Why is government spending a one way street?

by | Jan 9, 2011 | Economic Intrigue, Just plain weird, Please fuck off., Politics, Righteous Wankers, Strange Thoughts, UK Misery, Well I never. | 1 comment

When Labour was in charge, barely a day passed without some news article getting the old blood pressure up and the expletives well and truly practiced.

In the 7 months since their demise, a strange calm seemed to have descended with just the odd story of some minister or other fucking around with things to little effect.

For me, that calm was shattered today with the following BBC article on Camerons Sunday interview (selected snippets, emphasis mine) :

Prime Minister David Cameron has hinted that the rise in VAT from 17.5% to 20% will be permanent.

He said measures to tackle the budget deficit would have to be “pretty permanent” – but he hoped the 50p tax rate for top earners would be scrapped.

Mr Cameron was asked about whether the rise was a temporary measure, following comments from his chancellor, George Osborne, who last week said he regarded it as “permanent”.

The prime minister told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show the government was trying to deal with the “structural budget deficit” – the gap between spending and taxes.

“That is structural, that’s not going to go away because of the growth, so the changes we are making have to be pretty permanent too,” he said.

The government hopes the rise in VAT will raise £13bn a year but it is predicted to hit retail sales.

Mr Cameron said: “If you didn’t do VAT, what tax would you do? The first category there would probably be National Insurance. that’s what Labour have committed to – and putting up National Insurance when you’re trying to get the economy growing and jobs growing would be a perverse thing to do.”

Where to start?

Yes, the country has a gap between spending and income due to the fiscal incontinence of one G Brown. Why the government is choosing to only look at the tax side of the equation though is beyond my grasp.

For all the talk of cuts, cuts and more cuts, government spending is actually going up – the following from November last year :

George Osborne received a blowas it emerged that state borrowing soared to the highest on record for a single month despite the government’s austerity measures to rein in the deficit.

News that higher spending on defence, the NHS and contribution to the European Union had left Britain in the red by £23.3bn stunned the City, which had been expecting the early fruits from the chancellor’s spending restraint to cut the deficit from the £17.4bn recorded in November 2009.

The only conclusion I can reach is that they have not got the balls to actually cut any spending and would prefer instead to make eveyone suffer by being taxed to buggery rather than to have to face down the assorted masses of shroud wavers and socialists complaining about cuts to their favourite spending black hole.

That last little highlighted Cameron quote sums it up really :

“If you didn’t do VAT, what tax would you do?

Well I would cut some spending Dave!

I am sure a bit of spare change could be found amongst this little lot – International aid (£8 billion per year), a hugely bloated NHS (somewhere North of £100 billion per year), a pathetic education system where achievement has declined while spending has increased to record levels (£86 billion per year) to name but a few candidates.

Perhaps they are intent on provoking UK taxpayers into revolt?

It really is the only conclusion I can come to and, at this rate of squeeze, I don’t think it will be very long in coming.

1 Comment

  1. Bill

    I think your conclusion is sound as every move this coagulation makes is moving us inexorably towards revolution. Perhaps the mekon is hoping to ride the resultant wave to a new ‘golden age’. Fiction is ever more rapidly becoming fact.