I could write a great deal about the budget problems George Osborne faces. But I don't need to because it can all be summarised by saying that the problems he faces are all of his own creation.
He made his criteria.
He is failing them.
And plenty of people pointed out his errors along the way.
Wednesday in the Commons with George will be interesting.
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Previous forecasts shot to pieces over a few months.
Productivity falling.
Balance of Payments deficits growing.
Foreign ownership of key productive assets mounting.
Tax abuse a business plan ingredient.
North of England decaying.
QE not increasing demand, simply exchanging near liquid assets for cash.
Unable to respond to any existential threat, there’s no money left and we can only print it to help banks.
Doctors on strike.
Pension schemes abolished, replaced with tax efficient savings schemes.
Looking forward to Wednesday and Thursday’s papers.
BUT – the gilded age is doing very well: see: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/mar/12/family-office-private-wealth-funds#comment-70534427
And that is the real ‘success’ story that these shysters want and the one that matters to them.
Expect Osborne to woo the middle-class Shadenfreude brigade with a tax cut ‘paid’ for by hammering the ‘useless eaters’.
Sorry – this man defies gravity. I hope that he is revealed in all his stupidity but I doubt it.
Maybe after the £4 billion cuts this assassin of the British economy may be in trouble but his stock still seems high to me at the moment.
The general public is far too uneducated to find him out and far too easily led by the nose to put blame elsewhere and far too let down by the media.
Things will just have to get worse instead. Let it be thus.
I so agree with you Pilgrim. Whatever dangerous economic nonsense he comes up with (and there’ll be a shed-load of it) will be ‘justified’ statistically by CCO – and regurgitated by the MSM – as necessary in order to ‘rebalance’ the UK economy and to prepare us for ‘difficult times ahead’.
The tragedy is the Labout Party has no effctive response, especially since John McDonnell has just bought in to the same neo-liberal agenda. It’s really, really scary. Who are these people listening to? Whatever glimmer of hope I had for Corbyn and his stated objectives has all but been extinguished.
Here’s an interesting (and worrying)comment from Chris Dillow – http://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2016/03/labours-credibility-problem.html, especially the research bit about “people who deceive themselves are better able to deceive others”.
Yes, it’s a tragedy that ‘things will have to get worse’. These are dark times for the UK’s economy.
“The whole trouble with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” Bertrand Russell.
The true result of both New Labour and Tory politics over the past 15 years is clearly evident in the latest UK wealth statistics.
So on that basis alone progressive economic policies ended a very long time ago!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/budget-2016-wealth-of-super-rich-soars-as-the-worst-off-lose-out-report-says-a6929341.html
Latest estimates of the impact on disabled people of the proposed changes to Personal Independence Payments by Osborne on Wednesday.
And don’t forget this is after the changes that previously led to hundreds of thousands of disabled people no longer even being entitled to PIP at all after the coalition government replaced the Disability Living Allowance and changed the entitlement process under PIP to an “assessment of needs”.
And where are the loud cries of protest from Labour?? Barely a squeak that I’ve heard so far – shame on all of them!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/george-osborne-s-disability-benefits-cuts-to-see-200000-people-lose-3000-a-year-a6929906.html
Richard,
I notice in that the side column you have a Twitter item about the IFS. I am not on Twitter but I would be interested to see that item as I never believed that mob to be neutral in any sense and prefer to think that war should be declared upon them.
I would particularly like to see as many assaults as possible directed at their appalling “Net Contributor” fallacy (that I mentioned here recently, http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/03/11/some-people-like-to-pay-fair-tax/comment-page-1/) as this idea appears to have gained currency and may have become the implicit basis for Tory policy.
I may showing some kind of tech ignorance in asking, but could you provide a link to that item? Or, if need be, could you post it on this blog? It would be greatly appreciated.
Actually, forget that I just found it (I might need to get a new pair of glasses).