So that would be a *no* then on levelling with us George

Well that was all very predictable ( except perhaps the disgusting nature of the Lib Dems barefaced betrayal of their coalition chums with their poisoned press releases ).

Of to work to work on an export to Brazil to help pay for all this nonsence - take a look at Mr Allister Heath for the truth of yesterday ....

Lest we forget

.. and counting.

I was disappointed more wasn't done yesterday about this.

The Debt Labour have hung around our necks

Ireland with 20-20 hindsight

Its worth reading this summary of govt spending plans in Ireland from 2007 in the context of the current Euro crisis.

Its easy to spot what's wrong, now. What troubling is all the politician language that goes around state spending and its vague justifications.

Frankly the same happened here, and we don't yet know the consequences.

H/T Finfacts.

How national debt increases - in the US

Lesson for us also I fear ...

The Lib Dems have been wrong on the biggest question of the hour

Those serial chancers the Lib Dems probably thought being anti-Tory and siding with Labour on carrying running of the nations credit card for a few months was a smart move. After all it allowed them to stir endlessly and smear shamelessly.

But now, just one week before polling day, the weak point of that argument becomes clear.

Its always been known about, and it was Labour's chancellor Alistair Darling who put it best when he described the UK skating in thin ice which will suddenly give way. Once the cracks start its just a moment till your under the freezing water. No time to change your mind.

Events in Europe show how real that risk is.

Labour and the Lib Dems want to try our luck on the ice, because it offers themselves the best political returns.

The Conservatives have argued that reductions in over spending need to happen now, not next year. Like the Irish we want to set about safeguarding our country from calamity. The Lib Dems and Labour have chosen the Greek route.

David Cameron must crush Nick Clegg with this tonight. Labour is finished, but the Lib Dems could yet finish the UK with their selfish and ignorant economic policy. This is not a local council election where the traditional shameless Lib Dem stirring and opportunism can be tolerated any longer.

Vote Conservative - whilst there's still time and you've only heard the ice creek, not crack.

How much does a full page advert in the Economist cost ?

Because if your a UK tax payer you just bought one to say this ( click on it to get the full size, but be prepared top weep ):This is where you tax payer's money goes.

There's plenty of scope for cuts lads and lasses.

Govt to sell £3billion of English assets to fund UK - but no Scots assets

You could raise a lot of money if you sold the future rights to tax North Sea oil for example.

But no the Scots lead government of the anti-English Labour party instead plans to:

1) Sell the right to Tax the English for a crossing they have already more than paid for at Dartford.
2) Sell the English student loan book ( maybe some Welsh and Irish in there somewhere ).
3) Sell the Channel Tunnel rail link - which will allow ,money to be raised from the English again

Why not sell the rights to future North Sea Oil and Gas revenues ? That would be simple and there would be plenty of buyers, but of course the unelected Scottish prime minister and the Scottish MP who is Chancellor of the exchequer prefer to sell the English into further debt for the state spending in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that the English fund and Labour won't cut back.

BBC R4 take note the deficit is not the national debt !

Man in a Shed must be nurturing a heart condition that the BBC has secretly discovered and is trying to push over the edge. from What else can explain their transposing the spin and line-du-jourMandelson about reducing the deficit and have them announcing that Labour will reduce the National debt.

They are two different, although related things.

The Deficit is the amount the country's spending exceeds its income over one year.

The National Debt is absolute and is a product of the historical deficits and occasional budget surpluses in the past.

So BBC pay attention..... and save me having to risk high blood pressure shouting at the radio.

If I halve the deficit the National debt continues to go up each year.

Have you got that ?

It is not true that if you promise to halve the deficit sometime in the future that you are promising to halve the national debt ! ( Not that we'd believe Labour even if they said so ! )

Labour are just promising to sell our children into debt slavery at a slightly slower rate, not to redeem them.

The opportunity cost of Gordon Brown

Today we are warned that we could have to work till we are 70 to pay of the debts Gordon Brown has run up.

Labour ministers bleat about public sector "investment", which means client state spending.

But what a poor return on these so called "investments" they achieve.

Because they spend today, you will pay tomorrow as it becomes very clear that these investments were just overhead that is wasted on consumption rather than capital investment (I don't mean capital spending here - they are very good at that ) or process improvement.

Its what I learn't in my 'O' level economics as opportunity cost.

Because Labour chose to hose cash on unreformed public services and finance it by borrowing future generations will have to pay interest on loans rather than spend the money on improving the NHS or education ( little of which has been done by Labour ).

How bad is it ?

Peter Oborne lays out the down side of our current situation brutally in today's Daily Mail. The markets have just almost halved the share value of RBS again. Lloyd's TSB seem to have tried a millstone round the necks of their shareholders with the purchase of HBOS ( a lot more should be known about Gordon Brown's influence in this take over ).

Civil unrest may be only a few months away, see David Cox here. I've mentioned many times before that we should look to Argentina to see what happens when a government goes bankrupt. The executive summary version is this - the middle classes are reduced to poverty.

It seems the government have no idea of how bad things are. They are becoming at best city traders at worse desperate gamblers - and they have no encouraging form as either !

What is sure is that they continue to put their political careers ahead of the country.

1. Has anyone seen signs of cost cutting at RBS or HBOS ? Both are now ( or shortly to be when Llyods gets its next bail out ) state controlled. Surely costs should drop now ! ( But of course that would mean redundancies in Scotland - where the Brown/Darling duo are based ).
2. Has anyone seen signs of government cutting back on its expenditure. ( The only signs I've seen are Geof Hoon inviting us all to drive of the hard shoulder of motorways rather than build more and the delay in the White Elephant Aircraft Carrier programme. )

Its time for some responsibility, realism and please oh please competence.

I don't think we will get these from Brown. He is either out of control or deliberately driving us over the cliff for his own ideological reasons.

Labour's debt binge - the Truth about 10 years

I keep hearing Labour ministers talking about reducing debt over Labour first ten years.

You know what ? It true ! But its very, very misleading. Most people would describe it as lying. It is certainly misleading.

Why do they say they reduced debt for the first ten years so often ? The answer is they are trying to hide the spending ( fuelled by borrowing in the economy and caused by a binge in the public sector ).

See the graph from the National Statistics Office record which I have annotated below (source here ):

I think most people on looking at that graph - published by the independent National Statistics Office - on hearing Labour ministers talk about reducing debt over 10 years and looking at the graph most people would say Labour are trying to persuade people of something that is not true.

Odd that I haven't heard any BBC commentators pick up Labour ministers ( Yvette Cooper on Newsnight last night, Alistair Darling on radio 4's Today this morning ).

The truth is that Conservative spending plans were adopted for the first two years of New Labour - so the Conservatives take the credit for those years and then Gordon Brown believing he had abolished Boom and Bust failed to fix the roof whilst the sun shined.

Every time you hear this for of misleading boast from Labour make sure they are made to eat their words. The problem with Conservative politicians sometimes is they don't counter these Meme's and spin from Labour with anywhere near the vigor and determination that is needed.

Yet again Radio 4's Today lets Labour off the hook

On waking up this morning I was listening to Radio 5 Live's interview of Alistair Darling. The question of national debt came up and Darling tried to blow smoke in the eyes of the interviewer by excluding Gordon Brown's various off balance sheet tricks from Debt ( and Northern Crock naturally ). R5L's man responded quickly by questioning this directly and citing other estimates in the press today which are considerably at variance with the Chancellors words.

Now Darling just refused to accept that, and may possible have said something he shouldn't have on PFI ( someone needs to check those words). But the question was asked.

Over at the Radio 4 Labour Supporters Club know as the Today programme ( where only Conservative politicians have their answers interrupted ) the same Chancellor, who must have just walked up or downstairs to the new studio, the same question but a completely supine response from Today's interviewer.

On being questioned on Debt Alistair Darling saw the danger of the follow on question and went for standard New Labour punishment of the interviewer mode. You know the one where the answer goes on long enough that you've forgotten what day of the week it is by the time he's finished, let alone what the question was. If interruption ( always so gentle and polite for Labour ministers ) then the "I think this is important" " you need to know" or such are used. And the answer is always finished with a change of subject to avoid that follow on question.

So the Today prog completely failed to ask about the staggering levels of debt in the economy that Labour have built up - because they are just no good at their jobs or its naked political bias. If they want to know how it should be done then they should tune into Radio 5 Live.

Update: For an example of alternative debt calcs see Trevor Kavanagh in the Sun who says:

He kept billions off the books by using costly and badly negotiated “Private Finance Initiatives” to build hospitals and schools.

That piled an extra £150BILLION on to State borrowing — taking the total to 45 per cent of national earnings.

And add on another £1,300billion in unfunded public sector borrowing — and £1,000billion in private borrowing for mortgages, credit cards and overdrafts.

That lot works out at around £2,500billion — or £40,000 of debt for every man, woman and child in Britain, now and for years to come.

No such challeneg on the Labour loving BBC Today prog.

Update: Guido reports (and summarises) the BBC's Robert Preston who takes the easy ride Brown was given by Marr (again) to task, and makes some key points on debt. See Guido here and Preston here. The BBC left wing machine will now move to punish Preston no doubt ...

Preston says:

As a biographer of Gordon Brown and a former FT political editor, I have kept a fairly close eye on our prime minister and on HM Treasury for many years. So, for me, there were a number of jaw dropping moments in his BBC interview yesterday with Andrew Marr.....