Gideon's autumn update : Tue Nov 29, 2011 12:50 pm  

Just had a glance at the BBC website to see what this star in the economics firmament has to say.
Across his picture it says "This content doesn't seem to be working - Try again later".
How very apt.

Basically I want to se how he phrases the following ...

Growth - none
Borrowing - up and now way exceeds what Labour planned ... Gideon said that was far too much when they proposed it.
Deficit reduction - "rolling five year plan", it starts when he says it started and he hasn't said that yet. - Neat politics, that is.
Plan B - what plan B?

Re: Gideon's autumn update : Tue Nov 29, 2011 12:54 pm  

Never mind, at least you'll be able to get from Leeds to Manchester ten minutes quicker once they've lined the pockets of Balfour Beatty (or whoever gets the contract) with public money on a vanity project.

It's quite comical really, watching the coalition stagger from "slash and burn" to "spend, spend, spend" as a cure for the nation's economic ills.

Are we running a book on how long it takes Robinson or Standee to come along and blame it all on the much lower deficit that the previous government left behind?

Re: Gideon's autumn update : Tue Nov 29, 2011 1:14 pm  

Oh, and you can get £50 knocked off your water bill.

You just need to move to the South West.

Re: Gideon's autumn update : Tue Nov 29, 2011 1:15 pm  

They really have it in for public sector workers like my hard working hubby don't they? Couple that with the revision on DLA and the Contributionary ESA debacle then me and my husband are screwed. You try to do right over the years, own your own house, no loans, pay off credit cards on time, don't have children when you know you can't look after them, and they treat you like this. Tory to$$ers

Re: Gideon's autumn update : Tue Nov 29, 2011 1:30 pm  

I am finding Ed Balls surprisingly handsome and mesmorising

Re: Gideon's autumn update : Tue Nov 29, 2011 1:31 pm  

Andy Gilder wrote:

It's quite comical really, watching the coalition stagger from "slash and burn" to "spend, spend, spend" as a cure for the nation's economic ills.

It would be, if it wasn't so annoying. "We've no money" is the cry, yet they remarkably seem to be finding funds for various projects such as £380m for nursery places and £500m to pay private sector employers to take people on apprenticeships.

Either the money is there or it isn't. How can we have it both ways?

Re: Gideon's autumn update : Tue Nov 29, 2011 1:31 pm  

Hull White Star wrote:

They really have it in for public sector workers like my hard working hubby don't they? Couple that with the revision on DLA and the Contributionary ESA debacle then me and my husband are screwed. You try to do right over the years, own your own house, no loans, pay off credit cards on time, don't have children when you know you can't look after them, and they treat you like this. Tory to$$ers

Ah well ... that's because public sector workers do next to nothing and get "gold-plated" pensions.
Must be true, I heard Francis Maude say so.

They'll all get jobs in the private sector.
Must be true, I heard Osborne say so.

Cameron is cutting the deficit not the NHS.
Must be true, I saw a poster with him on it, saying so.

We're all in it together.

Re: Gideon's autumn update : Tue Nov 29, 2011 1:34 pm  

Chris28 wrote:

It would be, if it wasn't so annoying. "We've no money" is the cry, yet they remarkably seem to be finding funds for various projects such as £380m for nursery places and £500m to pay private sector employers to take people on apprenticeships.

Either the money is there or it isn't. How can we have it both ways?

Well, the £5bn for infrastructure projects is coming mostly from freezing Working Tax Credits.

Re: Gideon's autumn update : Tue Nov 29, 2011 1:38 pm  

Andy Gilder wrote:

Are we running a book on how long it takes Robinson or Standee to come along and blame it all on the much lower deficit that the previous government left behind?

Not really. I was all for a change of government due mainly to how arrogant the previous lot got. The current lot need to pull their finger out, for sure.

I'm still far from convinced that either party have the right answers, and I certainly wouldn't be yearning for a return to Labour any time soon.

Re: Gideon's autumn update : Tue Nov 29, 2011 1:48 pm  

Chris28 wrote:

It would be, if it wasn't so annoying. "We've no money" is the cry, yet they remarkably seem to be finding funds for various projects such as £380m for nursery places and £500m to pay private sector employers to take people on apprenticeships.

Either the money is there or it isn't. How can we have it both ways?

What is funny, in a very, very dry sort of way, is how they're essentially reviving Labour policies that they'd scrapped – like the Future Jobs Fund, for instance.

I think that they thought the economy would just sort of sort itself out – and they could use the deficit as an excuse to play slash and burn and pursue a vastly reduced state on ideological grounds.

Osborne has, for weeks now, been telling everyone on the other side of the Channel to sort out the Eurozone crisis – which he's now blaming for the deepening deficit – but he never has a bloody suggestion himself for what to do.

And as I've said before, it is utter economic illiteracy, given that we have an economy currently dependent on consumers spending, to reduce the amount of money that people have to spend. In the longer term, I suspect that most people would now realise the problems caused by de-industrialisation, but in the short term, the way out of the recession is growth and we have to grow those sectors that currently exist.