So the non-budget is upon us.
The Chancellor will announce that things are getting better, we have a surplus on day to day spending and, apparently, the projected deficit of £50 Billion will be a miserly £40 Billion, so all's well in the Alice in Sunderland world of Tory fantasy.
'A great national effort' crowed the Chancellor's predecessor.
'All in it together' crowed the ex Prime Minister from his Shepherds Hut where he crafts both his autobiography and his million pound half hour speeches.
Really?
According to the Chancellor interviewed on the Andrew Marr Show, we're not out of the tunnel yet, there's light at the end so austerity continues.
It is crucial that we get national debt down he tells Andrew Marr.
So, on cue, there will be a further massive tranche of cuts in welfare benefits impacting on the poor, families, children and the disabled.
According to my recent tax return, as a pensioner on a fixed income, I have contributed significantly to Welfare Payments, Health Payments, State Pensions, and Education Payments. In fact almost two thirds of my tax contribution has gone to those elements of public spending, the amount I pay in National Debt Interest is approximately a fifth of what I contribute to Welfare.
Laughably the amount I pay to the EU budget can only be described as 'loose change', less than £20?
So the Captains of Industry can sit back and relax, the Bankers can carry on eating the largest slice of the Pie, Tax Exiles can continue investing their money in Tax Havens around the world, Conservatives can continue blaming the poor for their poverty and the Russians, the Chinese and whoever else with cash to spend, burn, lose or invest can continue buying up property in the UK.
Because the good news is that despite that light at the end of the tunnel the current account deficit must be reduced, the capital debt must be reduced and we know who is going to pay and how.
Austerity dear boy austerity!
But the truth, as even some Tories acknowledge, is that austerity is creating havoc with our public services.
Violence in Prisons is on the increase.
Waiting times in A&E are rising sharply.
As any driver knows roads are deteriorating to almost to third world standards.
Adult social care is approaching, if not in, crisis.
Use of Food Banks is rising.
More children are being raised in poverty.
After eight years of austerity public services are at breaking point.
The obverse of this coin as flipped by Labour's Shadow Chancellor is that investment in Capital Growth makes a lot of sense.
It would offset the need for higher interest rates, it would boost the construction sector, it would strengthen long term productivity whilst raising economic activity in the short term.
But we're all in it together, according to George Osborne ( I wonder if he still eats his burger whilst parked in a disabled space?) but that was never true and is not true now.
The price of austerity has been largely, if not entirely paid, by those who have most to lose through benefit cuts, stagnating wages, casual employment and insecurity, whilst the wealthiest continue as though austerity was of no concern to them, which of course it isn't, as any casual review of the FT's How to Spend It supplement demonstrates only too clearly.
As Dire Straits suggested, some work:
We gotta install ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's
Whilst other people simply get 'Money for Nothing':
Now that ain't workin' that's the way you do it
You play the the guitar on MTV (substitute any number of roles and activities!)
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' get your chicks for free
Money for nothin' get your chicks for free
The Chancellor will announce that things are getting better, we have a surplus on day to day spending and, apparently, the projected deficit of £50 Billion will be a miserly £40 Billion, so all's well in the Alice in Sunderland world of Tory fantasy.
'A great national effort' crowed the Chancellor's predecessor.
'All in it together' crowed the ex Prime Minister from his Shepherds Hut where he crafts both his autobiography and his million pound half hour speeches.
Really?
According to the Chancellor interviewed on the Andrew Marr Show, we're not out of the tunnel yet, there's light at the end so austerity continues.
It is crucial that we get national debt down he tells Andrew Marr.
So, on cue, there will be a further massive tranche of cuts in welfare benefits impacting on the poor, families, children and the disabled.
According to my recent tax return, as a pensioner on a fixed income, I have contributed significantly to Welfare Payments, Health Payments, State Pensions, and Education Payments. In fact almost two thirds of my tax contribution has gone to those elements of public spending, the amount I pay in National Debt Interest is approximately a fifth of what I contribute to Welfare.
Laughably the amount I pay to the EU budget can only be described as 'loose change', less than £20?
So the Captains of Industry can sit back and relax, the Bankers can carry on eating the largest slice of the Pie, Tax Exiles can continue investing their money in Tax Havens around the world, Conservatives can continue blaming the poor for their poverty and the Russians, the Chinese and whoever else with cash to spend, burn, lose or invest can continue buying up property in the UK.
Because the good news is that despite that light at the end of the tunnel the current account deficit must be reduced, the capital debt must be reduced and we know who is going to pay and how.
Austerity dear boy austerity!
But the truth, as even some Tories acknowledge, is that austerity is creating havoc with our public services.
Violence in Prisons is on the increase.
Waiting times in A&E are rising sharply.
As any driver knows roads are deteriorating to almost to third world standards.
Adult social care is approaching, if not in, crisis.
Use of Food Banks is rising.
More children are being raised in poverty.
After eight years of austerity public services are at breaking point.
The obverse of this coin as flipped by Labour's Shadow Chancellor is that investment in Capital Growth makes a lot of sense.
It would offset the need for higher interest rates, it would boost the construction sector, it would strengthen long term productivity whilst raising economic activity in the short term.
But we're all in it together, according to George Osborne ( I wonder if he still eats his burger whilst parked in a disabled space?) but that was never true and is not true now.
The price of austerity has been largely, if not entirely paid, by those who have most to lose through benefit cuts, stagnating wages, casual employment and insecurity, whilst the wealthiest continue as though austerity was of no concern to them, which of course it isn't, as any casual review of the FT's How to Spend It supplement demonstrates only too clearly.
As Dire Straits suggested, some work:
We gotta install ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's
Whilst other people simply get 'Money for Nothing':
Now that ain't workin' that's the way you do it
You play the the guitar on MTV (substitute any number of roles and activities!)
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' get your chicks for free
Money for nothin' get your chicks for free
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