1st Labour Tory blow up

[ajohn]

Rachel has found a £20b hole in the countries finances. It seems it will be mentioned in the house this afternoon.
Pundits are saying that this can be expected, a bit told you so. One was a bit fairer. There are areas where they wont know how things are going until they are in power. It relates to budgets set a while ago and how much is actually being spent. He also mentioned that the Tory would have hit grief at some point.

She intends to cut back on infrastructure spending to fill the hole. Pundits - we need expenditure in that area to grow. So far there is no info on what will be cut but a detailed doc will be available once the announcement is made.

Then comes the usual. Will there be tax increases in the next budget. Time for that likely to be announced.

Tory - we made hard decisions. Hang on. Many areas in tatters and zero real growth when the type needed is considered.

 

[Vinty]

Sleepy Joe claimed he got the American economy back on track by borrowing trillions of dollars.
It seems to have worked to a certain extent.


Tory austerity doesn't appear to helped the economy very much.
The Tories had 14 years, 4 administrations, Brexit and a massive Tory majority in the HoC and the net result of all this is a country where people are pulling their own teeth because because they can't find a dentist, an NHS in crisis, sewage coming out of kitchen watertaps, milions and millions more immigrants.

Apart from the above, things aren't too bad.

 

[ajohn]

Sleepy Joe claimed he got the American economy back on track by borrowing trillions of dollars.

There are signs he intended to pull debt down by undoing taxation changes Trump made for a set period that ends early next year.
UK a bit different. Figure the Truss effect - puts us in position where we can't afford ourselves so markets react.

Sounds like the BBC News will switch from endless Southport reporting with no further solid info shortly and report Rachel's announcements. Eeeek then comes the pundits who will need hours to study the report.

 

[Brigadier]

Tory austerity doesn't appear to helped the economy very much

Coz it was an ideology, "supported" by research........

...... which omitted the data that would have fatally holed its "borrowing kills the economy" conclusion.

 

[ajohn]

Hunt had a good go but it seems that both the OBR and the IFS were not fully aware of hidden spending costs.

No more pensioner winter fuel payments unless they are receiving benefits. Various other cuts over 2 years. Couple of road plans abandoned.

Looks like the junior docs will accept the latest offer. Reports say a bit over 20% over 2 years. The BMA are likely to recommend that they do. It's interesting that other labour plans indicate the the NHS will be doing more work. The costs Hunt reckoned do not match other estimates that have been worked out as this was expected.

She is also going to have a BofE like moment. Treasury must release current running costs to the OBR. Sounds sound to me.

 

[motorbiking]

The talk track is - it's all worse than we thought. We will have to break our manifesto pledge and also raise taxes.

 

[yorksbuilder]

Stopping refurbishment of old railway lines.. boo. The ECML is almost shaking the train sets apart as you go southbound,!

 

[ajohn]

Most of the pundit comments so far are fairly favourable. The Libs also in most respects but some ideas on raising more tax. These in part may be similar to labour's. More will be coming anyway without touching the general public.

Comments on rail - more detail needed.

Accepting pay review bodies recommendations - Hunts numbers way more than what others have worked out.

The killer on Tory problems is that it looks like both the OBR and IFS agree with what she says has been happening.

The borrow more brigade are making noises. The fiscal rules mean that can not be done. Pundits seem to feel that limited infrastructure spending for a period wont cause harm. Too long may well do.

Numbers £ - perspective needed. % wise compared with the total are not that large.

 

[Murdochcat]

The IFS stated clearly that there was a £20 billion black hole before the election.

What do they know that the 2 major parties don't?

 

[Odds]

The IFS stated clearly that there was a £20 billion black hole before the election.

What do they know that the 2 major parties don't?

What do they know that the Tories refused to reveal you mean?

 

[Murdochcat]

What do they know that the Tories refused to reveal you mean?

Labour had access to the information

 

[ajohn]

What do they know that the Tories refused to reveal you mean?

Take no notice. She played Hunt well by not mentioning a factor in the initial speech. Hunt mentioned IFS and I think OBR so she pointed out in the reply that both realise that there is data they didn't recieve. She intends to fix this sort of thing with new legislation concerning actual current running costs. IFS welcomes the idea.

Another factor - some projects and promises had no money allocated at all.

 

[Odds]

Labour had access to the information

The party in opposition has limited access to Treasury accounts and the full figures were known to Hunt and his minions. Reeves is just getting to grips with their criminal mismanagement.

 

[ajohn]

Reeves is just getting to grips with their criminal mismanagement.

????? What do parties do when they know they wont be in power following an election ?????

A pundit pointed out that the Tory were heading for grief especially considering their campaign promises.

It also turns out that they had programmed in several years of infrastructure expense cuts.

 

[Odds]

It'll take at least one term of a Labour government to undo a decade of Tory austerity - and prove them wrong about that strategy. It was said to be the wrong way to go by the IMF at the time. Now Reeves has the chance to prove them right.