A message to Mr Fawkes…
The Independent - 21 February 2006
Surge in tax revenues puts Chancellor back on track to meet his golden rule.
“A surge in tax revenues handed Gordon Brown the perfect birthday present yesterday as official figures showed that the largest public finance surplus since records began was recorded last month.
The upturn put the Chancellor, who was 55 yesterday, on track to hit his cherished “golden rule” and alleviated the need for any rise in taxes in next month’s Budget, analysts said”.
recessmonkey@gmail.com
editor[at]recessmonkey.com
Loading ...
What surplus? Gordon Brown will overspend by £37bn this year.
£37,000,000,000 deficit? The national debt will rise by something like £500 for every man, woman and child this year. The government has indebted itself (the taxpayer) by £1 trillion. That’s a lot of zeros.
So one month he gets a surplus on the back of bumper revenues from surging oil prices? Is that why businesses are screaming about the tax burden and why Britain is sliding down the world competitiveness tables? Stick to doing jokes Monkey, you are no good at economics.
It’ll take more than a fucking rabbit to dig us out of this hole. We’ll probably have to close down Scotland. They always vote Labour anyway. It is the only way forward.
Guido Fawkes said this on February 21st, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Scotland is open at the moment? I thought that steel-sheet of rain coming down across the border indicated it was closed…
Guido - we’ve been told every year for the last five years or more by doom-sayers that the economy is going to collapse because of Gordon’s Budget. It would be nice if someone acknowledged that Gordon might, just occasionally, be getting things right.
50 consecutive quarters of economic growth during a time where the American, Japanese and German economies have been in the doldrums is not to be sniffed at. Yes, this economic prosperity has been on the back of massive public spending, but the step-change in investment will pay off in the future. Long term thinking - give it a chance.
Red Tamarin said this on February 22nd, 2006 at 12:15 am
I agree with what you’re saying - but did you really have to use the term “step-change”?
Recess Monkey
Recess Monkey said this on February 22nd, 2006 at 12:54 am
US economy in the doldrums? Hello earth calling - reality check - US economy is surging after Bush cut taxes - doh!
50 consecutive quarters? So beginning in 1994? Q. Who was in power and laid the basis for that by making the tough decisions?
We now have falling growth rates and rising debt with a tax burden that is oppressive. The blackhole is still there, the golden rule is tarnished beyond recognition.
I hate Brown. The only good thing about him becoming PM is that Labour will be out on its arse finally.
Guido Fawkes said this on February 22nd, 2006 at 3:00 am
YES! lets do what Bush does. That sounds sensible:
“We need to counter the shockwave of the evildoer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates.”
Washington, D.C. Oct. 4, 2001
and…
“The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway.” —explaining why high taxes on the rich are a failed strategy, Annandale, Va., Aug. 9, 2004
Yer, His views on economics are much better than Brown’s.
Dr. Freling
Dr. Freling said this on February 22nd, 2006 at 6:03 am
Anyone want to talk about dan corbett again?
Daniel Corbett's Love Child said this on February 22nd, 2006 at 6:42 am
US growth outstrips UK growth. The U.S. has lower unemployment and higher standards of living.
What is your point?
Guido Fawkes said this on February 22nd, 2006 at 11:17 am
Ooooh goody. I can pimp a link that’s actually relevant. Hardly ever get to do that.
The Heritage Foundation - who, let us remember, are a bunch of rich conservative pundits - recently praised just how free the British economy is, in the process exposing the Tory/CBI line as a bunch of hollow rhetoric. Watching the Telgraph try to come to terms with that one without just blurting out “Does not compute” made my week. I rambled about it here.
Brown is storing up problems for the future, granted. But they’re mostly problems that Alan Greenspan created. If Brown is messing things up, it certainly isn’t in the red-tape-obsessed way that the right wing would like to think.
Jonn said this on February 23rd, 2006 at 1:30 am
Bullshit Guido - your high standards of living:low unemployment comment doesn’t take into account the US economiy’s dependence on over 5 million illegal immigrants earening slave wages and living in dire poverty.
Recess Monkey
*forced into temporary seriousness*
Recess Monkey said this on February 23rd, 2006 at 1:59 am
The link on the word “here” in my last comment seems to have gone awol. Don’t know if that’s deliberate policy or a technical problem, but anyway - should it be the latter, the post I was referring to is at
http://atlanticrift.blogspot.com/2006/01/drowning-in-blue-rhetoric.html
Jonn said this on February 23rd, 2006 at 2:31 am
I am a bit unclear, but when was this budget? I am surprised I have not seen the pulling the rabbit out of the case on Aunties Bloomers with a suitably funny Dennis Norden voice-over.
BarryBeef said this on February 23rd, 2006 at 2:51 am
Probably the same technical problem that led to my spelling going to shite
Recess Monkey
Recess Monkey said this on February 23rd, 2006 at 3:31 am
Jonn - did you read the report in full?
The report notes that the UK is falling down the league table. Less free economy means less growth.
Try to keep up.
Guido Fawkes said this on February 23rd, 2006 at 4:21 am
Come on Barry, we all know it’s Terry Wogan on Aunties Bloomers not Dennit Norden.
Eskimo Nell said this on February 23rd, 2006 at 4:44 am
Depends what you mean by falling down the league tables. From what I’m remembering (I’m prepared to be corrected if I’ve got this wrong), didn’t we climb from sixth place to fifth? That does not, of course, mean that our overall score can’t have fallen, if everyone else’s has as well. But… well, when the Heritage Foundation ranks the UK economy as more free than the US one I’m distinctly bemused by the idea that Gordon Brown is somehow turning Britain into Cuba.
The economy is a mess. But it’s a fairly similar mess to the one Greenspan created in the US (asset bubble, consumer spending boom, not much in the way of productivity growth etc.) rather than the one there is in, say, France.
Jonn said this on February 23rd, 2006 at 5:41 am
What! You mean when China moved up to 4th, pushing us to 5th.
I hate to point this out but there are 1.1billion of then!
Dr. Freling
Dr. Freling said this on February 23rd, 2006 at 10:06 am
Dr Freling: the Chinese economy overtaking us is a different issue. The thing I’m referring to is reported here, in that hotbed of red sentiment the Daily Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/01/05/ccecon05.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2006/01/05/ixcoms.html
Jonn said this on February 24th, 2006 at 1:14 am