Figures released today show that the government of the UK is one trillion pounds in debt and rising by approximately 14 billion a month or to put it another way 144 billion a year or nearly 1/7 of a trillion a year. The interest itself would keep Scotland going for a while. The BBC managed to pull on this person who seemed very optimistic because the government had got the borrowing down. Sorry, but in my books getting your borrowing down is still adding to the debt; it is nothing to shout about.
So to start shaving money off what we owe we have to cut our spending by 1/7 of a trillion a year plus the interest that we owe of the trillion debt. So, let's take a figure of 5% [it isn't, I'm just using this figure] which equates to an extra 7.2 billion or, to put it into English, we have to shave off over £151 billion. Now no government is going to do that in one year so they will hope to spread it over the lifetime of their parliament which means over 30-40 billion a year needs to be shaved off our current spending.
The cuts, so far, have hardly taken effect. It is going to get worse, very worse. We cannot do as Labour have said which is to stimulate the economy because the Eurozone is going through a rough time and they are going to have to cut back. 60% of our exports are to the Eurozone countries so stimulating growth is only going to suck in more imports and we will not be in a position to export, to counter the imports, because nobody is buying just now in the quantity that we need to balance the import/export books. Tighten your belts because there are going to be more people on the dole and the dole money, along with all public spending being cut, is going to have to be hit as well. The poor, as usual, are in for a hard time.
We are not going to see this for a while
The cuts, so far, have hardly taken effect. It is going to get worse, very worse. We cannot do as Labour have said which is to stimulate the economy because the Eurozone is going through a rough time and they are going to have to cut back. 60% of our exports are to the Eurozone countries so stimulating growth is only going to suck in more imports and we will not be in a position to export, to counter the imports, because nobody is buying just now in the quantity that we need to balance the import/export books. Tighten your belts because there are going to be more people on the dole and the dole money, along with all public spending being cut, is going to have to be hit as well. The poor, as usual, are in for a hard time.
Who to believe?
ReplyDeleteIt's nearer £6trillion Ged if you look at the full figures.
ReplyDeleteOur interest on the debt is £48bn a year. Nearly 4 times what Scotland gets from the Barnet formula..
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/uk-debt-infographic-all-you-need-know
CynicalHighlander & Monty,
ReplyDeleteIt is so depressing looking at the figures you have given me I'm loath to work out the interest. So, why are the BBC and all the newspapers only telling us that it is ONLY £1 trillion?
The sooner we leave this sinking ship the better.
Gedguy
ReplyDeleteOh! dear shot yourself in the foot(blam!blam!) there that is just what the snp are saying they intend to do.......... And not as you (like the English conservatives you align yourself with) wish for.
The sooner we leave this sinking ship the better.
in a left leaning Scotland you wont be welcome one bit with a philosophy such as yours..
Well, Niko, it just goes to show that the Unionist media are not just lying to us about Scotland but lying to us about the financial state of the economy. Read cynicalHighlander's 'debt Britannia' below and then tell me how wonderful your Unionist Government is. But, I suppose you won't because left wing La La land is what got us into this mess in the first place. Why is it that every time Labour leave office this country is in a financial mess?
DeleteSo, why are the BBC and all the newspapers only telling us that it is ONLY £1 trillion?
ReplyDeleteAll based in London!
Debt Britannia
What Westminster is only identifying is government debt and is not including personel debt but what is far more worrying is the financial industry debt which is backed by the government stupidly.
What the true figure is can only be guessed at because the treasury is a law unto itself as it is very unhelpful to those outside the ruling cliche.
Monty's link which is good and time to jump ship sooner than later.
Having read that at 4.30 in the morning my head is spinning. What I fail to understand is what, and why, is non financial debt way higher than financial debt when we are told that we are in this mess because of the banks? What is it that is causing this huge burden of non financial debt. I am having difficulty getting my head around that.
DeleteGed. The one trillion debt clock only accounts for the debt that the government has accumulated on it's monthly deficit. An analogy is if you earn £1,000 a month but your outgoings are £2,000 a month. After a year you are in debt of £12,000 plus whatever interest level you have negotiated. Our borrowing interest level is about 2.4% for our bonds ( Greece was at 30% before it had to rely on the ECB/ IMF etc as it could no longer afford to buy on the open market).
ReplyDeleteNow the extra £5 trillion debt is what we owe to overseas pension funds, China etc and is what our banks borrowed to fund their numerous ponzi schemes. The UK govt ( ie us) have copper bottomed all this borrowing and will have to pay it all back. The reason it is so high compared to other countries is that the UK City of London is the hub for international fraud and corruption because of the lax enforcement laws over the last 30 years. The HQ's of lehmans, Madoff, Goldman sachs, Morgan Stanley etc are nomianally based here for legislatory reasons. In the US Madoff was put in prison for 50 years. His oppo in London walked off into the sunset. And Fred the Shred was given a multi million pound pay off and taxpayer funded pension.
Just to add to Monty's explanation the problem in the UK is The tax haven in the heart of Britain targeted by the Occupy movement.
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