Quote:
Originally Posted by frogstamper
Strange though that President Obama is going down the same path as GB isn't it? aiming to stimulate the economy by spending now on public projects, tell me what the Tory alternative is, baton down the hatches and every man for himself.
Absolutely ridiculous, Britain is nowhere near the situation it was in when Healy went to the IMF in the 70s, as regards mismanaging the economy from day one as chancellor, where were you in over a decade of boom.
GB certainly isn't my favourite politician but making claims like that are fanciful, whoever would have been in power during the last ten years wouldn't have done a lot different concerning the economy, if it had been the Tories they would have given out more tax cuts and spent less on the public services, but we'd still be in this current situation.
But muddying the waters with claims of total financial mismanagement over a decade which just by fluke gave us the longest period of growth in modern times sounds like a case of sour grapes.
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Decade of boom? I'd go along with that, the financial cycle was well on the up, which makes stats like these even more regrettable:
UK Budget Deficit:
2002: 1.53% of GDP
2003: 2.91% of GDP
2004: 2.94% of GDP
2005: 3.23% of GDP
Oh and we now have the 13th highest tax rate as a % of GDP in the developed world, it's been constantly rising, so even with this boom period Brown as chancellor both increased taxes and ran deficits.
We are now predicted to have a debt of 70%+ of GDP in the not too distant future. Brown both taxes us into unconsciousness and will have to continue to do so apace having urinated all the increased revenue away.
It's why we're officially the least prepared of the G20 for the recession. That is purely a result of GB's tax and spend. Using the increased tax revenue to pay the bills would have left the UK in a stronger position, as it is even the BoE is begging Brown not to push through a second stimulus as we can't afford it. To say that there was nothing anyone could have done better is a ridiculous statement. Brown believed his own hype about the end of boom and bust, totally ignored his own 'fiscal rules', totally ignored the economic cycle and continued to borrow on unproductive investment. Indeed continues to do so.
I should mention I'm not that alarmed as I'm emmigrating, I hope you'll enjoy paying the tax bill from the mismanagement you appear to think didn't happen.