Discussion
I was at the lister book launch up at Cambridge ( Marshalls) yesterday. Apparently we are doing more workshop business now their there own! However, speaking to the directors, they tell me there is an impending VAT increase the `Con dems` are about to introduce. Expect it to be 20%. Anyone heard this??
Triple7 said:
No the recession isn't GB's fault. There will always be a cycle. Uncontrolled Govt spending is to blame for any impending tax rises. 10yrs+ of boom (which most have benefited from to sone degree) and nothing left in the kitty at the end of it is shocking don't you think?
I agree but we all loved the years of easy credit, easy mortgages, lots of stocks going up and up and so on.We tend to forget that at times.
"No plans" is just a politician's answer - it doesn't mean anything. I have "no plans" to change my car at the moment, but it's not a lie, and it doesn't mean I won't ever do it. I'd much rather have a VAT rise than an income tax rise personally, given that it probably has to be one or the other.
BigNige said:
I didn't realise the global recession was GB's own fault?
The annual deficit in 1997 when he took over was £6bn. It is now circa £160bn I believe. The cumulative national debt is probably more than 100% of GDP, once we take into account the fabulously expensive PFI projects (which are only a way of the Government buying on HP)and public sector pensions, which are 'final salary' based and index linked. Brown may not have been personally responsible for the subprime debacle, but he rode the boom which was created by 'easy money', of which subprime was only one component. Not every country did this - Germany for example. Brown fuelled the boom in Britain with an unprecedented expansion of the public sector and public spending, and he was the prime publicist of the era with his mantra, now so conveniently forgotten, of 'no return to boom and bust'. He encouraged people to believe that the good times would go on for ever, because he needed people to go on spending in the shops, and paying more and more for houses. Brown was right to fight the collapse with spending, though whether he was right to prop up bust banks is another question - they are only a bottomless pit. However his profligacy during the good years (when he should have been paying down national debt) meant that he did not actually have the money to spend.
I do not doubt that he is a sincere man, and he thought that he was doing the Lord's work. However he was sincerely wrong. No country can afford to pay its public servants what we have paid ours.
The problem now is that people are always going to associate the Blair Brown era with high spending and the good times, new hospitals and schools, big public projects. People who are in work still do not feel particularly hard hit. Things seem to go on as normal. It's a phoney recession (unless you are looking for work). However the true state of the national finances is catastrophic. No political party was able to say this during the election, least of all Labour, because they all knew that if they did they would never be elected. The Con-Lib coalition is the best possible outcome because some of the more blatantly selfish Con policies and nutty Lib policies can all be ditched, and the Tories' credibility buys the UK some time in the international markets. But at some time reality is going to bite. This either hits us in the form of a currency crisis, or increased taxation. If 20% VAT is the worst that happens we shall have been lucky. If we are very lucky spending can be reined in on the margins so that everyone has less, but something to live on. If we are unlucky we have a sterling collapse - which means your money buys nothing - the old Eastern European way of life, or we have an 80's style cutback with businesses and industries being lost forever, bankruptcies, unemployment and personal misery for many many people.
I would have more respect for Labour if they would stop fighting irrelevant class wars and demonstrate a greater ability to handle economic reality.
I wish Cameron and Clegg the very best of good fortune and the help of God in their courageous endeavour. They are fighting for our national survival, and overpaid media loudmouths like Paxman and Snow should shut up and let them get on with it.
Edited by cardigankid on Saturday 15th May 11:03
I have a client who`s best friend left the treasury. Apparently there is a 100 Billion pound `black hole` in the revenue fund which cannot be explained, but was created exclusively by labour over spend. They behaved "like kids in a sweet shop" after Majors` goverment.then `Raise it from the public purse` when the pot ran dry.
High time we had successful businessmen running the country as a business. Too late now.
Aledgedly a new fuel tax increase was due under a new labour Gov, which would eventually see the cost of fuel rise from £8.00 per gallon by 2011 to £10 per gallon by 2012.I suppose this could still be a reality.
High time we had successful businessmen running the country as a business. Too late now.
Aledgedly a new fuel tax increase was due under a new labour Gov, which would eventually see the cost of fuel rise from £8.00 per gallon by 2011 to £10 per gallon by 2012.I suppose this could still be a reality.
Gassing Station | Jaguar | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff