A Mad Man Fiddles While Britain Burns

The “Scottish” PM is overjoyed that the globe is returning the hunter gatherer stage .This obscures the fact his unpopularity predated our agony .He sunk when Osborne announced an inheritance tax cut and after the 10p rate budget fiasco actually (This budget also included retrospective car tax and an adjustment to National Insurance that was another tax rise ) . A glance at the much reduced Tory lead (12% )in the Indy Poll at the weekend all to Clegg , shows tax is the key.The vital charge against “The Scottish” PM therefore, is that he squandered taxes when the times were good and left us peculiarly vulnerable now they are bad. Essentially this is true but Brown is lying.
The Scottish lie, heard on Marr, Sky and R4 is this :“In 1997 we came in and… the debt of the United Kingdom was 44% /45% of national income, we cut that and it is now about, I think the figure yesterday was 37% so that is a major cut in debt.”The truth is quite different . ...
HM Treasury says net debt was 41.3% in 1997-98 Yesterday the ONS said net debt was 43.3% and no you can’t wish away Northern Rock. Debt was indeed at 42.5% in 97 . This was because the benefits of the Thatcher and Major years were slow to come through and high unemployment has a catastrophic double whammy effect on receipts and benefits. It was falling fast though and by 2001 it was down to 31.6 % ! During most of this period Labour were pledged to stick to Tory spending plans and there was lag while new spending came on line .
When it did ,the debts began to escalate. Apart from Northern Rock, Brown’s figures do not include Public Sector pensions. The scandal of largely unfunded public sector pensions continuesto camouflage itself by being to large to see .Total cost to taxpayers currently at about £1 trillion. It also omits PFI deals currently off balance sheet, which add up to about £110 billion.On signed deals its £180 billion to be paid back over the next 25 years . Tory PFI ventures totalled £2.2 billion in five years .The Scottish PM`s golden rule is therefore a golden joke .
In fact by the exceedingly optimistic Maastricht-definition of debt (ie, standardised) collated by the OECD , Britain’s debt/GDP ratio is 47% for this year. By way of comparison Finland are 34%, Spain 34%, Ireland 28%. Outside Europe: Canada 22% Australia 6.7% surplus. In real terms national debt has actually risen from the dangerously high figure under Major by 25% to £581billion plus plus and the rest .Even by that measure debt per household is now about £26100 . Reality-When you include Northern Rock, PFI , Network Rail and other factors, the public debt stands at a staggering £1,898bn.
While I am at it the inflation rate which excludes housing is a joke . Include it and we are at Callaghan levels .Growth in employment is pretty much all immigrants and Public sector sinecures .Make no mistake this country is burning down and a mad man is fiddling to greater effect that Nero ever did .