Martin Wolf is on form in the FT this morning, saying:
At some point – and it is likely to be during the next parliament – the political limits of austerity will be reached. Thereupon, painful options will arise: start imposing substantial user charges; raise taxes; or provide services at far below the standards people now expect.
As he then suggests:
Behind this will be a conflict between young and old and between the successful and less so.
But there is more to it than that, important as that debate about who is to have priority in our society. The role of the UK is in question to:
Planned cuts call the UK's role in the world into question.
It is astonishing that Conservatives are so relaxed about the changes that their programme implies for defence.
But the sting is in the tail, where Martin Wolf says:
The more important it is to deliver sustained falls in public debt in relation to GDP, the more necessary it is likely to be to raise taxes.
In other words, given that cuts will reach their practical limits during the next parliament, because the elderly and those less well off cannot be left aside from what is now expected of healthcare, education and care, a demand for a balanced budget will only be deliverable by imposing tax increases. And it is only the Conservatives, the tax cutting party, who are demanding that balanced budget. The paradox is obvious, but it's also real, and the electorate should be aware of it.
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Richard – politely – I think that you are making the Conservatives sound rational!! You’re giving them too much credit!
I honestly do not believe that they will raise taxes; I think that they will just sell off all remaining state assets/liabilities in a a sort of ‘fire sale’ to end them all.
And then most (if not all) of the Tories will get jobs on the Boards of what they have just privatised.
They will continue to talk of balancing budgets flatly denying that their policies are stopping that from happening. They will lower benefits yet again I’m sure.
I concede that they may raise taxes to smooth over the transitions – make the finances of the to be privatised services look better for investors but divesting liabilities seems to be in their DNA – rather than funding so-called liabilities.
This lot want to run us into the ground. And they’ll have that chance this May if some of us don’t wake up or look up from our mobile apps!!!
I agree: they may well not realise the implications of what they are saying
But some of us do
I believe that George Osborne is proposing to run Budget surpluses. Quite how that will make the UK more successful than the US, I can’t imagine but as Mark C. says rationality has very little to do with the current Conservatives.