Post by stavros on Mar 23, 2010 15:19:02 GMT 1
No sooner are the French regional elections out of the way than we see the start of the campaign for the British general election. The troops are already m@noeuvring hard by the borders, with a few skirmishes here and there (like who takes a bung for manipulating legislation!) and the real opening salvo will be fired tomorrow, when MacBroon's little darling will present his budget. Anyone who thinks that this will be a real budget, rather than a blatant piece of electioneering, is away with the fairies!
NuLabour must try to pull some rabbits out of the hat tomorrow, because there's just no way they can campaign on their, or Brown's, record. The figures that we hear bandied about in Westminster and in Whitehall are massaged, exaggerated, or toned down, depending on who is quoting them. A much more accurate picture can be gleaned from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Their website is here: www.oecd.org/
The statistical section is voluminous, so to save you all some effort I've spent time on this site, notebook and calculator close to hand, to try to get a picture of just how much of a prudent & thrifty Scot our Gordon is - or not.
Government and local government now disposes of more of the gross domestic product than almost any other of the world's wealthiest nations, only beaten by France & Sweden!
In 2009 they were responsible for spending 52.1% of the GDP! this figure is expected to rise to 52.4% in 2010, and start to fall from 2011. Note that this eye-watering 52.1% doesn't include the billions that were poured into the banks!
When Labour came to power in 1997, government spending was only about 40% of GDP.
Income tax is now the highest in the G8 (world's wealthiest nations)
Britain's budget deficit, at 12.5%, is equal to that of...Greece!
The only reason that Britain can issue gilts yielding over 2% less than for Greek bonds is that the BofE, outside the Euro zone, can print the money it needs to buy back its gilts, thus keeping the yield low.
The financial crisis came about because of America's astronomical domestic borrowings, with household averaged debt currently running at 130% of household overall income. In Britain this household debt is.... 170% of income!
Britain's National Debt is now past the £850 billion mark, and rising.
Put in other terms, it's over £14 500 for every man, woman & child.
For those of you still taxed in UK, this means every household will be paying over £1 200 this year just to cover the interest payments!
Education is a joke - our semi-literate kids can now get a GCSE equivalent for flipping burgers in MacDonalds!
The health service has flashes of brilliance in a morass of mediocrity. (A personal experience: I went to see my GP in Dinan with certain symptoms. She said that I'd better see the specialist PDQ, and phoned him to get me an appointment that same week. He booked me into the clinic for overnight test on the following Monday - wires & tubes everywhere - and the next morning, Tuesday, he told me that I needed treatment, with a machine installed at home. The same day, at 2:30, the company that installs phoned me to say "Our driver's arrived in Dinan, how does he get to your address?" Now my brother, in England. Same symptoms. Doctors appointment early last November to specialist consultation, time elapsed 6 weeks because it was urgent, in for tests late January, diagnosis sent to GP three weeks later! and the machine finally fitted at the beginning of this month!)
In both these key services, pen pushers are ticking boxes to prove that targets are being met. And MacBroon is boasting about how much he has done for health and education!
Don't even let's start on Defence - watching politicians building careers, financing second homes, etc ad nauseam, doing this over the bodies of dead British servicemen, makes me incandescent with rage.
Well then - anyone want to vote them back for another term?
Thought not!
NuLabour must try to pull some rabbits out of the hat tomorrow, because there's just no way they can campaign on their, or Brown's, record. The figures that we hear bandied about in Westminster and in Whitehall are massaged, exaggerated, or toned down, depending on who is quoting them. A much more accurate picture can be gleaned from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Their website is here: www.oecd.org/
The statistical section is voluminous, so to save you all some effort I've spent time on this site, notebook and calculator close to hand, to try to get a picture of just how much of a prudent & thrifty Scot our Gordon is - or not.
Government and local government now disposes of more of the gross domestic product than almost any other of the world's wealthiest nations, only beaten by France & Sweden!
In 2009 they were responsible for spending 52.1% of the GDP! this figure is expected to rise to 52.4% in 2010, and start to fall from 2011. Note that this eye-watering 52.1% doesn't include the billions that were poured into the banks!
When Labour came to power in 1997, government spending was only about 40% of GDP.
Income tax is now the highest in the G8 (world's wealthiest nations)
Britain's budget deficit, at 12.5%, is equal to that of...Greece!
The only reason that Britain can issue gilts yielding over 2% less than for Greek bonds is that the BofE, outside the Euro zone, can print the money it needs to buy back its gilts, thus keeping the yield low.
The financial crisis came about because of America's astronomical domestic borrowings, with household averaged debt currently running at 130% of household overall income. In Britain this household debt is.... 170% of income!
Britain's National Debt is now past the £850 billion mark, and rising.
Put in other terms, it's over £14 500 for every man, woman & child.
For those of you still taxed in UK, this means every household will be paying over £1 200 this year just to cover the interest payments!
Education is a joke - our semi-literate kids can now get a GCSE equivalent for flipping burgers in MacDonalds!
The health service has flashes of brilliance in a morass of mediocrity. (A personal experience: I went to see my GP in Dinan with certain symptoms. She said that I'd better see the specialist PDQ, and phoned him to get me an appointment that same week. He booked me into the clinic for overnight test on the following Monday - wires & tubes everywhere - and the next morning, Tuesday, he told me that I needed treatment, with a machine installed at home. The same day, at 2:30, the company that installs phoned me to say "Our driver's arrived in Dinan, how does he get to your address?" Now my brother, in England. Same symptoms. Doctors appointment early last November to specialist consultation, time elapsed 6 weeks because it was urgent, in for tests late January, diagnosis sent to GP three weeks later! and the machine finally fitted at the beginning of this month!)
In both these key services, pen pushers are ticking boxes to prove that targets are being met. And MacBroon is boasting about how much he has done for health and education!
Don't even let's start on Defence - watching politicians building careers, financing second homes, etc ad nauseam, doing this over the bodies of dead British servicemen, makes me incandescent with rage.
Well then - anyone want to vote them back for another term?
Thought not!