Another AAA ratings downgrade for the UK

[Bonzo77]

Or indeed North Sea Oil?

 

Now made in China....just like everything else!

[I1L2T3]

Without sounding like a total simpleton, everyone else is doing the austerity thing though aren't they? You can't break wind in the eu without Germany telling you to spend less. Obama is talking about infrastructure investment but he's probably got a population with a skill set to do it, I think we'll just end up borrowing money to get a load of eu nationals in if we went down that route.

 

They are doing the austerity thing yes.

 

And they are relying on the same academic research as Osborne. If it wasn't so serious it'd be funny. The thing is the research gave them what they wanted. There is some suggestion that the research was fitted to required policy objectives.

 

---------- Post added 20-04-2013 at 12:59 ----------

 

We all know the figures are fiddled...

 

oh...no... I posted for the wrong side.

 

Where are all the posters that say this, when the opposite is said?

 

Alternatively, the figures are still fiddled but even with the fiddles they still couldn't make them look good.

[MadManMoon]

Lets borrow a load more money we can't pay back, that will make it all better.

 

I presume you mean Tory borrowing?

http://labourlist.org/2013/01/borrowing-is-rising-under-the-tories/

[NorthernStar]

Forget the lefty/righty squabbling the fact is that we had our warning shot across the bows way back in the 70's and subsequent governments have chosen to ignore that to make short term political gain at your expense.

 

We need a new politics and to grow the frick up, assuming of course it's not too late (personally I do think it is too late).

 

Look at the facts, your political heroes couldn't give two hoots about you.

[EDWOOD]

The following link, although it is in the end trying to sell you their product, does explain how bad a shape the UK is in when you take into account all the debts - public, private, off-the shelf costs like PFI and unfunded future liabilities.

 

http://www.moneyweek.com/endofbritain

 

Basically the UK economy is not strong enough to support the ever-growing living standards we have expected since 1945. We had a few booms like North Sea Oil which helped but what else is there out there that could really make a dint in the deficit? Shale gas?

 

The problem now is that we are competing with China that only really started its economic boom in 1978. India started to get its act together after 1990. Other countries are catching up. We are either standing still or going backwards.

 

The UK is no longer a rich country.

[Tradescanthia]

A good thread with some excellent posts.

No arguing that cuts are needed............its just that its the most vulnerable are being targeted by the Torys. "The broadest shoulders should carry the heaviest load", a quote by someone anon. but still relevant today.