XBrettKennyX wrote:
Are you serious?
Are you seriously trying to argue that the measures that the coalition are forced to take now are not the result of the chronic economic mismanagement of the previous administration?
Yes, of course I am.
The vast majority of the debt is the result of propping up the banks. (We don't know what Osborne would have done , he poo-poohed it at the time but has remaind silent ever since on what he would have done instead).
The debt before the banking crisis was at a level that the Major administration was fairly sanguine about, so they (i.e. the Conservatives) and you can't, with any credibility, criticise that level of debt.
Cameron likens it to a maxed-out credit card, which shows how much he knows about economics ... it's more like a mortgage, and his predecessors have been pretty keen for everyone to have a mortgage (selling off council houses etc).
UK 30 year sovereign debt is currently selling at just over 3% yield, now is the exact time to borrow more (yes, more) for capital projects, which get people into work and consequently release spending into GDP, which in turn creates more employment.
i.e. Growth is the way out of the crisis, austerity isn't working, not here, not anywhere.
As for the deficit, some cutting was required to balance it, but cutting so deep and so fast (as I have been saying on this board since before the last election) will strangle growth in its cot ... and it is doing so.
And so to the bottom line ... i.e. Why are the tories doing this?
They are using the crisis (that was created by their friends in the City) as a smokescreen whilst they set about the completion of their unfinished business that was begun by the madwoman herself ... viz. the wholesale destruction of the post-war settlement (look it up). They can't fully destroy it, the electorate won't let them, but the tories won't be truly happy while there is a benefit or social service remaining.
Your use of the word "forced" is incorrect.