[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by jfman

I'm perfectly calm. You are persistently using meaningless phrases and jargon (often incorrectly) implying that the Conservative Party are fiscally responsible and the Labour Party are not. This is in the complete absence of evidence.

We are running a budget deficit almost a decade after the coalition came to power. A defecit and the national debt at the highest it has ever been. It's an absolute parody of economic theory in action.

Austerity was simply an excuse to roll back the state. We are the fifth largest economy in the world yet we "can't afford" to do anything that private sector companies can extract profits from in the absence of genuine competition in the market. In the worst cases (TOCs) we privatise profits and subsidise the losses anyway.

What complete and utter nonsence, jfman. You really do enjoy trying to prove that black is white, don't you?

Here's a nice, easy to read report which shows your comments for the mistruths they are.

https://www.ft.com/content/928f7a7c-...d-04f350474d62

The UK government’s borrowing hit a 17-year low during the past financial year, according to preliminary figures published by the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday. The government spent £24.7bn more than it received between April 2018 and March 2019, down from £41.8bn during the 2017-18 financial year. It was the lowest annual borrowing since 2001-02. The government has been trying to reduce the public sector shortfall since it reached close to a tenth of national income in 2010.

Tax revenues from high-earning City workers collapsed after the 2008 financial crisis while spending on stimulus measures and benefits increased. Borrowing has recently fallen faster than predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK’s fiscal watchdog, thanks to rapid growth in tax receipts. Despite sluggish overall growth, stable employment and an increase in wages has helped support both income tax revenues and value added tax receipts, said John Hawksworth, chief economist at advisory firm PwC. “Economic growth has therefore been relatively ‘tax-rich’ over the past year, which has played a key role in bringing the budget deficit down to more sustainable levels,” he said.

Income and value added tax receipts rose 5.8 per cent and 5.6 per cent respectively during the financial year compared with the previous 12 months, while revenue from capital gains tax was 18.6 per cent higher. However, an increase in borrowing during the month of March itself compared with the previous year meant that full-year borrowing was above the £22.8bn predicted by the OBR at the Spring Statement last month.

In their monthly commentary on the figures, the OBR said: “The figures typically take some months to settle down and revisions can be significant.” Borrowing has often been lowered by £3bn in subsequent estimates. Recommended Tax evasion and avoidance UK steps up probe of tax ‘underpayment' by US groups “The year-over-year increase in public borrowing is not a sign that the economy has shifted down a gear,” said Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, a consultancy. “The jump in borrowing compared to the previous March entirely reflected a £1.8bn increase in central government net investment, which is volatile and will boost the economy.”

The ONS said there were “notable” increases in government spending on goods and services during March as well as higher capital spending on infrastructure. Government debt fell for the second consecutive year as a percentage of national income during the past financial year, from 84.6 per cent of gross domestic product to 83.1 per cent. “The historically high deficits since 2008 mean that government debt is almost 50 per cent of national income higher than it was before the financial crisis, and will remain significantly above those levels for the foreseeable future,” said Thomas Pope, research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Doesn't sound like mismanagement of the economy to me.