Some economic journos are starting to smell the coffee. In today's Das Schottishman Bill Jamieson starts to catch a whiff of where Britain really is economically:
"Total public sector net debt for 2010-11 is now reckoned at £986bn, up £9bn from the figure presented in the Budget earlier this year. By 2012-15, that debt figure will have ballooned to £1.5 trillion.
The figure is equivalent to 78 per cent of the entire worth of the UK. To put this in perspective, compare the government's utter absence of immediate action on this front with the Draconian measures announced by the Irish government yesterday, with cuts in public-sector pay, fresh tax increases and spending curbs in order to prevent the country's net debt from hitting 60 per cent of GDP."
And Bill's conclusion is maybe even more spot on than I suspect he knows:
"Truly, the era of debt-and-borrow politics has drawn to a farcical close."
Try debt-and-borrow economics. When saving and productivity economics kicks back in we're going to see minimum 10% interest rates. Watch that budget disappear, watch those house-holders emigrate. What a mess folks! What a mess!
I think what a lot of people in the blogosphere miss out on is that they look only at the borrowing figures. I read one which talked about Darling only being out on projections by GBP 3 billion. For a start that was based on revised projections. The main point is that the budget after borrowing is propped up simply by an increase in the supply of money. It's not taxation paying for it but simply Brown's epson colour money printer. It goes out as quantative easing and comes back as taxation - but it has no value!
I even read one Labour blogger suggest that Darling could well go down as Britain's best ever chancellor. She's smoking the highest quality green-shoots in the pueblo!
I don't visit 'The Hootsmon' very often these days as it's like reading a Labour Party newsletter so this was a bit strange for them criticising Labour.
ReplyDeleteIt will never last !
I agree things look bleak and that independence should be more attractive than ever. But it's not an easy message to campaign on.
ReplyDeleteHow do you get it across in easily digestible sound-bites? The MSM simply won't play (especially with the SNP) unless you can do that.
Also, how do you take advantage without looking like vultures preying on everyone's misfortune?
Voice,
ReplyDeleteI think it is an easy message. We simply tell people that we need the powers of independence to save Scotland from the nose-diving British economy. We need the powers of independence to save the Scottish economy and Scottish jobs. Scotland needs independence to protect itself from bankruptcy and collapse that London government has brought about. Indepenendece is the 'recovery' etc. Lot's of easy messages there!
The MSM has a duty to report so the more the SNP punts the line the more it gets across.
Really, I think this is an open goal. It seems that the problem for the SNP changing tack is that they want to show they can manage devolution well. They don't want to be seen to be at war with London government etc. The problem with this tactic is that Labour can present the SNP as the cause of the economic problems and argue that independence is irrelevant during a depression..
There's always down-sides but by holding back on independence we are letting the unionists run riot and get off the hook at the same time!
The SNP have shown themselves to be sound managers, now they must use that capital and show themselves to be able political strategists who say it like it is.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteThe Hootsmon is not really pro-Labour IMO. I think it is Tory. Above all though it is unionist and you see the unionists oftening closing ranks when they need to. The Herald is more unashamedly pro-Labour. Both of them are propaganda sheets for the union - that's for sure!
You hear journos slagging off cybernats. The reason there are so many is that the media is so obviously biased. It is a citizens press or an organic development about protecting Scotland from unionist propaganda. People want an honest and BALANCED debate.
Thank the wee man for the internet!