Behave man. Imagine having no time to teach your bairns to put a coat on, or to toilet train them. You make time, not expect others to make time.
The latest borrowing figure for August is the highest for the month since the height of the Covid pandemic, when government spending was ramped up to support the economy. Borrowing over the first five months of the financial year has now reached £83.8bn, which is £16.2bn higher than the same period last year. It is also above the prediction of £72.4bn that the government's official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, had made in March. Today... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly9m4lqznro As I mentioned yesterday drastic action needed. £100bn a year to balance the books . Can't keep blaming the Tories for black holes. How will they do it ? People won't vote for depressing news. Probably too late already for Labour unless they have some realistic policies which appeal to voters. A recession out of their own hands and they'll be hammered . That's the way this politics goes.
It's the welfare bill and pensions that has killed the French. Reeves/Starmer retreating from cuts earlier in the year that Labour MPs wouldn't have allowed has set the scene for us to follow them... Nb tories set the welfare/pension parameters
The BBC saying tax rises are almost inevitable due to interest on existing Government debt - £2.5 Trillion. In August the Government borrowed more than raised in taxes, £16 Billion, so means Reeves needs to look at cutting spending or tax rises? Interesting times ahead of Novembers budget.
The national debt is a millstone around our necks. It is getting heavier too. I do think Labour need to go back on their no tax rises policies. No sane person would argue they are wrong in doing so. We are in a mess and need financial stability. I remember when Osborne was chancellor. The deficit was almost an obsession. And rightly so I think. We were spending at a pace we couldnt afford. Maybe he cut too deep, but the reality was if we were a business we would have been declared bankrupt. He got the deficit down to a much better place and things seemed to be stabilising. Then the proverbial hit the fan with things like Covid and now the global political issues. And of course out governments still waste outrageous sums of money which drives me insane. The country is broke as far as I can tell. Some of the stories my wife tells me about school budgets make me really angry. Would you believe she spends spare time in websites where folk give stuff away for free. Anything the school could use she grabs and I go and collect on weekends. Usually toys for playgrounds, or bits of furntiture. One of the governors saw her doing this and gave her £50 out of his own pocket to buy whatever she thought would be useful. Put my tax bill up for crying out loud. But make sure you match fund with savings made out of stupid vanity spending.
Yeh I've got no problem with tax rises as they are needed it's just the competence of those spending them that worries me, I shudder to think the amount that has been wasted over the last few decades.
Great post FellTop you have nailed the problem for any government irrespective of colour. The only thing I would add is that whilst Osborne did get the deficit down, he missed all of his deficit targets despite austerity, and during that time he also increased the National debt from just over £1tn to nigh on £1.75tn
I'm sure you understand why I referred specifically to Reform in that context. To be clear, all political parties are wasteful, show me one that isn't, but only Reform pretend that they stand out from the crowd.
I can also tell you for a certain fact, as I worked with pretty senior people there round five years ago, that EDF was producing electricity at a significant loss and did so for almost two years, due to the forward price contract system under which they are obliged to operate. I was told the loss would probably exceed £100m. But maybe you're right. It's all those horrible rich bastards to blame, and we should leave it to the state. I can tell you this though, and it's a sure thing coming everyone's way. Planned power reductions, ( brown outs) and dynamic pricing, ( put your oven on at the wrong time and you'll get charged more). Don't get a smart meter, and if you've got one when you change tariff, don't have another.
