Rupert_Baehr Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Well our economy was predisposed to a bigger downturn than the rest of our European counterparts due to our reliance on the service sector ie property speculation and financial services. We all know under whom this started. So the 'Service Sector' is 'property speculation and financial services', is it? Well, that's a relief. The government is slashing expenditure on services. I thought many public sector workers (the people who provide services) were going to be put out of work. If the service sector is only property speculators and financial services, then given that it is the service sector which is going to bear the brunt of the cuts, we needn't worry then. There are probably many reaons why the UK down turn was greater than that in many other countries in Europe. "Spending money we haven't got" may well sum them up. The government spent money it hadn't got and had to borrow massively. It's still borrowing more than it earns and will be doing so for many years. The people spent money they haven't got and the government encouraged them to borrow money they couldn't afford to repay in order to provide an artificial boost to the economy. The government made 'jobs' in the public sector which it couldn't afford to fund. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Did they ever blame snow to explain the lack of consumerism? Perhaps the 'lack of consumerism' is down to the fact that - at last - some people are beginning to realise that if you haven't got any money to spare, you can't afford a high level of discretionary expenditure? When the recession hit Germany - and it hit hard - the repsonse of the government was: "If you haven't got any money to spend on items manufactured here, the manufacturers will have to find markets overseas, you - the people here - will have to do without until you can afford to spend money." Gordon Brown's response was: "We will raise taxes and borrow even more money. You go and borrow some money too and spend it. We will get out of debt by borrowing more." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyofborg Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Did they ever blame snow to explain the lack of consumerism? no, but then it didn't snow in those days but my point was in response to someone blaming the policies started by the thatcher for our current problems, all i pointed out was that gordon and ed had 13 years to do something different but chose not too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Clavin Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 The economy shrunk 0.5% in the last three months of the year, much more quickly that most people thought. Are the Tories cutting too much too quickly, or did the snow simply stop shoppers propping up the economy? the biggest and most concerning issue is that dwindling fossil fuel (particularly oil) resources have caused this World wide recession and things will only get worse now with the odd spike here and there until the big crash. The recent troubles in Egypt and Tunisia are just the tip of the Global financil meltdown iceberg. Countries such as these suffer deeply and quickly from what we'd consider small rises in energy particularly Petrol/Gasoline prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyofborg Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 the biggest and most concerning issue is that dwindling fossil fuel (particularly oil) resources have caused this World wide recession and things no it hasn't Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Titanic99 Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 The saddest thing I see from this is that some people actually believe the Tories run the economy better than Labour. Have a look at the graph on here (and I'll try and find a similar one from the eighties), now even the most ardent Tory will concede that there tends to be less growth and more contraction when they are in power than when Labour are. How anybody when faced with this evidence can seriously argue that they trust this shower in power is beyond me. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12272717 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Clavin Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 no it hasn't Yes it is the underying true problem, the one they don't like to disguss. You do understand what I mean by 'dwindling'? The point where half or more of the original availability has run out and thus leaving the harder more difficult to obtain left. Yes of course running the economy on debt etc. hasn't helped problems but they thought they could keep getting enough of the black stuff out to keep up with the demands of a forever growing economy. That is why theoretically Labour did erradicate boom and bust but it was based on being ablle to continually up the required resources needed for continual growth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 ... That is why theoretically Labour did erradicate boom and bust but it was based on being ablle to continually up the required resources needed for continual growth. Well, to be fair, they did get it half right. They eradicated the 'Boom' bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyofborg Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Yes it is the underying true problem, the one they don't like to disguss. You do understand what I mean by 'dwindling'? The point where half or more of the original availability has run out and thus leaving the harder more difficult to obtain left. i quite understand what you mean by dwindling and the availability/price of oil is indeed going to be a problem which is all the more reason to make a transition to a low carbon economy regardless of the human contribution to climate change. However, the current recession hasn't been caused by the price of oil but by the actions of a number of financial institutions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Rich Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Well as most high street shops went through hell over christmas due to the snow.....i would say that is to blame. The figures are for a 3 month period. The snow lasted for around 2 weeks. Perhaps it was the rain that caused it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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