Who does Gideon Osborne think he is kidding?

First topic message reminder :

This Tory-dominated government claims there is no alternative to austerity. Below, nine leading economists, including a Nobel Prizewinner and one of the Chancellor's own advisers, say that's wrong - and offer a different path:-

Cut VAT back to 17.5%
Christopher Pissarides
Agree financial transaction tax
Jeffrey Sachs
Reduce NI contributions
David Blanchflower
Print money for the public
Sushil Wadhwani
Start a national investment bank
Robert Skidelsky
Lift the cap on immigration
Jonathan Portes
Lend directly to small businesses
George Magnus
Launch a green new deal
Ann Pettifor
Set up a recovery fund
Christopher Allsopp

For the details of each of those suggestions, click on the links on this page:-
http://www.newstatesman.com/economy/2011/10/alternative-coalition

oftenwrong wrote:Gideon is between a rock and a hard place. Any modification of his deficit-reduction policy so painfully defended over the past two years would now precipitate a rapid end to his time-in-post. But without drastic modification it plainly can't succeed.

Couldn't happen to a nicer chap, could it?

I Cannot agree more with you OW it could not happen to a nicer chap at all.

Mel wrote:Cameron and Gideon have become immune to criticism and puposly oblivious to ANY criticism laid against them and there has been much.

They lose no sleep whatsoever as they keep pushing pushing their measures through mostly without hindrance. They care only at reversing every Labour policy in sight. They are doing what they like and getting away with it. They will lose the next election, they know it and they knew it from the start. The whole idea of getting into power was to transfer wealth from bottom and middle to top, where their many friends sit nicely.

What do they care about growth? The only growth they are interested in is wealth created for the rich at the expense of the majority. Leave Labour with a NOW Tory made worse deficit and scorched earth policy.

I'm sad to say, the British will put up with too much until it's too late.

Hi Mel
Well I have a feeling you could well be dead right about them being immune to criticism. I have almost come too the same thoughts about this... you asked... what do they care about growth Mel? nothing at all as far as I can see Mel... However, its getting deeply worrying about what they are doing right now or not doing? as the last lot of borrowing data is just some of the worst I have seen for some many years. as re-checking ONS data today their borrowing excluding one off factors is £44.9 billion or if you like £9 billion higher than this was this time last year. I so far make this Governments borrowing at an average of about £2.5 billion each month for 2012 so far. just looking at the overall borrowing the OBR forecast only £120 billion over shoot. but on these figures that will be be well out. As I would add between these over borrowing by at least £13 to 15 Billion more than that. in fact there whole bloody economic plan is now going around and around in circles with them running the UK on borrowed money.

God help us all Mel, what have the people of the UK done this time electing this shower of economic dead beats. as my local landlord could of made a better fist of this than Gideon is doing Mel

A right wing think tank said,"This week's growth and borrowing figures make it all the less likely that debt will be on a downward path until the next Parliament, meaning the coalition's hard mandate will not be met on unchanged policy," the study added.

It said the Government's problems are exacerbated by the fact that the difference between "deficit" and "debt" is still widely misunderstood by the public. A poll found that 47% of people believe that public debt will actually fall by around £600 billion by 2015. Only 39% of people also correctly identified that the budget deficit has fallen since 2010.

The worrying thing is those poll figs. It shows the majority of thr public know not nor understand what is actually happening to this country under the bodged methods and excuses dished out by Gideon and Co.

Is scrapping workers' rights the Tories' idea of spreading privilege?

Extracts from an article by David Mitchell:-

Osborne used his speech to announce a policy which is a work of pure evil. He plans to allow companies to give their employees the option of forfeiting some employment rights in exchange for shares, any rise in the value of which would then be exempt from capital gains tax. There's a small problem with this, which is that it opens exactly the sort of tax loophole he claims to be trying to close, where ageing male company directors could avoid their capital gains liability by waiving their maternity rights. And there's a big one, too, which is that it's metaphorically letting off a dirty bomb in the middle of a class war.

"You don't need those pesky rights," the Chancellor seems to be saying. "You don't need cover against unfair dismissal or redundancy – that's for the sort of loser who gets unfairly dismissed or made redundant. That's not you, you don't need flexible working rights – you want to get on. You just need money, a stake in the company. Come over to the other side – join the strong: the shareholders, the rights withholders." This policy isn't about healing Britain's social divides, it's about recruiting more people to one side of them.

While trade unionists disliked the proposals, they didn't seem overly concerned any more than business leaders were particularly impressed. The Chancellor doesn't have a reputation for being particularly effective, so there's not much to be feared from his malevolent schemes.

For the full article and reader comments:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/14/workers-rights-shares-david-mitchell?CMP=twt_gu

Giving the game away....

Source: YouTube

I keep thinking, what with being so blatant and all that people will catch on to what kind of people these are we have in charge - but no, the Tery rhetoric just keeps on being churned out.

They never expected to get re-elected, so they can say and do whatever they like.

Is that what you really think? If that's the case, it's especially wicked of them to carry on making all these changes which are going to damage people's lives when they won't be there to pick up the pieces - I suppose after a few years with another party trying to get things back on an even keel again, the Tories will ride in again on their white charger and 'rescue' us in their own inimitable way (apologies Ivanhoe - I think white chargers are on the whole a good thing)

Ivan wrote:Giving the game away....
Source: YouTube

When is this from?!

As Osborne is just introduced as a Tory MP, the video clip must pre-date his time as Shadow Chancellor. I think it's fair to assume that he made those remarks between entering Parliament in June 2001 and his mate Cameron becoming Tory Party leader at the end of 2005.

Osborne was just an office boy in Tory Central Office before he became an MP. This is his CV for the earlier part of his life:-

"After graduating (with a second class History degree) in 1992, Osborne did a few part-time jobs including as a data entry clerk, typing the details of recently deceased into a NHS computer database. He also briefly worked for a week at Selfridges, mainly re-folding towels.

In 1993, Osborne originally intended to pursue a career in journalism. He was shortlisted for but failed to gain a place on 'The Times' trainee scheme, and instead did freelance work on the Peterborough diary column of 'The Daily Telegraph'. Some time later, an Oxford friend of his, journalist George Bridges, alerted Osborne to a research vacancy at Conservative Central Office."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Osborne

By comparison, Ed Balls gained a first class honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford, was a teaching fellow in the Department of Economics at Harvard University, and then worked for 'The Financial Times' as a lead economic writer. I know which one I’d rather see as Chancellor.

Osborne then appears to be a bit of a "chancer", dropping into jobs rather than working for them.

Something that will resonate with a section of contributors to this Board, perhaps?

Ivan wrote:As Osborne is just introduced as a Tory MP, the video clip must pre-date his time as Shadow Chancellor. I think it's fair to assume that he made those remarks between entering Parliament in June 2001 and his mate Cameron becoming Tory Party leader at the end of 2005.

Osborne was just an office boy in Tory Central Office before he became an MP. This is his CV for the earlier part of his life:-

"After graduating (with a second class History degree) in 1992, Osborne did a few part-time jobs including as a data entry clerk, typing the details of recently deceased into a NHS computer database. He also briefly worked for a week at Selfridges, mainly re-folding towels.

In 1993, Osborne originally intended to pursue a career in journalism. He was shortlisted for but failed to gain a place on 'The Times' trainee scheme, and instead did freelance work on the Peterborough diary column of 'The Daily Telegraph'. Some time later, an Oxford friend of his, journalist George Bridges, alerted Osborne to a research vacancy at Conservative Central Office."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Osborne

Mindboggling. It's like appointing a YTS trainee.

The entire Coalition seems to have been doing "on-the-job training" for the past 2½ years.

As we head for the expected Coalition created third dip recession, It is already being said that the snow is likely to put us into that third dip. All this shows me is the economy is much worse after almost 3 years of Coalition mismanagement than they are letting on. They are lying through their back teeth when they tell us that their policies are working, when a car works, it goes, but when its bust it doesn’t. What kind of fools do they think we are. Yet they will keep going full steam ahead with their disastrous plans, as by the time they are kicked out, the vast majority of their ideological plans will have been implemented in such a way that it will be very difficult to reverse much of it in the short term. I am certain Labour will reverse all of the unfair and cruel welfare policy cuts as soon as they can, but as we drop into a triple dip recession, still with no plans for growth, not only will our triple A borrowing rate go down the dunny, but I see a depression looming.

Just what future does this country have whilst these arseholes continue to wreck our economy whilst still robbing what little there is left.

After the snow will come the sun, then it will be a heat waves fault. The list of blameworthy factors just gets bigger and bigger, they have the Queens jubilee, The Royal wedding, The Olympics, The snow, the Rain and that nice Mrs Smith from No 42 has just jettisoned yet another sprog.

After nearly three long years they still can not accept the blame, despite us hearing time and again that the buck stops at Herr Cameron, but I guess the buck he’s talking about begins with an “F”.

Each month, the Government borrows more money than it had done a year before. Where will the January figures place Mr. Osborne?

Down in the dirt with Comet, Jessops, HMV and Blockbuster?

Cart him off to A & E while it's still there.

Cart him off to A & E while it's still there

Wot in the snow?.

Thank heaven for the Tories, then.

It's obviously going really well....

The Operation was a success, but unfortunately the Patient is dieing.

Source: YouTube

It's not just me that's in the sh1t, posh boy! We're all in this together, remenber?

George Osborne has ruined our economy and he's got to go

by David Blanchflower

"Osborne and Cameron have had a bad week. It started when IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard told them the recession was made in Downing Street and they should do a U-turn before it was too late.
Then in a party political broadcast the PM falsely claimed the debt was falling, even though it was rising. Over the past 12 months, the deficit was also up, not down as he had claimed.

Osborne told journalists at the Davos meeting the economy was going 'in the right direction' and healing. We now know that the economy shrank in the fourth quarter by 0.3%. Indeed it is very likely that the next quarter will also be negative, meaning that Slasher is likely to push us into a triple-dip recession.

In context, the economy the coalition inherited from Labour was growing nicely. It grew from the third quarter of 2009 to the same quarter in 2010 by 2.7%. In the nine quarters since then, the economy grew by a disastrous 0.4%.

Ed Balls was right – the heartless coalition cut too deep, too fast. The fix is to cut taxes on working people, create jobs and start investing in infrastructure right now."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/david-blanchflower-george-osborne-has-ruined-1556720

Who is more likely to be correct? David Blanchflower, professor of economics at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, or George Osborne, a thick and very unpleasant rich boy who has no qualifications in economics and whose work experience prior to becoming Chancellor consisted of folding towels in Selfridges for one week?

One reader has commented underneath the article: “You do not need the IMF to tell you that a stagnated economy needs investment in the infrastructure, and that cutting wages and benefits just reduces demand.”

" Who is more likely to be correct?....Blanchflower....or ...Osborne...?"

Gosh, it's close -run thing. And don't forget that the figures issued yesterday are only provisional and there is plenty of opportunity for Cameron to use his 'influence' to ensure that ,when the updating comes, the data looks a little more helpful to the Tory cause. If all still looks pretty awful he can always adopt the next stage of his strategy and kick the less well-off even harder to seek to plug that terrible fiscal gap.

What would our erstwhile financial genius, brownboots, make of it all, I wonder...?

What would our erstwhile financial genius, brownboots, make of it all, I wonder...?

Phil. He would no doubt repeat the only thing which Danny Alexander is capable of saying - "It's all Labour's fault". Alternatively, he might follow the example of a couple of our members and try to negate the facts with the "they're all as bad as each other" line. Then again, Mr brown boots had one talent in common with Cameron - both are serial liars.

With so much bad news for the Tory-led administration, I can't help but think that the time is fast approaching when the Opposition has to adopt a gloves-off approach to their task , both in their own interest - and in the interests of Britain.

There is no lack of ammunition available to them for an ongoing full frontal attack. If they don't now continually and effectively highlight the multitude of shortcomings of this Cruel Coalition, they cannot be considered as worthy of anyone's confidence...

Phil. One problem is that Cameron's friends in the media ensure that much of what Labour does goes unreported. For example, were you aware that two days ago Andy Burnham made a major speech on Labour's policy for the NHS after the next election? I wasn't, until someone on Twitter sent me this link:-

http://www.gponline.com/News/article/1168182/video-watch-andy-burnhams-labour-nhs-policy-speech-full/

Is Lewisham just the beginning?



http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/26/thousands-protest-lewisham-hospital-cuts

YouTube

Source: mirror.co.uk

"How do you work this thing?"

Ivan wrote:[img]"How do you work this thing?"

Fantastic - love it!

MSN 20 March 2013:

George Osborne has taken to Twitter to tell the electorate his Budget will 'help those who want to work hard and get on'

He's going to raise the Minimum Wage to a "Living Wage"?

"...his Budget will 'help those who want to work hard and get on' "

This is what is known as a SOB Story , ie Same Old Bollocks....

Join 'Twatter' - the latest communication medium for Useless Chancellors...

(msn)

"... then divide by...er...oh bugger, I never could get the hang of percentages..."

By saying that this budget will 'help those who want to work hard and get on' mean that his previous budgets were about the opposite?


I wonder what he means by 'Get On'?

If proof were ever needed of the Tories hatred of the public sector and of their hidden agenda and ideologically based policies, then today was the day.

All the way through his speech he continually refered to "the private sector" and "private sector jobs", his defence of the bedroom tax was that it was creating a level playing field with ( you've guessed it ) the private sector; the fact that it suddenly makes thousands of low income people even poorer is merely unfortunate, just hard luck.

I have noted with interest how the Tories cringe whenever you mention "The Bedroom Tax", they dont like it been referred to as a tax, possibly beacuse it reminds them of the poll tax days, yet on the other hand George Osborne kept refering to welfare cuts as "welfare reforms" whilst on his feet today, which begs the question "when is a cut not a cut, but a reform instead"?

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has a first class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and has taught Economics at Harvard University. By contrast, Chancellor George Osborne has a second class degree in History, no qualifications in Economics, and his experience of real work is limited to refolding towels in Selfridges for a week and entering the names into an NHS computer of people who had just died.

It’s not surprising then that Osborne, who is only in 11 Downing Street because he’s Cameron’s friend, is probably the worst Chancellor this country has ever had. Let’s look at his “achievements”:-

- He delivered the first double-dip recession since the 1970s and a flat-lining economy, which means this is now the slowest recovery for 100 years.

- He presented his notorious ‘omnishambles’ Budget in 2012 – and was forced into U-turn after U-turn on taxes on pasties, churches, charities, caravans and even skips.

- He cut taxes for millionaires while asking millions of families on middle and low incomes to pay more – making a laughing stock of his “we are all in this together” slogan.

- He presided over youth unemployment hitting 1 million for the first time.

- He lost Britain’s AAA credit rating, which he said was the number one test of his economic policy.

- He introduced the ‘granny tax’ on pensioners.

- He claimed £949 off the taxpayer for a trip to Germany to watch the Champions League final.

- He hiked VAT up to 20% which caused inflation, cost a family with children an average of £450 a year and helped to stamp out the fragile recovery which he inherited.

- He secured only £2.3 billion from the 4G mobile spectrum auction, leaving a black hole in his figures. (Ofcom figures suggest he could have raised £5 billion.)

- He tried to set “strivers” against “shirkers” with cuts to tax credits and benefits, forgetting that the majority of the people affected were in work and 200,000 more children would be pushed into poverty.

- He was booed by thousands of people at the Paralympics in London in 2012.

- He withdrew false allegations he made about Ed Balls and Libor fixing – but refused to apologise publicly, even though Tory MPs urged him to do so.

- In one interview, he blamed the snow 24 times for the UK economy shrinking.

- He’s been accused of being a part-time Chancellor after going to Washington the week before the last Budget, and going to the opera on a weekday afternoon for 6 hours with Michael Gove.

- He’s broken his pledge to balance the books and get the National Debt falling by 2015 – as the lack of growth and high unemployment saw over £200 billion more borrowing than he planned.

- He sold Northern Rock to Richard Branson for £747 million, which represents a loss of £400 million on what the last government paid for it.

- He axed last year’s fuel duty rise 12 hours after Ed Balls called for it to be scrapped – but sent his most junior minister, Chloe Smith, on to the television to try and defend the sudden U-turn.

- He’s announced numerous schemes to get banks lending to businesses – but lending to businesses has gone down.

- He was caught in a first class seat on a train with only a standard class ticket, but he refused to move as he “couldn't possibly sit in standard class” (that became known as ‘The Great Train Snobbery’).

- He has kept to an austerity plan that has seen the economy flatline, made families worse off and caused borrowing to rise – simply to avoid his own political humiliation.

Sources used:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Osborne

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/budget-2013-20-reasons-should-1773224

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/mar/15/4g-auction-chancellor-loses-out

Yes, but apart from that he's been ok, surely...?

QUOTE: He sold Northern Rock to Richard Branson for £747 million, which represents a loss of £400 million on what the last government paid for it.

Mr Branson's customary investment style is to pledge shares of Companies he already owns, together with an arrangement to pay any balance from the earnings of the Company being acquired. It's a familiar process in the world of M&A, and of course perfectly legal to purchase a Business using the money it earns after a takeover. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mergers_and_acquisitions

20% tax free loan for any buys of new build homes.......

In Oxfordshire £600,000 will get you a 4 or 5 bedroom detached house.......

So the Tories will lend you £120,000 interest free...only to be repaid on sale of the house.....

But they will charge the renter of a council house £12 for having an empty bedroom.....

Now the loan would cover the cost of an empty bedroom in a council house for 1000 weeks or nearly 20 years........

I wonder how many MPs will take advantage of this scheme?

Prices rise to match the money available to pay them. Government subsidies will drive up the cost of housing by an equivalent value. A Cash ISA is a way of saving tax-free, but it's the Bank that gets the tax-break because they have reduced the interest they pay in proportion.

Why do politicians keep blaming consumer confidence for our flatline economy ?

It seems obvious to me that is was not just the state who over borrowed but the general public, did I not read in the middle of the last decade the British had the highest personal and credit card debt in the developed world ?

Easy credit is now gone, most are still paying the maximum affordable amount and some are intent on ridding themselves of this debt burden. Our boom was financed by debt, and until this debt is reduced to a manageable and affordable level then there will be no consumer spending revival, its got nothing to do with confidence and everything to do with balancing the personal budget.