Maybe the title isn't strictly true. There is always the April 2015 budget but tomorrow, when Chancellor George Osborne delivers the government's Autumn Statement, he has to get it right as this will set the tone and the battle lines for the 2015 General Election.
I have already posted here and here on what I think should be happening but I wanted to have a last- minute rant or contribution to the debate, depending on your view, on what George Osborne should be saying, tomorrow.
First and foremost, the UK is broke. I'll say that again. The UK is broke. We are more than £1.4 Trillion in debt. How much more than £1.4 Trillion? Nobody knows. That £1.4 Trillion is just the admitted debt. It doesn't include unfunded liabilities like future pensions to be drawn by civil servants, local government employees and MPs. It doesn't include the more than £350 Billion of NHS Private Finance Initiative debt nor lots of other 'off Balance Sheet' financing of the type in which Gordon Brown's Labour Treasury, excelled. Note, when companies like Enron used such accounting techniques, they were, rightly, pilloried and ended up being declared for what they were - bankrupt! However, for entities like HM Government, the rules get suspended.
So, with a 'broke' UK, the opportunities and choices are limited.
We cannot afford HS2 - so we scrap that and save, more than £50 Billion. Let's be clear though, that isn't really a saving - as it is just a reduction in future borrowing needs. Also, for the sake of clarity, everyone knows the £50 Billion number is just the starting point. The final number will be much higher, if we were to proceed.
We cannot afford International Aid. Sorry Bono but Britain simply cannot borrow money so that we can give it to others - no matter how genuine and heart-wrenching their need may be. It cannot be about Britain sitting on the big table and lording it over others like China, because we meet the aid obligations and they (and other nations) don't. The money we give to other countries is ultimately funded, on an interest bearing basis, by those same Chinese!
Britain must cut back on overseas ventures. I would dearly love us to be able to project a strong military presence around the globe and demonstrate the strength and value of our democracy and traditions but we simply don't have the money. Today, the biggest foreign investor in Africa is China and yet how much do you think they are contributing to fight the spread of Ebola? Britain does have a strategic interest and, to some extent a local one, in the fighting in Syria and Iraq but the major beneficiaries of holding back ISIS are Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia and other neighboring countries. If Britain is to fight on their behalf, then they should pay us top dollar for doing so.
Now to domestic matters.
All government spending must be cut. That is all as in all. No ring fencing, no special cases, no phasing in. Simply put, no, no, no!
Or another way, cut, cut, cut.
Firstly, and this helps Cameron cut the Gordian Knot about immigrants, immediately announce a cut in welfare payments to all non-native born Britons. If you do not have a British passport, or the right to one, then you get no welfare. Zero, nada, zilch. I know that Human Rights lawyers and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and all of the others that want Britain to spend money it doesn't have, will scream and shout and threaten all sorts of retribution but that's all they can do. We must pass legislation to immediately end our association with the ECHR and abolish the Human Rights Act. Another advantage of doing this is that it will end the Coalition and the Conservatives will have to govern alone, without the dead, interfering hands of the Lib Dems on the tiller. I would think that George Osborne could even sell raffle tickets, for the benefit of the national debt of course, for the winner to tell Vince Cable he is fired! I would buy a ticket for a fiver. Hell, I might even buy two just for the chance to see the look on the face of a man who has taken sanctimonious 'prattishness' to new Olympian heights.
Secondly, as said before, tell the NHS, that funding is cut by say 20%. This can be reduced to 15% if they abrogate their PFI deals and get significant reductions in their PFI payments.
Thirdly, All other government departments a significant cut in expenditure plans as outlined in my earlier mails. Though, the more I think about the unsustainable deficit and the increasing debt mountain, perhaps deeper and faster cuts are required.
Clearly, some people will suffer from these cuts.
Foreigners who take advantage of our overly generous welfare payments. Financiers who gulled a spend-freely Socialist government into excessively generous PFI deals, and NHS back-office staff and civil servants who allowed this to happen - 'because at the end of the day, the Government will pay'. They will suffer loss. hard as it sounds, I don't think that is our concern.
So too though, will Britons suffer loss and therefore the tax cuts side of the equation needs to be put in place. Accelerated raising of the tax threshold, immediate reductions in fuel duty and abolition of asinine 'Green' taxes will be a start. Here's a further idea. Use some of the money that is saved by not funding International Aid, to promote charitable giving at home. Allow people tax-relief on up to say £1,000 of a contribution that they make to any charity that supports UK based charities that only work in the UK. So nothing for contributing to Oxfam, Band Aid or Save the Children but full relief, up to £1,000 for money or goods given to a local food bank, for example.
This should be the thrust of the Autumn Statement but, scared by UKIP and bullied by their Coalition partners, the Lib Dems and in thrall to the Labour dominated media, Osborne's speech will likely mean more borrowing, more debt and the sound of cans being kicked down the road.
I have already posted here and here on what I think should be happening but I wanted to have a last- minute rant or contribution to the debate, depending on your view, on what George Osborne should be saying, tomorrow.
First and foremost, the UK is broke. I'll say that again. The UK is broke. We are more than £1.4 Trillion in debt. How much more than £1.4 Trillion? Nobody knows. That £1.4 Trillion is just the admitted debt. It doesn't include unfunded liabilities like future pensions to be drawn by civil servants, local government employees and MPs. It doesn't include the more than £350 Billion of NHS Private Finance Initiative debt nor lots of other 'off Balance Sheet' financing of the type in which Gordon Brown's Labour Treasury, excelled. Note, when companies like Enron used such accounting techniques, they were, rightly, pilloried and ended up being declared for what they were - bankrupt! However, for entities like HM Government, the rules get suspended.
So, with a 'broke' UK, the opportunities and choices are limited.
We cannot afford HS2 - so we scrap that and save, more than £50 Billion. Let's be clear though, that isn't really a saving - as it is just a reduction in future borrowing needs. Also, for the sake of clarity, everyone knows the £50 Billion number is just the starting point. The final number will be much higher, if we were to proceed.
We cannot afford International Aid. Sorry Bono but Britain simply cannot borrow money so that we can give it to others - no matter how genuine and heart-wrenching their need may be. It cannot be about Britain sitting on the big table and lording it over others like China, because we meet the aid obligations and they (and other nations) don't. The money we give to other countries is ultimately funded, on an interest bearing basis, by those same Chinese!
Britain must cut back on overseas ventures. I would dearly love us to be able to project a strong military presence around the globe and demonstrate the strength and value of our democracy and traditions but we simply don't have the money. Today, the biggest foreign investor in Africa is China and yet how much do you think they are contributing to fight the spread of Ebola? Britain does have a strategic interest and, to some extent a local one, in the fighting in Syria and Iraq but the major beneficiaries of holding back ISIS are Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia and other neighboring countries. If Britain is to fight on their behalf, then they should pay us top dollar for doing so.
Now to domestic matters.
All government spending must be cut. That is all as in all. No ring fencing, no special cases, no phasing in. Simply put, no, no, no!
Or another way, cut, cut, cut.
Firstly, and this helps Cameron cut the Gordian Knot about immigrants, immediately announce a cut in welfare payments to all non-native born Britons. If you do not have a British passport, or the right to one, then you get no welfare. Zero, nada, zilch. I know that Human Rights lawyers and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and all of the others that want Britain to spend money it doesn't have, will scream and shout and threaten all sorts of retribution but that's all they can do. We must pass legislation to immediately end our association with the ECHR and abolish the Human Rights Act. Another advantage of doing this is that it will end the Coalition and the Conservatives will have to govern alone, without the dead, interfering hands of the Lib Dems on the tiller. I would think that George Osborne could even sell raffle tickets, for the benefit of the national debt of course, for the winner to tell Vince Cable he is fired! I would buy a ticket for a fiver. Hell, I might even buy two just for the chance to see the look on the face of a man who has taken sanctimonious 'prattishness' to new Olympian heights.
Secondly, as said before, tell the NHS, that funding is cut by say 20%. This can be reduced to 15% if they abrogate their PFI deals and get significant reductions in their PFI payments.
Thirdly, All other government departments a significant cut in expenditure plans as outlined in my earlier mails. Though, the more I think about the unsustainable deficit and the increasing debt mountain, perhaps deeper and faster cuts are required.
Clearly, some people will suffer from these cuts.
Foreigners who take advantage of our overly generous welfare payments. Financiers who gulled a spend-freely Socialist government into excessively generous PFI deals, and NHS back-office staff and civil servants who allowed this to happen - 'because at the end of the day, the Government will pay'. They will suffer loss. hard as it sounds, I don't think that is our concern.
So too though, will Britons suffer loss and therefore the tax cuts side of the equation needs to be put in place. Accelerated raising of the tax threshold, immediate reductions in fuel duty and abolition of asinine 'Green' taxes will be a start. Here's a further idea. Use some of the money that is saved by not funding International Aid, to promote charitable giving at home. Allow people tax-relief on up to say £1,000 of a contribution that they make to any charity that supports UK based charities that only work in the UK. So nothing for contributing to Oxfam, Band Aid or Save the Children but full relief, up to £1,000 for money or goods given to a local food bank, for example.
This should be the thrust of the Autumn Statement but, scared by UKIP and bullied by their Coalition partners, the Lib Dems and in thrall to the Labour dominated media, Osborne's speech will likely mean more borrowing, more debt and the sound of cans being kicked down the road.
Sounds like an excellent start.
ReplyDeleteI can accept the state providing food/shelter for our own needy, but it doesnt own anyone a job. The number of public employees needs to be slashed - massively. Bad luck, but not my problem...