Those that propose the alternative to the current cuts is investment are living in cloud Cuckoo land. Where is this investment going to come from? How on earth can the government invest more in the current debt situation?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally with the current cuts, I never was and never will be. But if no action was taken then we would end up having our credit rating down graded like Portugal, Greece and Ireland. Therefore the government have to make cuts as well as raise taxes to ensure interest payments remain low.
I'm a supporter of reduced cuts, that's where I agree with Labour.
Labour
It's also shocking just how much bandwagon jumping Ed Miliband and Labour are doing. Just the other day Ed Balls gave an apology for the situation we are in. I don't fully blame Labour I also blame the banks and traders. But Labour admit that they would be cutting, they admit it would be harsh, of course they would be, cuts are hard for those on the end of them. So don't pretend your on the side of everyone at today's protests, because they would be cutting some of their jobs and pensions to.
It's also wrong to use Martin Luther King's words to link into this kind of protest. How dare such an authoritarian party quote the great man of civil rights and therefore liberty. This is really not the same situation. It's not remotely related to Civil Rights, the Suffragettes or Apartheid.
Anarchist protestors
Anarchy is a stateless society, therefore throwing paint at HSBC or Top Shop for not paying enough tax is not anarchy. Paying tax supports the state, hardly anarchy then.
I also want these corporations to pay their taxes but then again I'm not an anarchist.
Picture by www.twitter.com/MsmvLee
For an alternative look at the discarded Liberal Democrat manifesto as a start.
ReplyDeleteHowever I know that the official public relations line now is that they knew they wanted to break it/discard it (delete as appropriate) as they were drawing the manifesto.
There was and still is little or no pressure on long-term interest rates or credit rating. The free-market is comfortable that our long-term ability to pay off the debt remains, unlike Greece or Ireland.
ReplyDeleteWe as a nation have had and used easy access to cheap debt for a century now. Most countries do. From 1997 to around 2004 Labour was reducing national debt comfortably, and it was the lowest it had been as a % of GDP for 80-odd years. Even up until 2008 it was still comparatively low.
If a debt level remains stable, it's real value drops so long as the country's economy is growing. Therefore growth is as at least as important as controlling costs.
Sweeping cuts have ground the economy's short-term prospects to a halt, yet we're still borrowing huge sums of money every year. That suggests cost cuts alone won't help.
The early 1930s in the US gives a very good indication of the success investing your way out of a recession can have. After all, for every £1 you invest at this stage, by my estimates around 2/3s comes back in the form of benefit reduction, job creation, corporate/earnings/sales taxation and duties. How exactly does putting 500,000 people on the dole queue help increase tax revenues or cut benefits?
The problem is that for many people low mortgages mean they still feel fairly affluent so long as they have a job. This includes myself. But for millions out there, poverty and long-term unemployment are not a lifestyle choice, they are the only prospect facing them. For people leaving full-time education, this period of their lives will scar their CVs and harm their future prospects forever.
Please, people, take 5 minutes out of your life to ready any one of the numerous excellent articles written by NY Times columnist and Nobel economics prize-winner Paul Krugman, rather than continuing to be spoon-fed Thatcherist tripe....
"But if no action was taken then we would end up having our credit rating down graded like Portugal, Greece and Ireland."
ReplyDeleteDid you miss the warning shoots fired by two credit ratings agencies last week? Telling Osborne that if growth continues to disappoint the UK's credit rating is at risk?
All good points. I agree growth is very important although the USA is now going back on it's plans and will be cutting more.
ReplyDeleteI of course would go for lower cuts which nataully would help growth