Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Look Back In Anger-Osborne

Irwin Selzter looks at the blasted fiscal landscape Osborne confronts and the rocks New Labour have sailed us towards .He sees one chink of light ...

In his first budget Osborne will have to take an axe, not a scalpel, to spending. Not immediately, but as part of a credible plan to bring the deficit down over the next few years, with emphasis on the word "credible". He has the advantage of a coalition-created durable majority, an opposition in disarray, and private sector voters' realisation that public sector workers are earning more than they do. Should their unions carry out their strike threats, probable now that it is not a Labour government they would be injuring, the public is more likely to back an iron chancellor than relatively overpaid, overpensioned public sector workers.

4 comments:

Electro-Kevin said...

One saving grace is that the Libs will bear witness to the wreckage Labour have left behind - Osborne will have 'neutral' allies.

I believe that Cameron has made a mistake in sacrificing core manifesto pledges. The militancy which will arise will be middle-class militancy as we see at BA. To deny your voters promised referendums, repeal of the Human Rights Act, welfare reform, immigration reform ... and then go on to a policy of middle-class taxation is grossly unfair on those who put them in office.

Taxation without hope that our country can ever be repaired and conserved - this is a recipy for both austerity AND societal decay.

This is a great opportunity to stop social decline. If they promised to tackle this then the austerity measures might be easier for the productive classes to swallow. Without it they can expect militancy from the most unlikely quarters. Especially those of us living below the standard of our benefit swindling neighbours. And rightly so.

Nick Drew said...

Vitaï Lamenta

There’s a breathless hush, twas a close-fought fight
No.10 gained in a famous win.
A bumpy economy, money tight -
Bad; but at last our man is in.
And it’s not coalition that sticks in the throat
Or the selfish hope of avoiding pain
But History’s Hand on the tax-payer’s scrote -
'Pay up! pay up! and pay again!'

The exchequer’s books are sodden red,
Red with the ink of a bank that’s broke;
And Darling's out; New Labour dead;
And Mandelson gone in a puff of smoke.
The river of debt has wrecked the banks,
As Brown skulks off with blackened name
And the tax-payer hears, as Sterling tanks-
'Pay up! pay up! and pay again!'

These are the words that year by year,
Whenever a Chancellor’s plans are set,
Everyone who pays tax must hear,
And none that hears it can forget.
This they must all – yes, each man must
Bear through life like a ball and chain,
And cursing Brown for his boom and bust
'Pay up! pay up! and pay again!'


(apologies to all & sundry)

Newmania said...

EK - Immigration will be capped , taxes will be lower than under New Labour and you can expect the Public Sector to be under the cosh

Nick you DID not write that , its far too clever and funny , where did you get it from ?

Fess up

Nick Drew said...

OK it was left under my pillow by the Trooth Fairy

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