If you are serious about cutting the deficit, it's a good idea not to spend more than New Labour did in their diastrous spending binge. Isn't that exactly what has happened since 2012? Certainly, the "official" media line seems to be that poor George Osborne is desperately trying to cut the deficit but is being thwarted through low tax revenues (as people cut back on their spending) and sluggish growth. Left wingers are slating him for cutting too hard and too fast. The reality is rather different. Government expenditure has actually increased since 2011, and is going up faster than private sector spending. The arithmetic of this is quite simple. Tax revenues are not keeping pace with government spending, so therefore the Chancellor has to borrow more. This in turn means that the deficit, rather than being cut savagely, as the Left are implying, is actually inreasing.
Should you care to glance through the offical budget document http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget2013_complete.pdf, you will see that this isn't the end of the story. Turn to page 104, and you will see that according to the forecast by the so-called Office for Budget Responsibility, government spending is forecast to rise, yes rise, not fall, up to and beyond the next election. Top of the list is social security payments, then comes debt repayments to fund earlier spending. The picture really is bleak. we MUST cut spending and drastically. It's so obvious. Why has this simple fact eluded George Osborne?
Let's be clear on this one point. Things could be worse. For all George Osborne's failings, he would not be as bad a Chancellor of the Exchequer as Ed Balls. Mind you, that's not saying much. Our pet guinea pigs would make a better chancellor of the exchequer than Ed Balls. I don't know what goes on in thier little brains all the time, but I can't believe they think that the best way to recover from a devastating spending binge is another spending binge. (oh, and our guinea pigs are a lot cuter than Ed Balls too!)
Should you care to glance through the offical budget document http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget2013_complete.pdf, you will see that this isn't the end of the story. Turn to page 104, and you will see that according to the forecast by the so-called Office for Budget Responsibility, government spending is forecast to rise, yes rise, not fall, up to and beyond the next election. Top of the list is social security payments, then comes debt repayments to fund earlier spending. The picture really is bleak. we MUST cut spending and drastically. It's so obvious. Why has this simple fact eluded George Osborne?
Let's be clear on this one point. Things could be worse. For all George Osborne's failings, he would not be as bad a Chancellor of the Exchequer as Ed Balls. Mind you, that's not saying much. Our pet guinea pigs would make a better chancellor of the exchequer than Ed Balls. I don't know what goes on in thier little brains all the time, but I can't believe they think that the best way to recover from a devastating spending binge is another spending binge. (oh, and our guinea pigs are a lot cuter than Ed Balls too!)
But I digress. It's no good the Tories presenting themsevles as a slightly less awful version of Labour. They ought to be radically different. There's plenty of scope for cutting state spending: pulling out of the EU would be a good start, scrapping that crazy vanity project HS2, to name just a few. Dr Lee Rotherham of the Taxpayers' Alliance published an excellent book entitled The Bumper Book of Government Waste. It was truly shocking to read how much of our hard-earned cash is just wasted by the govenrment. Do buy a copy if you can. True, it first appeared in the dark days of New Labour, but as the HM Treasury figures show, the ousting of New Labour has not made much difference. Look at this more recent piece http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9049464/The-obscene-profligacy-of-the-British-government-and-the-EU-with-your-money.html written by another of the Taxpayers' Alliance excellent team.
I said yesterday that in David Cameron, the Tories had a no-hoper for leader. Sadly, the evidence from the government's own data shows that his sidekick George is no better.
I said yesterday that in David Cameron, the Tories had a no-hoper for leader. Sadly, the evidence from the government's own data shows that his sidekick George is no better.