensive it was going to be having to form a coalition with a bunch of hand-wringers. The Conservatives (and probably Labour) would have done better meeting targets if they'd been able to form Governments without the hindrance of coalition politics.

I'm still quite surprised that Osborne hasn't been replaced - the deficit reduction plans seem poorly explained at best and he's shown himself to be less than sure-footed on a number of occasions.

Yes I agree, Im surprised too - does anyone know just what his economist credentials are for just such a crucially important position as Chancellor? I must say I was shocked he appointed Chloe Smith cos he thought she was an accountant(turned out she only Worked For an accountant.

ILW

DecentLivingWage wrote: »

Yes I agree, Im surprised too - does anyone know just what his economist credentials are for just such a crucially important position as Chancellor? I must say I was shocked he appointed Chloe Smith cos he thought she was an accountant(turned out she only Worked For an accountant.

As far as I know, Brown had no economist training either.
But then again, economists cannot agree with each other so probably does not matter.

Thrugelmir

DecentLivingWage wrote: »

Yes I agree, Im surprised too - does anyone know just what his economist credentials are for just such a crucially important position as Chancellor? I must say I was shocked he appointed Chloe Smith cos he thought she was an accountant(turned out she only Worked For an accountant.

Then hardly surprising with the financial mess we now find ourselves in.

Gordon Brown has a PhD in History from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as both a lecturer at a further education college and a television journalist. He entered Parliament in 1983 as the MP for Dunfermline East.