Saturday, October 01, 2011

Osborne's optimism...


A poll of almost 1400 members for ConservativeHome found that although just over 40% agree with the level of measures being taken by the Chancellor George Osborne, however, more than 50% think 'that his spending scaleback should be faster and deeper', (click on image to enlarge) to avoid tax rises or that there should be some sort of tax cut policy to aid growth. Tax cuts before the next election are something George has all but ruled out today...mind you, he did say "unlikely" and of course who knows when the next election will be! The optimism is obvious in the interview in the DT today, however, as the Economist mentions today - also it must be said - in a fairly optimistic outlook:
"British policymakers should do all they can to lift the economy. But they know that Europe might ultimately decide its fate."
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4 comments:

Paul said...

The only people enjoying the economy at the moment are those British companies holding currency in Euros - they are laughing. The Bond market is providing negative growth in real terms at the moment.

Funnily enough I was re-reading some of Mrs Thatcher's plans the other day from 1979-1983 to get the economy going and everything she tried went wrong so that post Falklands she basically stopped trying anything too clever and that was her success. She tried and tried to get Britain to be a nation of savers and investors and instead we became a nation of service and financial industries.

Things haven't changed, interest rates are being kept low (why?) and the pound against the Euro is in a false position because of QE. The average level of savings for over 55's is £500 and pensions are shrinking in real terms and still billions are being made from currency speculation which is having no impact on GDP.

Span Ows said...

The savings thing is chronic isn't it, and even those with savings have seen no growth almost for years.

Funny what you say about MT too, I read something similar a year or two ago saying hat she finally learnt the lesson that all politicians learn...best to leave alone things that work.

Re economy, I have been a few weeks in the UK now and everywhere I go there seems more spending than when i used to live here and than in all the times I came back on holidays etc: all the shops are doing good trade, all the restaurants are busy, he plethora of coffee shops and trendy cafés (how can there be so many?) ALL seem full. Now, these are clearly all the people with mortgages paying almost no interest and pretending their sorted!

The Great Gildersleeve said...

I'm not sure that I want to be living in the world I see in front of me but as I don't plan to committ suicide I'll just have to survive and wait until it is decided that my time is up.

I would not like to be coming into the world now and having to think about what education will be like, what jobs are available, what safety net exists for those who would be seen as poor and so on...

Span Ows said...

I agree Gildy...uncertainty ahead and to quote the oft quoted but very true "We live in interesting times".