How much deeper do the pockets have to be?

[BrilloPad]

A trillion here, a trillion there. Soon you are talking serious amounts of money.

Lucky Lawson.

[minestrone]

Read in the papers this morning (so it must be true) Alistair Darling is looking to bring in a new wave of tax increases

VAT to go back up to 17.5%, rumours abound it will go up to 19.5%
Petrol Duty to be increase another 2p in November
Alcohol & fags up 25% duty
Import duty up 20%
Docking Fees at regional ports already up 225%

which is nice........

I think they will just keep borrowing until after the election, they will screw the country to try and get another term.

If they don't in then the tories will have to bump taxes up massively to correct all this or take a loan from the IMF. Either way will make labour look good.

It's a win win for them.

[Platypus]

I think they will just keep borrowing until after the election, they will screw the country to try and get another term.

If they don't in then the tories will have to bump taxes up massively to correct all this or take a loan from the IMF. Either way will make labour look good.

It's a win win for them.

Grim but true

[centurian]

I think they will just keep borrowing until after the election, they will screw the country to try and get another term.

If they don't in then the tories will have to bump taxes up massively to correct all this or take a loan from the IMF. Either way will make labour look good.

It's a win win for them.

Strictly speaking, the highest taxing government over the past 30 years was the Tories.

This is because the tories had to raise taxes after coming to power in 1979 to get the country out of the financial hole.

By 1997, taxes were much, much lower, but as an average over their 18 years in power, they were higher than the past 10 years.

Likewise, the lowest GDP/debt ratio over the past 30 years was during a Labour goverment - in 1997/1998 - just after they inherited the best economy for yonks.

[realityhack]

According to http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/

Since Labour came to power, they've spent £5.6trn on the public sector. In the next 2 years they're projected to spend an additional £1.3trn. (Total 43%GDP).

US spending in the same period was $52.9trn, with a projection to 2013 of $26trn. (Total 45%GDP).






Erk.