The Guardian view on George Osborne: he cannot be serious

by Irn Bru Thu Dec 04, 2014 9:14 am

The chancellor poses as steadfast, but he continually rewrites his ‘long-term plan’ and has not come clean about the dreadful consequences of the endless cutting buried in the smallprint

He’s a politician, of course, and so this close to the election there were bound to be a few gimmicks, which were duly delivered in the form of church roof funds, air ambulances for the Tory shires and – most eye-catching of all – reduced stamp duty for ordinary home buyers. But the one underlying characteristic that George Osborne was determined to convey in his autumn statement, before he was rudely interrupted by Vince Cable, was seriousness. The choice confronting the country was, he said, whether to stick the course of a “long-term economic plan” which was working, or whether instead to hand power back to a Labour party that would “squander the economic security” he had painstakingly built, through cavalier decisions on borrowing and public spending.

Presenting himself as the most steadfast of chancellors, he asked the Commons to cast its mind back four years, to the moment when he had “presented the accounts of an economy in crisis” in his first autumn statement. If we accept his invitation to compare late 2010 with today, we do indeed make several instructive contrasts. The distinction that Mr Osborne is concerned to highlight is that between an economy which was then slowing down, with the one which is currently picking up pace. But there are other big differences too, most notably in relation to that proclaimed long-term plan, which turned out to need a short-term rewrite. The resolute Mr Osborne of 2010 stated that the national debt would by now be falling, from a maximum of just below 70% of GDP, but instead it continues to march towards a peak which he now concedes will be over 80%. He was, he said then, on course to “meet our fiscal mandate to eliminate the structural current budget deficit one year early, in 2014-15”, something he now accepts will not be done until well into the next parliament. And the headline measure of the government overdraft, which the “long-term plan” had initially pencilled in as £40bn this year, was on Wednesday revised up to £91.3bn, which represents slippage of well over 100%.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/03/guardian-view-george-osborne-statement-cannot-be-serious?CMP=twt_gu

Every time George Osborne steps up to the despatch box he comes out with a revised plan for the economy before telling us that Plan A is working. He has failed every single target he set himself and what he promised back in 2010 will not now be delivered until well into the next parliament - assuming the Tories are re-elected and there are no further revisions.

According to the OBRs own figures household debt is set to rocket to levels that even outstrip those that existed in 2007/2008 and caused much of the problems resulting in the global banking collapse.

Here it is...

The Guardian view on George Osborne: he cannot be serious 1*bUuEQghfBKj71yS52WFVvg

The Guardian view on George Osborne: he cannot be serious 1*bUuEQghfBKj71yS52WFVvg

Get this clown out.