UK business confidence 'at six-year high'

[Riannon]

It seems that UK growth was between 0.5%-0.6% in 2nd quarter of this year to be announced in the next couple of weeks and it will be interesting how the Doubting Thomases explain that one away.

[L00b]

How bad is Britain's deficit?

UK deficit (and other financial variables) all explained here (moderately comprehensive, in plain English, with plenty of simple graphs).

 

Just so we can all sing from the same hymn sheet

[Obelix]

Oh look, the cavalry is here ...yawn

 

Trite and entirely expected from you Mecky.

 

Are you going to engage in serious debate or are you going to resort to seagull techniques and then mash the report post button when it all gets too much for you?

 

---------- Post added 03-07-2013 at 15:10 ----------

 

UK deficit (and other financial variables) all explained here (moderately comprehensive, in plain English, with plenty of simple graphs).

 

Just so we can all sing from the same hymn sheet

 

You have to get everyone agreeing they understand what the difference between total debt, deficit and structural variations are. I've heard Balls, Osborne, and almost every journalist that reports on these get them wrong at least once....

[Anna Glypta]

Trite and entirely expected from you Mecky.

 

Are you going to engage in serious debate or are you going to resort to seagull techniques and then mash the report post button when it all gets too much for you?

 

---------- Post added 03-07-2013 at 15:10 ----------

 

 

You have to get everyone agreeing they understand what the difference between total debt, deficit and structural variations are. I've heard Balls, Osborne, and almost every journalist that reports on these get them wrong at least once....

 

It seems house prices are again rising sharply. A sure sign that there is more money around.

[EDWOOD]

What I want to know is why would anyone think Labour would do any better if they had been re-elected in 2010?

 

All they talk about is that there is no growth and if they were in charge then growth would have been a certainty because of their wonderful economic plan to invest in the infrastructure of the economy. They presume that the UK would just go from being in recession to having Chinese style growth rates if only a little bit more money was put into building more homes, roads, etc. They make it sound so easy don't they?

 

Now the Coalition are not really doing many things right and I would vote for neither party in the next General Election (Labour of course is a no-no) but I cannot imagine Labour being any better. In fact I think if they had still been in power post 2010, the economy would be even worse and the deficit would be sky-rocketing.

 

I can't really see why some people are so desperate for Labour to get back in in 2015. They've already said they'd basically stick to all the current spending commitments and welfare would remain cut. So what economic miracles do people think Labour are gong to perform in 2015? What do they think Ed Balls is gong to do?

 

I can imagine reducing the deficit will be done by more and more tax increases. Either by making fiscal drag even worse where more and more people are sucked into the 40% tax rate even though £40,000 isn't really a fantastic wage anymore. Other things like inheritance tax may go up (from its current 40%) or the rate at which it starts may go down from £325,000.

 

The fact is the country is living far beyond its means. We are borrowing the equivalent of the total costs of the NHS every year. The country has to become leaner, more competitive with the increasingly globalised economy, and work has to seen to be worth doing. The coalition have done well with increasing the starting rate of tax to £10,000 from next year but more needs to be done.

 

Labour never really helped the low-paid. I can remember when they increased NI to 11% and got rid of the 10% starting rate - no help to people on a crap wage was it? Yes the minimum wage was a good idea but the starting level was derisory.

 

I just hope growth does somehow pick up and finally the deficit really goes down.

[Riannon]

What I want to know is why would anyone think Labour would do any better if they had been re-elected in 2010?

 

All they talk about is that there is no growth and if they were in charge then growth would have been a certainty because of their wonderful economic plan to invest in the infrastructure of the economy. They presume that the UK would just go from being in recession to having Chinese style growth rates if only a little bit more money was put into building more homes, roads, etc. They make it sound so easy don't they?

 

Now the Coalition are not really doing many things right and I would vote for neither party in the next General Election (Labour of course is a no-no) but I cannot imagine Labour being any better. In fact I think if they had still been in power post 2010, the economy would be even worse and the deficit would be sky-rocketing.

 

I can't really see why some people are so desperate for Labour to get back in in 2015. They've already said they'd basically stick to all the current spending commitments and welfare would remain cut. So what economic miracles do people think Labour are gong to perform in 2015? What do they think Ed Balls is gong to do?

 

I can imagine reducing the deficit will be done by more and more tax increases. Either by making fiscal drag even worse where more and more people are sucked into the 40% tax rate even though £40,000 isn't really a fantastic wage anymore. Other things like inheritance tax may go up (from its current 40%) or the rate at which it starts may go down from £325,000.

 

The fact is the country is living far beyond its means. We are borrowing the equivalent of the total costs of the NHS every year. The country has to become leaner, more competitive with the increasingly globalised economy, and work has to seen to be worth doing. The coalition have done well with increasing the starting rate of tax to £10,000 from next year but more needs to be done.

 

Labour never really helped the low-paid. I can remember when they increased NI to 11% and got rid of the 10% starting rate - no help to people on a crap wage was it? Yes the minimum wage was a good idea but the starting level was derisory.

 

I just hope growth does somehow pick up and finally the deficit really goes down.

 

You don't post often but you sure got that one right.

[I1L2T3]

Indeed. The attached graph shows how government spending started to spiral out of control in 2002, just as Labour started their second term without the constraints of their 1997 promise to keep to Tory spending limits.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/oct/18/deficit-debt-government-borrowing-data#zoomed-picture

 

It doesn't show debt spiralling out of control. It shows a similar overspend profile to previous Tory governments.

 

Don't think for one minute I'm defending either party. Both have totally failed the people of this country.

 

---------- Post added 04-07-2013 at 21:04 ----------

 

It seems house prices are again rising sharply. A sure sign that there is more money around.

 

Rubbish. It's a sure sign that credit is flowing again.

 

You need to step back and consider how that credit is coming on stream.

 

Besides, the last thing we need are higher house prices.

[Itinerary]

It is good to see that the long term benefits of the policies put into place by Labour are coming into fruition. The unelected clowns who ceased power though will simply strangle the green shoots of recovery as they are grossly incompetent.

[I1L2T3]

Must we go over this again?

 

There's no need to rectify anything, the 2008 crash was indeed global (and not attributable to the US sub-prime mortgages, but to the bundling and selling of such mortgages as CDS and the like on financial markets by casino banks).

 

What criticism is levelled at Brown is not that he caused the crash (as such...though IMHO he played a part in its making by omission), but that he completely and utterly failed to prepare the UK for it, when he had all the warnings and data about it from many different Gvt and independent bodies.

 

Quite on the contrary, in pure la-la-la-I-can't-hear-you style, he went on an unprecedented spree of public spending commitments, which the next Gvt has been busy trying to get out of/mitigate ever since. That is exactly why public spending took the shape it did over the past 3 years.

 

For the sake of brevity, let's also gloss over his "light touch" regulation which allowed the City to play a prominent role in global CDS trading, and indulge in such other niceties as Libor fixing and more. There's no SEC overwatch of the FTSE, and all of the FSA's teeth were conveniently knocked out early by Brown, y'see...

 

Interesting. Is this the new narrative now that Tory spending is out of control? Brown didn't cause the crash but he failed to prepare? What is Osborne doing to prepare us for the next crash, which could come soon and unexpectedly?

[Mecky]

GDP is unreliable anyway so I don't know why people go on about it. Put your money of Murray to win wimbledon too.

 

Told you didn't I?