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

Now that the Greek elections reveal a left wing party in power, and the media/press full of suggesting this will be damaging to the members of the EU. I fully expect Gideon to come out and say that this could affect the UK badly. Yet another ready made excuse for him to hide his failings.

This election has taken precedence over Ed Miliband's pledge to cut tuition fees by a third, in both media and press. What a surprise!!!

Anything rather than highlight anything Labour are promoting.

It will be interesting nevertheless to see the developments coming from this - it's years since I can remember hearing about a real left-wing party getting into government anywhere (except Cuba perhaps)

Keep an eye on a new Spanish left-wing party called "Podemos".  Their leader Pablo Iglesias is campaigning for a minimum wage AND a maximum wage, together with increased taxes on the wealthy.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/11370812/Hopes-of-Spains-anti-austerity-party-Podemos-fired-by-Greek-result.html

Heard some vey negative reporting on Radio 4 about the Greek election - either there's trouble ahead for the new Greek government or conventional capitalist wisdom is meeting a serious challenge (maybe both)

Seems much of the world is waking up to the measures designed to transfer wealth from bottom, middle, to the top on the excuse to implement harsh austerity.

Let us hope the fickle UK electotate also wake up and quick.!!!!

Anyone familiar with the tale of The Emperor's New Clothes will know exactly how to describe Osborne's smoke-and-mirrors technique. The FACT is that despite boasting about eliminating "the deficit" before the end of this parliamentary session, he has done no better than match the Darling and Brown proposals which they announced in 2010.

The difference being that a Labour Chancellor would not have stolen the clothes of the Poor in order to do so.

Quite so OW.

Oh so true OW mate.

First lad: "Is there a special name for that tool?"
Second lad: "I think it's called the chancellor of the exchequer".


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'giggle'

ahahahah,

Ivan, a question for you my friend, has the National Debt ever been in our favour so to speak?

Ivan will correct me if I'm wrong, but it's my impression that we've been running a national debt in England since the 17th or18th century - and no -it never been in our favour.

More important, the deficit, which as I understand it is the national debt considered as a proportion of the country's productivity, seems to be the thing that economists watch - simply put, if you owe more than your country can produce in a year, you're stuffed

Got you boatlady, I know I should have googled the answer, but I knew some kind person on here would explain it clearer. Thanks

I’m uneasy about making many comparisons between national and household debt, but there are at least two ways in which they are similar. Firstly, borrowing is usually a good thing for an individual to do if it is to purchase a property, and the same can be said for government borrowing if it is to invest in the nation’s infrastructure. Secondly, the amount you borrow should depend on the size of your ‘economy’. If a millionaire owed £50,000, it would be what Boris Johnson calls “chicken feed”, but if someone struggling to survive on JSA had a similar amount of debt, he or she would be in deep trouble. For that reason, I think the only rational way to look at a nation’s debt is as a percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP).

England’s national debt started in 1694 (before the Act of Union with Scotland) because the Nine Years' War had left the government’s finances in a mess. It was necessary to borrow £1.2 million at a rate of 8% from a syndicate which became the Bank of England. In national terms, that doesn’t sound like much money nowadays, but at that time our GDP was much smaller. It was mainly because of conflicts that the UK national debt grew, rising to over 200% of GDP by the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. It then declined, but grew rapidly during the two world wars and reached 250% by 1946. At the end of 2013, the UK debt had grown to £1,254.3 billion (75.7% of GDP). So although it has been lower in percentage terms, it’s also been much higher as a result of wars.

There are plenty of statistics about the UK national debt here:-

http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/uk_national_debt

P.S. Remember the difference between deficit and debt. Deficit is the amount that a government borrows in one year. Debt is the accumulated total of all the annual deficits, the whole amount that the government owes. Cameron didn't know the difference:-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9842553/David-Cameron-given-a-lecture-on-debt-and-deficit-by-top-statistics-official.html

What stays in the memory, in the middle of an AUSTERITY PROGRAMME, was our esteemed Prime Minister promising Thames-side flood victims of limitless cash compensation.

Joined-up government.

Following a meeting with Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis in London, the Chancellor urged Greece and the rest of the 19-nation bloc to act "responsibly" as the newly-elected goverment seeks to renegotiate its €240bn (£180bn) bailout agreement.

"We had a constructive discussion, and it's clear that the standoff between Greece and the eurozone is fast becoming the biggest risk to the global economy, and it's a rising threat to our economy at home," he said. (sky News MSN full storey)

The little bastard is at it again, paving the way for the next poor results on the economy, to blame on the actions of Greece.

"it's a rising threat to our economy at home," he said. OH YEA!!!!!

Don't you just find yourself on the side of the new Greek government?

With so many against them, they must be doing SOMETHING right

Greece may be in a stronger position than our esteemed Chancellor has suggested. All the other EU member-countries, apart from the wealthiest, are thinking to themselves "There, but for the grace of God ....!"

Either Gideon is not cutting enough, or hasn't disclosed enough, suggests Institute for Fiscal Studies.


http://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/ifs-warns-over-need-for-higher-tax-rises/ar-AA8XUEH?ocid=mailsignoutmd

IFS warns over need for higher tax rises.

Yes OW and whilst they were at it, they might have told him what he already knows.
Contract employment, no tax revenue
part time work, no tax revenue,
Min wage, no tax revenue.
Cheap labour, no tax revenue.

This is the price paid for inflated and boasted about falling unemployment.

From April, anyone with a pension fund saved up may have access to it as cash, instead of having to buy an insurance company's Annuity with it.

Anyone attracted should closely investigate the tax implications first. Some people could find themselves moving unexpectedly into a higher-rate tax band. Others may live longer than the money lasts, something which can't happen to an annuity.

Whatever an individual's circumstances might be, Treasury figures expect an increased "take" in extra tax amounting to £3billion over the next four years from this "election giveaway".

"Britain records biggest budget surplus in seven years in January"
This is Tory press headlines and Gideon boasting.

Nonsense!!!!!!!! For some time now tax receipts have been so low due to the great numbers of people on min or less wages along wthe zero hour so called employment. Tories shot themselves in the foot trying to make false political headlines of lower unemployment.
The fact is that the tax returnes have now come to fruition for Gideon, thus making a TEMPORARY surplus because he has not been able to borrow recently because of the tax receipt situation.
This is why the picture looks good for the little squirt. Yet another CON thet the eloctorate will digest as usual.

Economics is really a bit of a closed book to me - just can't work up the enthusiasm to put in the work needed to grasp the underlying concepts.

I tend to measure the prosperity of a country by less scientific measures - things like

Is there enough employment for people to earn the means of a civilised life?

If there are no jobs, are people still able to enjoy security - a roof over their heads, enough to eat etc?

When people are working, can they afford to pay for a safe place to live, enough to eat, small treats etc?

Are children and young people receiving a good education, learning the things that will enable them to be good citizens and fulfil their potential, whatever that may be?

Are people generally healthy and can they access good health care when they need it?

Do people have healthy and safe homes where they can afford to live in comfort and enjoy their private lives?

To me, the definition of a strong economy would be one where you can ask these questions and get mainly positive answers - today in England the answers to these questions for far too many people is 'no' - so I would say our economy is in a pitiful and dangerous condition - the Tories have nothing to be proud of

Utopia, boatlady as of course you know as well as anyone from your voluntary work. Not even in the wealthiest countries in the World has poverty been eliminated.

But we can live in hope.

The 56 meetings held by coalition ministers with HSBC all happened since May 2010 – when the Government was first given leaked information about tax evasion through HSBC’s Swiss arm. (Sunday Mirror)

Ed needs to get this in his armoury fast!!!!!!

Not even in the wealthiest countries in the World has poverty been eliminated.

True, but it would be possible surely to redefine it to mean 'having less than others, but still enough for a life of reasonable dignity'?

Surely one should expect a fair days pay for a fair days work in a democratic democrocy. Tories make certain that does not apply here for the majority.

MPs have criticised George Osborne for exaggerating claims that he halved a £1.7bn surcharge imposed by Brussels last year when Britain’s rebate automatically cut the figure to £850m.

About time too. The little Con man has used the rebate to false claim he has "halved the deficit" as well. Wake up public!!!!!!!!

"Any time you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help." (Alex Haley)


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More kidology is on the way from Gideon on March 18.

The give-away budget to beat all previous give-away budgets!?

I have noticed lately various advertisements letting me know what my government has done for me - wonder if they're being paid for from the Tory party campaign fund, or once again by the long suffering tax payer

The Tories should shut up on the economy

From an article by Anthony Hilton:-

"It takes nerve for a political party to ask the country to re-elect it on the basis of its economic competence, when it knows perfectly well that the majority of the people it is asking to vote have become worse off under its rule. Yet that is what the Conservatives plan to do, and the success or otherwise of the strategy hinges on voters believing that the Conservatives have a long-term economic plan and that it is succeeding.

No doubt they will marshal lots of impressive statistics to support their argument. However, it certainly won’t help their case that the IFS has published a report which shows average incomes in this country are lower now than they were when the government came to power in 2010.

The IFS says that average incomes today are still 2% below the peak they hit in 2010-11. They are in fact back at levels which prevailed in 2007 before the crisis struck, but as incomes continued to rise from 2007 to 2010, they today still fall short of the levels they’d reached at the time of the last election. Taxes are higher than they used to be so people have even less to spend of their income. As a result, average household consumption is well below 2007 levels. The average person is spending 3.4% less than they were in 2007.

It is not just the Conservatives’ political opponents who might wonder what — if making the country poorer counts as success — failure would look like."

http://www.standard.co.uk/business/markets/anthony-hilton-the-tories-should-shut-up-on-the-economy-10085475.html

Our esteemed Chancellor has several times been described as mathematically illiterate and continues to confirm such beliefs by a statement on BBC Radio4 today, "Savers are now £1000 better off."  That would only be true if Savers had been paying 100% tax on the interest received.

His proposal yesterday was to allow (standard rate taxpayer) savers to receive the first £1000 of interest before becoming liable to pay tax on the remainder if any.  

In practical terms, either the Banks will have to apply the individual saver's tax code or savers will need to reclaim overpayments from an HMRC with nothing better to do.

But you can trust Tories with the economy, can't you?

The Budget showed Osborne’s greatest skill: the ability to rebrand his failure as success

From an article by George Eaton:-

For five years, George Osborne has been managing failure. His sixth Budget, like its predecessors, was delivered in coalition, a permanent reminder of how the Conservatives fell short at the last general election. As his party’s chief strategist in 2010, Osborne continues to live in the shadow of that campaign.

This political failure was followed by an economic one. Osborne’s original ambition was to eliminate the structural deficit in a single term. The collapse of growth after he entered office forced him to postpone this goal. Higher-than-forecast borrowing cost the UK its triple-A credit rating, the metric that he had adopted as the defining test of his economic credibility. Few politicians have recovered from such a gap between promise and delivery. Osborne’s skill has been to make a virtue of coalition government by co-opting the Lib Dems’ best ideas – increasing the personal tax allowance, granting new freedoms over pensions – and aggressively rebranding them as Conservative achievements.

It was partly the fear of massacred public services that denied the Tories a majority in 2010, in the most propitious circumstances. Osborne’s wager is that their unexpected resilience will persuade voters that further austerity is tolerable; that fear of a “tax bombshell” and “economic chaos” under Labour will predominate. When the Tories entered office, the belief was that they would be evicted from government on a wave of popular outrage over the cuts. But the wave never came. Osborne has managed failure well indeed.

For the whole article:-
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/03/budget-showed-osborne-s-greatest-skill-ability-rebrand-his-failure-success