Quote:
Originally Posted by Ignitionnet
Though no-one compelled Labour to spend so heavily during a boom that they were increasing our debt to GDP ratio, alongside these off-book liabilities that they were accumulating and the tax increases they were enacting.
States are supposed to deleverage during growth periods so that the stabilisers can kick in during recessionary parts of the cycle without causing major issues.
It was, without a doubt, a means to conceal debt and remains as such. It will likely only get worse with the completely misplaced obsession over our debt and deficit.
It would be fabulous if people were shown our current unfunded liabilities. That would put the alleged debt into some focus.
As it is we're, including what PFI has stashed away, in a level of debt not seen since the early 60s and our recovery from the Second World War, thanks to a wonderful series of inept decisions by economic illiterates over the past couple of decades.
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You're absolutely right. I'm certainly not trying or seeking to excuse the behaviour of the Labour Government during their term but we must deal with the facts.
As a mechanisim it was designed in such a fashion that it could be used to conceal / misrepresent debt. It was devised by the conservatives and the current chancellor is still throwing his friends bones despite having previously discredited the mechanism itself and having been warned repeatedly by the Treasury as to the dangers of an over reliance on the mechanism as a funding means.
The succession of economic illiterates to whom you refer have relied on, and continue to rely upon, the economic illiteracy of the electorate whilst awarding their friends billions in contracts and further bolstering their wealth.