Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[albitz]

ONS has announced public sector borrowing has risen another £600 million to £15.4 billion at the end of December.
Dont this lot realise that the only thing they were ever going to have going for them was stopping the lunacy of Labours borrow and spend mentality,which has put the country on the road to ruin ?

[bored bigyin54]

these lot just make more dept than labour 

[albitz]

The longer they keep their heads in the sand,the more savage the cuts will have to be when reality finally bites.
Thers no way round it,the country has to stop spending money it doesnt have.Its going to be very tough on a lot of people,but theres no avoiding it.
I have no doubt that if/when Labour get back in they will be even worse.They will finish the job of ruination that they started,even faster than the current lot will.

[aaronjb]

I don't think we'll ever be back in the black - we've borrowed so much and our GDP is shrinking so much that short of shutting down the NHS, firing 90% of all the civil servants, closing all the state funded schools and announcing marshal law, there's no way we're ever going to fix it..

All we have to look forward to is an eventual default and/or the whole world becomes communist and we all forget about the concept of money.

[albitz]

Stock up on beans and bullets.
The point is,traditionally Labour spend money like its going out of fashion,the economy ends up in a mess,so the Tories get elected to fix it.They take the hard decisions,get things straightened out,but piss people off in the process so lose power,and the whole vicios circle starts again.
Not this time though.No-one could expect the debt to be paid off and all aspects of the economy to be rosy in a couple of years,but they are actually borrowing much more than the other shower were.The only crumb of comfort is that the rate of accelleration of the borrowing has slowed to some extent,but that aint going to keep the ship afloat for long.
I think they are so focussed on not being labelled the nasty party,they are scared of doing what needs to be done.
Do the job,let the facts speak for themselves and earn the respect for doing it is the only method to try imo.well,that and outlawing socialism - thinly veiled or not.

[Varche]

The rate of acceleration of debt borrowing maybe is slowing but the debt itself is just getting bigger. A lot of folk are sitting at home thinking the government have got it all under control- they have not. All Osborne has achieved is to keep Britains AAA rating so vital to keep government borrowing interest rates down. Fitch will be downgrading Britain later this year.

As Rods2 says triple dip recession in Spring (blamed no doubt on reduced spending due to bad winter).

It is all looking "good" for my prediction of Britain being in the euro in less than five years time.

[albitz]

Once that AAA rating goes we wil be on a slippery slope.Whats happening in Greece today could easily be happening here in 5 years time.Possibly the only thing currently keeping the wolves from the door is our much hated financial sector.

[Rog]

The longer they keep their heads in the sand,the more savage the cuts will have to be when reality finally bites.
Thers no way round it,the country has to stop spending money it doesnt have.Its going to be very tough on a lot of people,but theres no avoiding it.
I have no doubt that if/when Labour get back in they will be even worse.They will finish the job of ruination that they started,even faster than the current lot will.

I'll go with that. Trouble is no politician of ANY party will take the really draconian steps that are needed for the simple reason that they would be deeply unpopular and result in lost votes and possibly civil unrest a-la Greece.

Also . . . . .

Austerity,what austerity ?

Just try getting a table for a decent restaurant in London at a weekend, and they are not all foreign tourists. There are still a lot of UK people with cash to spend.

[Varche]

Once that AAA rating goes we wil be on a slippery slope.Whats happening in Greece today could easily be happening here in 5 years time.Possibly the only thing currently keeping the wolves from the door is our much hated financial sector.

That will be a nice jewel in Barrosa's crown when Britain adopts the Euro following accepting a bailout. Nice EU cash cow.

[cleggy]

The longer they keep their heads in the sand,the more savage the cuts will have to be when reality finally bites.
Thers no way round it,the country has to stop spending money it doesnt have.Its going to be very tough on a lot of people,but theres no avoiding it.
I have no doubt that if/when Labour get back in they will be even worse.They will finish the job of ruination that they started,even faster than the current lot will.

I'll go with that. Trouble is no politician of ANY party will take the really draconian steps that are needed for the simple reason that they would be deeply unpopular and result in lost votes and possibly civil unrest a-la Greece.

Also . . . . .

Austerity,what austerity ?

Just try getting a table for a decent restaurant in London at a weekend, and they are not all foreign tourists. There are still a lot of UK people with cash to spend.

Civil servants spending our taxes 

[albitz]

Once that AAA rating goes we wil be on a slippery slope.Whats happening in Greece today could easily be happening here in 5 years time.Possibly the only thing currently keeping the wolves from the door is our much hated financial sector.

That will be a nice jewel in Barrosa's crown when Britain adopts the Euro following accepting a bailout. Nice EU cash cow.

Its the only reason they want us in the club at all imo.

[Marks DTM Calib]

It would be interesting to know how much of our borrowing is for paying interest on borrowing for others that have borrowed from us (e.g. Greece, Spain, Ireland etc)

[Varche]

It would be interesting to know how much of our borrowing is for paying interest on borrowing for others that have borrowed from us (e.g. Greece, Spain, Ireland etc)

Indeed. However on paper it would make great sense for the Uk to borrow say 5billion at 3% and lend it to a country at 6% assuming they can pay it back of course. What makes less sense is the likes of Spain and Italy having to borrow money at 6% in order to (jointly with other countries) fund the bailouts of Greece where everyone knows they will default and will do so again. If the ordinaruy man in the street could see the paper trail for all this borrowing and cross funding of public debt (national and other countries) they would probably have a heart attack.

[Entwood]

It would be interesting to know how much of our borrowing is for paying interest on borrowing for others that have borrowed from us (e.g. Greece, Spain, Ireland etc)

Even more interesting would be to know EXACTLY how much of our borrowing is to pay the interest on both the borrowing of the previous government and its attempts to "purchase" the votes of folks by ridiculous spending .. which now has to be paid for.

Just remember .. this mess happened BEFORE the present government came to power ... at least they are trying to sort it out... albeit slowly it seems .. however the grabbers and graspers combine to prevent progress at every turn.

[albitz]

No doubt the previous lot acted with irresponsibilty which should have been treated as criminal.
My point is that the current lot,so far,are borrowing even more than they did,by quite a margin.Imo they need to grow a spine and do what needs to be done,regardless of the opinion polls.They have little chance of getting re-elected anyway,so they might as well do whats right for the country while they are in there.