Saturday Seven Up

Eurozone is Rotting the EU | Heritage
Do the Tories Actually Want to Win in 2015? | Dan Hodges
To Explain Tory Infighting, Watch Game of Thrones | Toby Young
Let Schools Make Money | Philip Collins
The Blind Leaders Who Want to Join Euro, Even Now | Jeremy Warner
What Will SamCam Do After Life at Number 10? | Iain Martin
Worry About the Cold, Not Global Warming | Fraser Nelson
Tory MP Breaks Pelvis | Telegraph
Obama is a Hypocrite and Coward on the Falklands | Nile Gardiner
Update From the Envy of the World | The Commentator
Number 10 Wanted Hayes Out of DECC | James Forsyth

SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013

Saturday Seven Up

This week 102,429 visitors visited 317,670 times viewing 538,461 pages. The top stories in order of popularity were:

• WATCH: Boris Roasted By Eddie Mair
• +++ David Miliband Quitting Parliament +++
• Owen Jones and the People’s Front Against t’Cuts
• Darius Guppy Breaks Boris Silence
• Will the Last Blairite to Leave Switch Out the Light?
• WATCH: Heckler Calls IDS a “Ratbag”
• Fifty Shades of Bozier

You’re either in front of Guido, or behind…

Borrowing to Pay Public Sector Pensions is £1 in £7

The budget has yet to entirely unravel this year though there are some nasty figures buried in the small print. The Centre for Policy Studies has spotted that deep within the Budget Red Book is the admission that the cashflow shortfall between public sector pensions’ contributions and pensions in payment is now forecast to double within 5 years. The pensions gap is growing to such an extent that it will soon represent a significant driver of the deficit. The 2013 Budget now forecasts a Public Sector New Borrowing Requirement of £96 billion for 2015 – the year the Coalition optimistically intended to close the deficit. At £13.6 billion, the pension cashflow shortfall will then be equivalent to 14% of the deficit. Unaffordable.
To put it plainly the government will by 2015 be borrowing £1 in every £7 it borrows to cover the gap in public sector pensions, at a cost of £1,500 to every household every year. So much for the post-bureaucratic age…