UK Budget Deficit

[Cyberman]

Ah.... that's why Labour put the top rate of tax up to 98%. It's all clear now. .. and they went to the IMF because of the previous government...... clearer still.

[ace00]

Did I hear IMF?

"Over the first three months of the new financial year, April to June, the Treasury had to borrow £24.7 billion - the highest figure since records began in 1946 and up by a startling two-thirds from the £14.7 billion total for the same period last year to an all-time high for this period.

In June alone, borrowing jumped to £9.2 billion, up by almost £3 billion, or nearly 50 per cent from the previous June, and also setting a record for borrowing in any June. "

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle4355998.ece

[expat]

Ah.... that's why Labour put the top rate of tax up to 98%. It's all clear now. .. and they went to the IMF because of the previous government...... clearer still.

You will have noticed I take it that at no point did I suggest that Labour were any good at handling the economy?

I simply object strenuously to the unfounded and untenable suggestion that the Tories are any good.

[HairyArsedBloke]

I'm afraid that old Tory story is just not true. Healey and Callaghan inherited an over-inflated mess from Barber, Maudling, and Heath so bad that Maudling personally apologised to Healey for it.

Previously, Wilson and Callaghan had inherited such a disastrous economy from the moribund Tory government that Cabinet memoirs tell us that real tears were shed when the optimistic incoming Labour government found out just how bare the cupboard was.

Or do you mean the Major/Lamont government that presided over 15% interest rates and dropped ignominously out of the ERM?

No, those tales of Tory fiscal responsibility are tall ones.

Yes, they have both been total rubbish, but Labour are more rubbish than Conservative. The current bunch takes a whole box of Montecristo’s from their pal Fidel for their level of incompetence, deceit and fraud.

[Tensai]

Yes, they have both been total rubbish, but Labour are more rubbish than Conservative. The current bunch takes a whole box of Montecristo’s from their pal Fidel for their level of incompetence, deceit and fraud.

Alistair Darling insisted today that "no decision" had been taken over the Government's much-vaunted fiscal rules, despite speculation that they will be loosened to allow more borrowing.

Linky

Oh deary, deary, me..... time to dust off those Oz immigration forms....

[Cyberman]

Yes, they have both been total rubbish, but Labour are more rubbish than Conservative. The current bunch takes a whole box of Montecristo’s from their pal Fidel for their level of incompetence, deceit and fraud.

The Tories made mistakes. Of course they should never have entered the ERM, but their mistakes have been on a far minor scale to Labour throughout the past 40 years, and they did created a legacy booming economic circumstances that were handed to Labour in 1997.

Labour have done one good thing and that was to stay well clear of the Euro to keep 'control' of of own interest rates. Unfortunately, they have been proven to be so incompetent in regulatory areas(Equitable Life, bank lending, on pensions, spending and on tax. Selling our gold at a quarter of today's price was also a disaster. The boom legacy is long gone, unfortunately.

[BrianSnail]

I once got a 'windmill' award from mates at university for 'continuing to pump the same hole' when I had a girlfriend for over 6 months. Reminds me of your continual promotion of the Tories as the econmic saviours just waiting to restore prosperity to the UK.

Ok so you have a choice of 3 - the one in power is not going to change things, if anything they are going to make more of a mess. So who can you hope for? I want the Tories in to cut the public spending which has wasted billions.

Fnarrr fnarr!