As the 5th or is it currently 6th richest country in the world , for the UK austerity has been a political choice, not an economic requirement......
We don't know the meaning of the word austerity in this country, ask anyone who lives in Portugal, Ireland, Greece or Spain about austerity and they'll tell you stories of massive tax hikes, savage public spending cuts and mass unemployment. By comparison we merely tightened our belts a bit here. I'm not taking anything away from anyone who was affected by cuts such as the so called 'Bedroom Tax' but the fact is that we had it easy compared to other countries.
As to whether it was an economic requirement, the UK had an annual budget deficit of nearly £150 billion in 2009 which is clearly unsustainable.
As the 5th or is it currently 6th richest country in the world , for the UK austerity has been a political choice, not an economic requirement - this is obviously the case because Mrs May did not blink at all earlier this Summer when she decided to spend over £100 billion (as there is no apparent upper limit to the total cost in the future) of our money for Hinkley Point Nuclear Power station which will provide only 7% of the energy needs of a few hundred thousand people, that is if it actually gets built and works ? The UK is blessed with its coastline, tidal power has largely been ignored so far in favour of profits for others at our expense called wind turbines both on and off shore.
Personally I don't agree with Hinkley Point but you are wrong on both points you made here. Mrs May did blink in the summer when she ordered a last minute review into the construction of Hinkley Point C and she kept the Chinese investors and French energy firm EDF in suspense for nearly 3 months while the deal was reviewed. It's not 'our money' that's paying for the construction as the Chinese and French are paying the capital costs of construction. Of course we will pay for it in the end through the ridiculously high prices that EDF will charge for the electricity generated, guaranteed by Cameron and Osborne. That's if they ever get the thing to work that is...
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Topic: Jeremy Hunt....is it just me? (Read 4137 times)