Another man famous for what he did NOT do

I refer to our Chancellor of the Exchequor, the Right Honourable, Mr. George Osborne, or, 'Mr. Smiley' as he looked yesterday in the Commons.  Well, for once he had something to smile about as he watched that thick, little thug, Ed Balls, trying to shout his way through a tsunami of boos, whistles and cat calls as he tried to reply to the Chancellor's somewhat smug Autumn statement.  Of course, the thing that Mr. Osborne has not done and for which he deserves a modicum of praise is what Ed Balls would have done had he (dread thought!) been in charge, that is, keep on spending and keep on borrowing. 

The news the Chancellor brought to us yesterday was good only in so far as it wasn't as bad as it has been!  Gradually, very, very gradually, as gradual as painting the Forth Bridge with a toothbrush, he is reducing the amount of national borrowing but he is nowhere near actually balancing the books and so our total national debt continues to rise inexorably  - today I see that the yield on 10-year bonds (the price demanded by the moneylenders) is 2.9%.  In July 2012 the yield was a mere 1.4% and that means our cost of borrowing has increased by 107% in 15 months!  The moneylenders, for obvious reasons, have the most merciless view of any nation's economy and the fact that they are demanding that rate from us when the French are only paying 2.44% tells you louder than words what they think of the British economy.  I suspect that not the least of their worries - and therefore mine, too - and yours, if you you have half a brain - is inflation.

Jeremy Warner at The Telegraph takes a similarly hard-eyed look at the statement of affairs issued by our 'cheerful chappie' Chancellor and reckons that the signs of improvement in our economy are "built on sand".  In effect, he accuses the Chancellor of fiddling around at the edges instead of carrying out a decisive restructuring of our economy.  Modestly, I remember after the last election begging the government to 'do a Maggie' on the back of Labour's catastrophe and if it hurt, which it would have done, then blame it all on Labour.  Instead, 'Dim (and gutless) Dave' married the 'Kleggeron' and all chance of anything radical was lost.

So the key question is whether or not 'Dave 'n' George' can keep this bullshit economy looking bright and cheerful long enough to win the next election?  In that event they still may not do very much but the prospect of Ed Balls and Len McCluskey running the country is truly a nightmare.  What's that you said?  'Surely it's Ed Miliband who runs the Labour party?'  Do me a favour!

 

Comments

[dearieme]

And how was a Conservative minority government to do what you wanted?

It would have been slung out if it had tried.

[Antisthenes]

Good economic news elections do not win according to the statistics. No doubt RedEd will move into no 10 come 2015 and probably the economy will have picked up enough for them to first of all spend too much on the wrong things and then wreck the economy as they always do. Depending on how long the spend and bust cycle takes will decide their period in office. At some point they will be ousted once again for the right to pick up the pieces do some repairs always never enough ready to hand the next recovery back to the left for them to do their worst. The decline will have continued down another notch and so it will go on until the socialist policies that are now practiced by all parties sucks the private sector dry and the money runs out at which point socialism can no longer function. By then however it will be too late for all of us as the damage will have been done and the decline complete.

[David Duff]

DM, hence my use of the word "gutless". If Dave had balls even half as big as 'that woman's' he would have dared the Labs and the Libs to bring him down and face an increasingly irritable (not to say downright angry) electorate again within a few months. They would have blinked first!

Antis, Guido reported on two polls a few days ago in Tory marginal seats. They showed UKIP bleeding the Tories dry and thus leaving the door wide open for Labour to walk in, so you may well be right about a new Labour government in 2015.
http://order-order.com/2013/12/04/graphs-labour-20-points-clear-in-key-marginals/