The chancellor keeps making reassuring noises, but he’s talking
rubbish. If he goes on borrowing he might stall the recession
temporarily but without CUTS we will not recover.
Replies to this CH: posting include :
==I really do think that the public now has a right to hear exactly
what the conservative would do to improve the situation. Brown's
charges at PMQs go unanswered week after week when they should be
challenged.
==Massive painful cuts in public spending. That includes health and
education. It may mean delapidated classrooms, it may mean longer
waiting lists. Unfortunately there's no alternative.
Anybody who thinks we can emerge from this situation with minimal
pain is deluding themselves.
==Only a drastic cut in public spending and a committment to paying
down the debt will enable us to pull out of the mess. The more we pay
off now, the easier it will be in future and the better the outlook
when we emerge from the recession.
Unfortunately for Dave, nickel and diming the government budget won't
give anything like the reductions needed. We need to start making
major reductions in the size and scope of government, whole
departments need to be abolished and long term decisions on the
welfare state and public sector pensions made NOW to show we are
serious.
We're already spending £68bn a year on interest payments; twice the
amount we spend on our Armed Forces.
rubbish. If he goes on borrowing he might stall the recession
temporarily but without CUTS we will not recover.
Replies to this CH: posting include :
==I really do think that the public now has a right to hear exactly
what the conservative would do to improve the situation. Brown's
charges at PMQs go unanswered week after week when they should be
challenged.
==Massive painful cuts in public spending. That includes health and
education. It may mean delapidated classrooms, it may mean longer
waiting lists. Unfortunately there's no alternative.
Anybody who thinks we can emerge from this situation with minimal
pain is deluding themselves.
==Only a drastic cut in public spending and a committment to paying
down the debt will enable us to pull out of the mess. The more we pay
off now, the easier it will be in future and the better the outlook
when we emerge from the recession.
Unfortunately for Dave, nickel and diming the government budget won't
give anything like the reductions needed. We need to start making
major reductions in the size and scope of government, whole
departments need to be abolished and long term decisions on the
welfare state and public sector pensions made NOW to show we are
serious.
We're already spending £68bn a year on interest payments; twice the
amount we spend on our Armed Forces.
CONSERVATIVE HOME 21.5.09
Where is the debt reduction plan?
Britain's budgetary crisis was captured by new data on tax and
spending (quoted by Bloomberg):
"Last month, cash receipts of corporation tax dropped 27% from a year
earlier. Value-added tax, a levy on sales, fell 23% and income tax
declined 14%. Net spending on social benefits rose 8.9% after
unemployment rose at the fastest pace since 1981 in the first quarter
of the year."
Frightening stuff. [This is ‘going to hell in a handcart’ indeed -cs]
Against that outlook it's hard to fault Standard & Poor's big
decision to downgrade Britain's debt outlook.
George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor, has just issued this reaction:
"It's now clear that Britain's economic reputation is on the line at
the next general election, another reason for bringing the date
forward and having that election now. For the first time since these
ratings began in 1978 the outlook for British debt has been
downgraded from stable to negative. And Standard & Poors have made it
very clear that unless Britain has a Government with a credible plan
to reduce debt then there will be a further downgrade, with all of
the serious consequences for our prosperity that would entail. Labour
are putting our economic stability at risk by refusing to face up to
the debt crisis they have created."
It's true that Labour isn't facing up to the debt crisis but where is
the Tory plan that will stop S&P and other ratings agencies
downgrading Britain again? [S&P make it clear that it will be the
job of the “next government” to implement these cuts, so Osborne
should be preparing the people for what’s in store -cs] Helen Thomas
of Policy Exchange has just written a post for CentreRight and warned
that "Getting the spending cut debate out into the open is now vital
to maintain international confidence in the UK." With so much
attention on expenses my hope is that George Osborne is using his
time away from the limelight to work on a Tory plan to return Britain
to budgetary health.
=============================
GMTV (via Politics Home) 07:20 21.5.09
Cameron: No election ‘because it would cause chaos’ claim insulting
• David Cameron MP, Leader of the Opposition
Mr Cameron said the political system is paralysed, and added that the
Prime Minister’s claim that an election can't be held because it
would cause chaos is insulting.
He said, “the idea that we can’t have an election because it would
cause chaos is insulting to the people who watch this programme.
“This is if anything actually getting worse, the anger out in the
country.”
He added that people are thinking, “you are not listening to what I’m
saying. I think we’ve got to give them that say. If they don’t have
their say we’re not going to have this deep cleaning.”
He also said, “do we really think this government is focused on
fixing the economy? Our political system, from the Prime Minister
downwards, is completely paralysed”.
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