Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr K
Covid hasn't been happening for 12 years. National debt has increased EVERY year since 2010.
https://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/u..._debt_analysis
Compared to other G7 countries we're doing worse.
https://www.ft.com/content/4ac7e454-...f-fb54404d45a0
We've a higher inflation rate than any EU country.
https://www.nationalworld.com/news/u...france-3571914
The Govt had an pandemic exercise a few years ago so we would be prepared. They chose to ignore the recommendations.
The NHS has a staffing crisis and has been underfunded for over a decade. Staff turnover is horrendous.
Are you one of these people who feel the Govt can never be held responsible for anything ? If they aren't responsible for anything whats the point of them ?
Quite frankly it's hard to see how Labour could do any worse. (and I've never voted for them). |
Oh, do come off it, Mr K, do you take us for fools? Or maybe you just don’t understand the detail behind the facts.
Yes, of course our debt was still increasing post 2010. Why? Because our expenditure far exceeded our income, and so every year we had to correct that imbalance so that the debt would stop increasing year on year. We finally brought the imbalance in the economy so that the growing debt could finally be controlled, but then the pandemic changed everything. You are looking at results without considering what caused them.
When we look at the mess the Labour government left us in 2010, I don’t blame them for the financial crash, because it was not our government’s fault. What I blame them for is their spendthrift attitude which left us devoid of balances. Cause and effect.
As far as the pandemic exercise is concerned, did you seriously expect our scarce resources during austerity to be squandered on setting even more money aside at that stage for something that might not have happened for decades? Even Mr Hindsight wouldn’t have foreseen this pandemic coming so soon, even in retrospect!
As I said in an earlier post, the NHS was in crisis when Labour were in power. Unfortunately, the pandemic has made things so much worse.
Boris Johnson’s government may not be perfect, and there are clearly behavioural problems that need sorting out, but this government has got the big decisions right.
How did Kier Starmer do when you review what he was urging this government to do? For example, just how long would our lockdown have lasted? He would have been too petrified to lift the restrictions, and we’d probably still have them in place now if it was down to him.
---------- Post added at 19:37 ---------- Previous post was at 19:31 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfman
However his tacit implication that 85% debt to GDP is managable but 100% out of control is plucked from thin air. There was no plan to pay the 85% off, merely to pass it onto future generations.
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That’s what inflation is for, jfman!
My point has nothing to do with your 100% / 85% comparison. It is about re-balancing the economy. The disparity between our expenditure and income levels had to be equalised in order to pay off the debt.
That’s why the government referred to the problem as the deficit.
But of course as the revered economist on this forum, you knew that.
