Labour's Third Way To Austerity

 

There are normally two ways to austerity:

1 Tax rises, or

2 Spending cuts.

Reeves has found a third way:

Spending cuts and tax rises.

Oh what a time to be alive!

Face Into The Storm

 

Chancellor Hunt will give his Autumn Statement (Budget) in the next few minutes. In it he will tell us we are to "face into the storm", and outline spending cuts and tax rises that will amount to around £54BN.

There is a catch, many of these cuts/rises are set to come about over a five year period. The next election will be held within two years; as such, many of these cuts/tax rises may well never see the light of day!

Nuance Dear Boy, Nuance! - #Budget2018

Whereas May said it was over...

Austerity Is Over!!!!!!!!!

When Theresa May announced, in her recent conference speech that austerity was over, many in the media and politics dismissed it as BS.

However, I refer you to the news on the BBC today that say senior judges in England and Wales could be set for pay rises of up to 32% if recommendations made by the Senior Salaries Review Body are accepted.

The move aims to address low morale among judges and to compensate them for changes to their pension scheme.

The recommendations would see a High Court judge receive an additional £60,000 a year.
Crown Court judges would receive a 22% rise - taking them to £165,000 - and district judges would get an 8% rise.

Clearly austerity is definitely over, as there is no way judges would get such a stonking pay rise if others in the public sector didn't as well!

The End of "Austerity"?

May will have to find at least an extra £20billion to spend on public services to fulfil her pledge that austerity is over, according to the head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Paul Johnson said even that amount of additional funding “won’t feel particularly generous” and would almost certainly have to be found through borrowing because the Government would “really struggle to get tax rises through” Parliament.

Basically, Theresa May shrouded her "end of austerity" in the cloak of "a good Brexit".

The reality is that we have, at this stage, no way of knowing if there will be a "good Brexit" and what, exactly, she means by an end to "austerity".

May has no grounding/understanding in finance/economics so it is very doubtful that she understood what she mean either!

Cameron Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Prime MInister David Cameron urges Oxfordshire County Council to avoid cuts https://t.co/8H7HvmkTSW

— Peter Henley (@BBCPeterH) January 22, 2016

CamForce One

Alas Mr Cameron, irrespective of the financial merits/demerits of CamForce One, you couldn't have picked a worse time (austerity etc) to make the decision and the announcement.

Were you set up by someone?

SNP's Austerity Claims Holed Below The Waterline

.@theifs analysis effectively demolishes the SNP claim that they would bring austerity to an end. Striking chart: pic.twitter.com/mtlCMpD33E

— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) April 23, 2015

Vanity - The State's Opiate

As per the BBC:

"The government looks set to increase the amount it spends on advertising and PR to help it sell NHS changes and other policies to the public.

Next year's marketing budget is £285m, according to Cabinet Office figures.

That is an increase on the £168m spent by the now axed Central Office of Information in its final year."

Despite being stuck in a recession the state deems it more important to waste our money on PR and spin, rather than focus on pulling us out of the recession.

Seemingly "feelings" are more important than "finances".

Vanity is the government's opiate!

Cameron's 2020 Vision

Has no one told Cameron that, whilst honesty is a good thing, there also needs to be some vision of a better future and coherent plan of how to get there in order to ensure people stay the course?

This will end in tears!