If Labour supports austerity 2.0 I am going to have to consider resigning from the party.
Given to become PM Starmer will likely need the backing of Ed Davey and the LDs and Davey is the most fiscally conservative party leader at the moment, a reflection of his time as a Minister in the Coalition, I would certainly think it unlikely he will be spending much more than the Tories. Of course in Blair's first term he actually spent slightly less than Major had
I do think austerity 2.0 is inevitable with the Tories but who it falls on, well that's for them to decide
Austerity is inevitable under any party of government
Quite so. Even Starmer says tax rises now are off the agenda so the deficit needs to be tackled somehow.
It doesn't. We can live with it. The Bank of England can create the money to fill the gap. There's no risk of inflation in the foreseeable future - the reverse in fact.
With all due respect, planning on the basis that "there's no risk of inflation in the foreseeable future" is remarkably complacent. If 2020 has taught us anything it's that the foreseeable future is not foreseeable at all.
But squeezing the economy dry by austerity for fear of potential inflation at some unforeseeable point in the future is worse than complacent - it's insane.
Freezing wages when there is zero inflation and negative growth is not "austerity".
Is a 5% pay rise when there is 5% inflation "austerity"?
I do think austerity 2.0 is inevitable with the Tories but who it falls on, well that's for them to decide
Austerity is inevitable under any party of government
Quite so. Even Starmer says tax rises now are off the agenda so the deficit needs to be tackled somehow.
It doesn't. We can live with it. The Bank of England can create the money to fill the gap. There's no risk of inflation in the foreseeable future - the reverse in fact.
With all due respect, planning on the basis that "there's no risk of inflation in the foreseeable future" is remarkably complacent. If 2020 has taught us anything it's that the foreseeable future is not foreseeable at all.
I do think austerity 2.0 is inevitable with the Tories but who it falls on, well that's for them to decide
Austerity is inevitable under any party of government
No it isn't BigG. Printing money and taxing wealth are both viable approaches.
Freezing benefits and public-sector pay just means less money going into the economy to drive the recovery.
With millions of private sector jobs on the line freezing public sector pay and selective benefits like annual 2.5% pension increases is inevitable
How does freezing public sector pay and selective benefits save any private sector jobs? Quite the opposite - a lot of those private sector jobs rely on money being spent. You can guarantee that virtually every penny of benefits will go straight back into the economy to support those private sector jobs. (The only exception being housing benefit much of which ends up subsidising private landlords - freeze that by all means.)
The more lost jobs in the private sector the less tax and less to pay the public sector
The BoE prints the money and lends it to the government. It remits the interest on the debt back to the Treasury. MMT.
you dont create wealth by printing money - money is only backed ultimately by a productive economy -inflation will increase and the pound weaken .
Spending on housing, that's what the Government should do. Get to it.
It's about the world post this crash, interest rates are at a historic low, invest properly.
Renewables.
Why is nobody in the political mainstream arguing for this?
Boris is. Boris has spoken about all of that.
But pay rises are not "investment". Pay rises are current expenditure, not investment.
He has not articulated any of this as a result to COVID. He articulated it in a very small way with some nonsense about full fibre which he then dropped when he became leader. He has not mentioned it at all in recent months.
You cannot cut your way out of a hole. It has never worked and it will never work.
A pay freeze when there is no inflation is not a cut.
You know full well in the long term the result will be their pay goes down in real terms
Not at all.
Once inflation returns pay rises should too. A pay freeze when there's no growth and no inflation is not a cut - and yes 100% this should apply to pensioners too.
If there's extra spending it should go on investment etc, not current expenditure like wages and pensions. Or would you rather have less investment and more current expenditure?
You cannot cut your way out of a hole. It has never worked and it will never work.
A pay freeze when there is no inflation is not a cut.
You know full well in the long term the result will be their pay goes down in real terms
Not at all.
Once inflation returns pay rises should too. A pay freeze when there's no growth and no inflation is not a cut - and yes 100% this should apply to pensioners too.
If there's extra spending it should go on investment etc, not current expenditure like wages and pensions. Or would you rather have less investment and more current expenditure?
Overturning Roe v Wade is a fantasy for hardcore conservatives but it's a net vote loser. Im not sure the header is accurate either, judging by the tweet replies
You cannot cut your way out of a hole. It has never worked and it will never work.
A pay freeze when there is no inflation is not a cut.
You know full well in the long term the result will be their pay goes down in real terms
Not at all.
Once inflation returns pay rises should too. A pay freeze when there's no growth and no inflation is not a cut - and yes 100% this should apply to pensioners too.
If there's extra spending it should go on investment etc, not current expenditure like wages and pensions. Or would you rather have less investment and more current expenditure?
No pay freezes and investment. We can do both.
Funded how?
And presumably you'd want a pay raise for everyone next year, and the year after, and the year after that too. The alternative to restraining wage bills when money is limited is losing staff.
I do think austerity 2.0 is inevitable with the Tories but who it falls on, well that's for them to decide
Austerity is inevitable under any party of government
Quite so. Even Starmer says tax rises now are off the agenda so the deficit needs to be tackled somehow.
It doesn't. We can live with it. The Bank of England can create the money to fill the gap. There's no risk of inflation in the foreseeable future - the reverse in fact.
With all due respect, planning on the basis that "there's no risk of inflation in the foreseeable future" is remarkably complacent. If 2020 has taught us anything it's that the foreseeable future is not foreseeable at all.
But squeezing the economy dry by austerity for fear of potential inflation at some unforeseeable point in the future is worse than complacent - it's insane.
Freezing wages when there is zero inflation and negative growth is not "austerity".
Is a 5% pay rise when there is 5% inflation "austerity"?
If inflation were zero the government would not be talking about freezing benefits and public-sector pay, it could just let the standard formulas apply each year.
The problem we might have is when Sunak takes over, we go back to where we were.
Someone who keeps handing out free money and free food and booze will be tough to beat!
It looks like Eat Out To Help Out is coming back to bite him - and we will see shortly when the furlough scheme ends, how his popularity might change.
You think he didn't foresee the inflation thing? He's a clever cookie. It widens his choices - he can save a shedload on govt index linked obligations, or look personally bountiful by waiving the effect of eotho, or a mixture (waive for wages, not for indexed bonds).
No not inflation, I refer to it perhaps causing the idea of the virus having gone away and putting into place the idea to ignore social distancing. Perhaps I'm reaching.
I think so. The absence of significant numbers of cases and deaths were causing people to get out more anyway.
People won't live locked down forever, VE Day weekend when it was gloriously sunny and we were still in lockdown is when it began to end for me, most houses on my street were out in their gardens and at least half of them had visitors despite it being illegal still at the time.
The problem is that this attitude - and I accept I might be reaching - leads to cases going up again.
The Government clearly thinks this is an issue, hence their change in tack this week.
I just don't see how we avoid the economy being in a hole for a long period of time and I can only blame Government incompetence for that. They started briefing about getting back to work, they decided to let groups of 30 meet, they said get out and use the pubs.
We will see what happens - but I think perhaps people being scared to go out might be seen as better in the long term
It would be interesting to know what has caused the recent rapid growth in cases, after all we spent several weeks after 4 July with cases going nowhere. Given that people are talking about recent local spikes being due to household transmission, I guess it might have been allowing 30 people to mix. I've had no people in my flat since March apart from some heating engineers (which was a bit of a necessity) and have been to half a dozen garden socials so I'm at a bit of a loss as to why people feel the need to huddle together in each others' houses. Just grow up and learn to stand on your own two feet.
Why don’t you grow up and let other people live how they want in their own homes
In Spain family/friends social gatherings are one of the main drivers of the increased infection rates.
You miss the point. I and many others don’t care any more.
Why do you not care? I know you have secret insider knowledge about the imminent availability of a vaccine but even so surely it is worth keeping a lid on it until it is available?
Because I look at the evidence which indicates that this is not a Justinian plague as originally feared but something that causes perhaps 8 weeks of excess mortality, and potentially a post viral syndrome with as yet unspecified severity, prevalence and duration.
The vaccine is useful not because it’s something that magically saves half a million lives in the UK (although it will of course save lives) but because without it the unthinking multitudes will remain too fearful to notice what’s been taken away from them.
Friend of mine still has effects from the virus - 50ish years old, fit as a fiddle; no pre-existing conditions
What’s your point? I know loads of people that had it too and are just fine. I also know plenty of people that ended up with post viral fatigue syndrome long before anyone had the word coronavirus in their scrabble notebook. I also know people that are going to die because their cancer treatment got suspended, sacrificed at the holy altar of covid.
Vaccine is probably available next year, best try and keep Covid numbers down till then I think. If a vaccine was years away I'd agree about 'living with it' but it isn't so best to sacrifice some short term liberty for long term health
Try explaining that to the foreign holiday obsessives.
You cannot cut your way out of a hole. It has never worked and it will never work.
A pay freeze when there is no inflation is not a cut.
You know full well in the long term the result will be their pay goes down in real terms
Not at all.
Once inflation returns pay rises should too. A pay freeze when there's no growth and no inflation is not a cut - and yes 100% this should apply to pensioners too.
If there's extra spending it should go on investment etc, not current expenditure like wages and pensions. Or would you rather have less investment and more current expenditure?
No pay freezes and investment. We can do both.
Funded how?
And presumably you'd want a pay raise for everyone next year, and the year after, and the year after that too. The alternative to restraining wage bills when money is limited is losing staff.
Borrowing, interest rates are at a record low, or QE for the people.
Is Sean T around in one of his many forms? In the "Telegraph" magazine today Martin Amis is quoted as saying: "There are no other examples of a writer child from a writer parent. It makes me feel freakish". Any thoughts?.
Mary Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft say hi.
Jules and Michel Verne.
Alexandre Dumas pere and fils.
Martin Amis obviously meant people in his league: the Shakespeares, the Goethes, the Tolstoys...
☺ - although Money is better than anything by those 3.
Well, that a view I guess. I'm inclined to think though that Money will be a little-known curiosity in 400 years, while Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet etc. will still be playing to live audiences. And with good reason.
I think Money will be read 500 years from now if reading is still a thing.
You cannot cut your way out of a recession. We are in deep and we need to invest.
This is 2010 all over again, Labour needs to be on the correct side this time
the private sector needs to do the investing though otherwise the public sector do it wasteful and generally crap
As if the private sector doesn’t waste money or is immune from crap. If we are to dig our way of this we’ll need private and public spending and a little less dogma.
If the Tories do go full austerity 2.0, well I won't be as worried about Labour's chances in the Red Wall.
That is precisely why they won't go full austerity as so many Tory MPs now represent Red Wall seats and without their votes there is no Tory majority in the Commons
You cannot cut your way out of a hole. It has never worked and it will never work.
A pay freeze when there is no inflation is not a cut.
You know full well in the long term the result will be their pay goes down in real terms
Not at all.
Once inflation returns pay rises should too. A pay freeze when there's no growth and no inflation is not a cut - and yes 100% this should apply to pensioners too.
If there's extra spending it should go on investment etc, not current expenditure like wages and pensions. Or would you rather have less investment and more current expenditure?
No pay freezes and investment. We can do both.
Funded how?
And presumably you'd want a pay raise for everyone next year, and the year after, and the year after that too. The alternative to restraining wage bills when money is limited is losing staff.
Borrowing, interest rates are at a record low, or QE for the people.
Borrowing has to be refinanced and rates will not always be at historic lows.
You cannot cut your way out of a recession. We are in deep and we need to invest.
This is 2010 all over again, Labour needs to be on the correct side this time
Was the UK in recession in 2010?
I agree there shouldn't be cuts this year BTW, we are in recession now. But after this virus and recession is over the deficit will need dealing with.
No thanks to Gordon Brown we'd recovered. Osborne's ideological experiment undid that and almost put us into another one.
We hadn't recovered, we had a 10% deficit. Until that's gone you can't say we'd "recovered".
Osborne's fantastic stewardship of the economy helped lay the foundations for a decade of growth, elimination of Brown's deficit, full employment, faster growth in the UK over the decade than the rest of our continent and the EU we were within and yet you still object.
You cannot cut your way out of a recession. We are in deep and we need to invest.
This is 2010 all over again, Labour needs to be on the correct side this time
Was the UK in recession in 2010?
I agree there shouldn't be cuts this year BTW, we are in recession now. But after this virus and recession is over the deficit will need dealing with.
No thanks to Gordon Brown we'd recovered. Osborne's ideological experiment undid that and almost put us into another one.
We hadn't recovered, we had a 10% deficit. Until that's gone you can't say we'd "recovered".
Osborne's fantastic stewardship of the economy helped lay the foundations for a decade of growth, elimination of Brown's deficit, full employment, faster growth in the UK over the decade than the rest of our continent and the EU we were within and yet you still object.
No deficit is not the sign of a healthy economy. Or do you think every other Tory Government that ran a deficit is also a failure?
You cannot cut your way out of a recession. We are in deep and we need to invest.
This is 2010 all over again, Labour needs to be on the correct side this time
the private sector needs to do the investing though otherwise the public sector do it wasteful and generally crap
As if the private sector doesn’t waste money or is immune from crap. If we are to dig our way of this we’ll need private and public spending and a little less dogma.
The railways and banks waste money like it's going out of fashion, because they know we'll bail them out when they run out.
It's interesting to see HYUFD opposing austerity and Philip gleefully supporting it. Split in the Tory ranks
I oppose HYUFD about as often as I oppose you.
Your party is split on this issue though.
Good.
Indeed, great for Labour.
Starmer needs to get rid of Corbyn, RLB and their ilk pronto. If he does so, he’ll stand an excellent chance of winning next time. If he doesn’t, then he’ll be a quickly forgotten figure.
It's interesting to see HYUFD opposing austerity and Philip gleefully supporting it. Split in the Tory ranks
I oppose HYUFD about as often as I oppose you.
Your party is split on this issue though.
Good.
Indeed, great for Labour.
Starmer needs to get rid of Corbyn, RLB and their ilk pronto. If he does so, he’ll stand an excellent chance of winning next time. If he doesn’t, then he’ll be a quickly forgotten figure.
You cannot cut your way out of a recession. We are in deep and we need to invest.
This is 2010 all over again, Labour needs to be on the correct side this time
Was the UK in recession in 2010?
I agree there shouldn't be cuts this year BTW, we are in recession now. But after this virus and recession is over the deficit will need dealing with.
No thanks to Gordon Brown we'd recovered. Osborne's ideological experiment undid that and almost put us into another one.
We hadn't recovered, we had a 10% deficit. Until that's gone you can't say we'd "recovered".
Osborne's fantastic stewardship of the economy helped lay the foundations for a decade of growth, elimination of Brown's deficit, full employment, faster growth in the UK over the decade than the rest of our continent and the EU we were within and yet you still object.
No deficit is not the sign of a healthy economy. Or do you think every other Tory Government that ran a deficit is also a failure?
A deficit over the cycle at or below growth is fine. There doesn't need to be zero deficit but it needs to be managed. 10% is not managed.
Going into this recession the UK debt-to-GDP was falling because the deficit had been brought down and was below growth.
You cannot cut your way out of a recession. We are in deep and we need to invest.
This is 2010 all over again, Labour needs to be on the correct side this time
Was the UK in recession in 2010?
I agree there shouldn't be cuts this year BTW, we are in recession now. But after this virus and recession is over the deficit will need dealing with.
No thanks to Gordon Brown we'd recovered. Osborne's ideological experiment undid that and almost put us into another one.
We hadn't recovered, we had a 10% deficit. Until that's gone you can't say we'd "recovered".
Osborne's fantastic stewardship of the economy helped lay the foundations for a decade of growth, elimination of Brown's deficit, full employment, faster growth in the UK over the decade than the rest of our continent and the EU we were within and yet you still object.
No deficit is not the sign of a healthy economy. Or do you think every other Tory Government that ran a deficit is also a failure?
A deficit over the cycle at or below growth is fine. There doesn't need to be zero deficit but it needs to be managed. 10% is not managed.
Going into this recession the UK debt-to-GDP was falling because the deficit had been brought down and was below growth.
It's interesting to see HYUFD opposing austerity and Philip gleefully supporting it. Split in the Tory ranks
I supported austerity in 2010 as it was needed to balance the books but we need the economy to grow again now as a priority and then we can balance the books.
Plus in 2010 and 2015 far more Tory MPs represented fiscally conservative, wealthy seats in the south and areas of London which backed Remain in 2016.
Now some of those have been lost to Labour and the LDs and new Tory MPs have been elected from poorer Leave voting seats in the North and Midlands and Wales who are less supportive of austerity, hence they supported Labour in 2010 and 2015. Indeed the new Tory Red Wall seats even have an average income less than current Labour seats let alone previous Tory ones
Trump wants a SCOTUS confirmed quickly because he knows its a wedge issue that wont help him
They’re not going to leave it for the lame duck session as they’ll have one, possibly two fewer votes after the winners of the Arizona and Georgia special elections take their seats.
Excellent insight on here tonight to yet another problem the government faces coming down the tracks. The scale of the economic problem dwarfs any possible cuts that can be conceivably made. There isn't much fat to be trimmed. Yet a faction still believe in a quasi-mystical fashion that that is the only way. And that it is just and proper too. @stodge was right earlier. The world has changed utterly. We need new thinking, but many want desperately to reach for the old comfort blankets.
Excellent insight on here tonight to yet another problem the government faces coming down the tracks. The scale of the economic problem dwarfs any possible cuts that can be conceivably made. There isn't much fat to be trimmed. Yet a faction still believe in a quasi-mystical fashion that that is the only way. And that it is just and proper too. @stodge was right earlier. The world has changed utterly. We need new thinking, but many want desperately to reach for the old comfort blankets.
Indeed, the Tories already destroyed the welfare state and public sector. There isn't anymore to cut.
Labour now needs to articulate the next 20 years, not the previous 20.
You cannot cut your way out of a recession. We are in deep and we need to invest.
This is 2010 all over again, Labour needs to be on the correct side this time
Was the UK in recession in 2010?
I agree there shouldn't be cuts this year BTW, we are in recession now. But after this virus and recession is over the deficit will need dealing with.
No thanks to Gordon Brown we'd recovered. Osborne's ideological experiment undid that and almost put us into another one.
We hadn't recovered, we had a 10% deficit. Until that's gone you can't say we'd "recovered".
Osborne's fantastic stewardship of the economy helped lay the foundations for a decade of growth, elimination of Brown's deficit, full employment, faster growth in the UK over the decade than the rest of our continent and the EU we were within and yet you still object.
No deficit is not the sign of a healthy economy. Or do you think every other Tory Government that ran a deficit is also a failure?
A deficit over the cycle at or below growth is fine. There doesn't need to be zero deficit but it needs to be managed. 10% is not managed.
Going into this recession the UK debt-to-GDP was falling because the deficit had been brought down and was below growth.
What percentage do you consider managed?
Depends upon the stage of the economic cycle but about 2% as a long term average. Long term economic growth averages at about 2% so about that is acceptable but it should be countercyclical - below that (or falling) during growth times and above that during emergencies.
Trump wants a SCOTUS confirmed quickly because he knows its a wedge issue that wont help him
He doesn't, he wants to use it as an incentive to get evangelicals out to vote if he is re elected, not get a justice confirmed before the election so they have less incentive to turn out while angry Liberals do
Excellent insight on here tonight to yet another problem the government faces coming down the tracks. The scale of the economic problem dwarfs any possible cuts that can be conceivably made. There isn't much fat to be trimmed. Yet a faction still believe in a quasi-mystical fashion that that is the only way. And that it is just and proper too. @stodge was right earlier. The world has changed utterly. We need new thinking, but many want desperately to reach for the old comfort blankets.
The truth is we are all MMT-ers now. The blurred line between fiscal and monetary policy has entirely disappeared. And the deficit hawks look like deficit dinosaurs.
You cannot cut your way out of a recession. We are in deep and we need to invest.
This is 2010 all over again, Labour needs to be on the correct side this time
Was the UK in recession in 2010?
I agree there shouldn't be cuts this year BTW, we are in recession now. But after this virus and recession is over the deficit will need dealing with.
No thanks to Gordon Brown we'd recovered. Osborne's ideological experiment undid that and almost put us into another one.
We hadn't recovered, we had a 10% deficit. Until that's gone you can't say we'd "recovered".
Osborne's fantastic stewardship of the economy helped lay the foundations for a decade of growth, elimination of Brown's deficit, full employment, faster growth in the UK over the decade than the rest of our continent and the EU we were within and yet you still object.
No deficit is not the sign of a healthy economy. Or do you think every other Tory Government that ran a deficit is also a failure?
A deficit over the cycle at or below growth is fine. There doesn't need to be zero deficit but it needs to be managed. 10% is not managed.
Going into this recession the UK debt-to-GDP was falling because the deficit had been brought down and was below growth.
What percentage do you consider managed?
Depends upon the stage of the economic cycle but about 2% as a long term average. Long term economic growth averages at about 2% so about that is acceptable but it should be countercyclical - below that (or falling) during growth times and above that during emergencies.
So presumably you opposed Thatcher who ran 2.88% in 1983, Major who ran 3% in 1991, Cameron who ran 4.6% in 2015, May 2.5% in 2017 and Johnson 2.1% in 2019.
Blair ran no deficit in 1999, 2000 and 2001, you must be a great supporter of his.
Is Sean T around in one of his many forms? In the "Telegraph" magazine today Martin Amis is quoted as saying: "There are no other examples of a writer child from a writer parent. It makes me feel freakish". Any thoughts?.
Mary Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft say hi.
Jules and Michel Verne.
Alexandre Dumas pere and fils.
Martin Amis obviously meant people in his league: the Shakespeares, the Goethes, the Tolstoys...
☺ - although Money is better than anything by those 3.
Well, that a view I guess. I'm inclined to think though that Money will be a little-known curiosity in 400 years, while Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet etc. will still be playing to live audiences. And with good reason.
I think Money will be read 500 years from now if reading is still a thing.
To paraphrase Porson, Money will be read ... when Macbeth and Hamlet are forgotten
Trump wants a SCOTUS confirmed quickly because he knows its a wedge issue that wont help him
He doesn't, he wants to use it as an incentive to get evangelicals out to vote if he is re elected, not get a justice confirmed before the election so they have less incentive to turn out while angry Liberals do
I don’t think Trump has a choice to be honest. Once RBG died, it was clear this would be an issue that would further incentivise those on the left. He now needs to get his base fired up. Having a nominee named but not through the Senate is a way to get evangelicals motivated.
One thing that has been missing on the calculations here. There is a chance the Republicans could pick up two Senate seats - Minnesota and Michigan.
I go with my initial feel. He will go with Any Coney Barrett (?) - getting Biden to go against a Catholic nominee will be on the minds of Trump
Excellent insight on here tonight to yet another problem the government faces coming down the tracks. The scale of the economic problem dwarfs any possible cuts that can be conceivably made. There isn't much fat to be trimmed. Yet a faction still believe in a quasi-mystical fashion that that is the only way. And that it is just and proper too. @stodge was right earlier. The world has changed utterly. We need new thinking, but many want desperately to reach for the old comfort blankets.
The truth is we are all MMT-ers now. The blurred line between fiscal and monetary policy has entirely disappeared. And the deficit hawks look like deficit dinosaurs.
The problem is that thanks to Corbyn the Tory coalition is so broad that it has advocates of entirely contradictory economic policies contained within it. Deficit hawks, free market fundamentalists, radical tax cutters, and tax and spenders all on the same benches. And with a PM of no fixed ideology who likes to be liked by all of them. Not ideal.
You cannot cut your way out of a recession. We are in deep and we need to invest.
This is 2010 all over again, Labour needs to be on the correct side this time
Was the UK in recession in 2010?
I agree there shouldn't be cuts this year BTW, we are in recession now. But after this virus and recession is over the deficit will need dealing with.
No thanks to Gordon Brown we'd recovered. Osborne's ideological experiment undid that and almost put us into another one.
We hadn't recovered, we had a 10% deficit. Until that's gone you can't say we'd "recovered".
Osborne's fantastic stewardship of the economy helped lay the foundations for a decade of growth, elimination of Brown's deficit, full employment, faster growth in the UK over the decade than the rest of our continent and the EU we were within and yet you still object.
No deficit is not the sign of a healthy economy. Or do you think every other Tory Government that ran a deficit is also a failure?
A deficit over the cycle at or below growth is fine. There doesn't need to be zero deficit but it needs to be managed. 10% is not managed.
Going into this recession the UK debt-to-GDP was falling because the deficit had been brought down and was below growth.
What percentage do you consider managed?
Depends upon the stage of the economic cycle but about 2% as a long term average. Long term economic growth averages at about 2% so about that is acceptable but it should be countercyclical - below that (or falling) during growth times and above that during emergencies.
As virtually any reputable economist would answer, it completely depends on the level of real interest rates. The answer is completely different if they are 10% or, as now, -1%.
Comments
https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1307303487357751296
https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1307307434864717824
Good, I agree about that
Absolutely spot on.
Is a 5% pay rise when there is 5% inflation "austerity"?
Though High Priest might be a more appropriate appointment than BBC chairman.
Let them free what?
But pay rises are not "investment". Pay rises are current expenditure, not investment.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/19/new-york-ruth-bader-ginsburg-statue-brooklyn
In 100 years they will be ripping it down because of her unprogressive views...
Keir has a window here to make a real contrast.
Once inflation returns pay rises should too. A pay freeze when there's no growth and no inflation is not a cut - and yes 100% this should apply to pensioners too.
If there's extra spending it should go on investment etc, not current expenditure like wages and pensions. Or would you rather have less investment and more current expenditure?
Don't get tested!
This is all a cunning plan (Cumming plan?) to take the pressure off the testing system.
They were never going to get a long term better deal. It's the Tory way.
This is how Labour rebuilds support, we be on their side.
Johnson is not articulating investment in renewables at all.
Im not sure the header is accurate either, judging by the tweet replies
https://twitter.com/rupert_pearse/status/1307242481336168452?s=20
And presumably you'd want a pay raise for everyone next year, and the year after, and the year after that too. The alternative to restraining wage bills when money is limited is losing staff.
I don't think they have a clue how to Govern.
Win elections, absolutely. Government? No.
This is 2010 all over again, Labour needs to be on the correct side this time
Moonshot.
Jesus Dido fails upwards again!
This is you washing your hands of it all over again, just like the IRA appointment.
State gives loans to companies, they can spend it as they wish. It's a good idea.
I also support investment in roads, railways, FTTP. All superb ideas.
I agree there shouldn't be cuts this year BTW, we are in recession now. But after this virus and recession is over the deficit will need dealing with.
https://twitter.com/sundersays/status/1307430016070955009?s=20
I admire his commitment to his mother.
Or is it because it's a Tory proposal, now ok?
Osborne's fantastic stewardship of the economy helped lay the foundations for a decade of growth, elimination of Brown's deficit, full employment, faster growth in the UK over the decade than the rest of our continent and the EU we were within and yet you still object.
Diversity is important. Parties that have no diversity of thought lead to ignorance.
Trump wants a SCOTUS confirmed quickly because he knows its a wedge issue that wont help him
HYUFD obviously sees that
Yes, I'm taking the piss.
Night all.
Going into this recession the UK debt-to-GDP was falling because the deficit had been brought down and was below growth.
Typical woke BB...oh it's a private company
Plus in 2010 and 2015 far more Tory MPs represented fiscally conservative, wealthy seats in the south and areas of London which backed Remain in 2016.
Now some of those have been lost to Labour and the LDs and new Tory MPs have been elected from poorer Leave voting seats in the North and Midlands and Wales who are less supportive of austerity, hence they supported Labour in 2010 and 2015. Indeed the new Tory Red Wall seats even have an average income less than current Labour seats let alone previous Tory ones
https://www.ft.com/content/48495b7f-b749-407b-9cfe-c1a34f6a9cf5
https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1307445614184198151
The scale of the economic problem dwarfs any possible cuts that can be conceivably made. There isn't much fat to be trimmed.
Yet a faction still believe in a quasi-mystical fashion that that is the only way.
And that it is just and proper too.
@stodge was right earlier. The world has changed utterly.
We need new thinking, but many want desperately to reach for the old comfort blankets.
Labour now needs to articulate the next 20 years, not the previous 20.
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1307415684431765504
Blair ran no deficit in 1999, 2000 and 2001, you must be a great supporter of his.
https://countryeconomy.com/deficit/uk
One thing that has been missing on the calculations here. There is a chance the Republicans could pick up two Senate seats - Minnesota and Michigan.
I go with my initial feel. He will go with Any Coney Barrett (?) - getting Biden to go against a Catholic nominee will be on the minds of Trump
Deficit hawks, free market fundamentalists, radical tax cutters, and tax and spenders all on the same benches.
And with a PM of no fixed ideology who likes to be liked by all of them.
Not ideal.