This comes as Reuters reports that the European Commission has wrapped the government over the knuckles for dragging its feet in dealing with the UK's out of control borrowing...
The European Commission will tell Britain to do more to cut its ballooning budget deficit in the medium term, saying the country's fiscal programme lacks ambition, a draft from the EU executive showed on Monday.The draft, obtained by Reuters two days before publication, said the programme failed to guarantee Britain would meet a European Union deadline of 2014-15 for cutting the deficit to below the bloc's cap of 3 percent of economic output.
"The overall conclusion is that the fiscal strategy in the convergence programme is not sufficiently ambitious and needs to be significantly reinforced," said the draft, expected to be approved by the Commission on Wednesday.
"A credible timeframe for restoring public finances to a sustainable position requires additional fiscal tightening measures beyond those currently planned," it added.
As we are not a member of the Euro I'm not quite sure why the European Commission thinks it has any power to instruct the British government on economic policy. But for a change, they have hit the nail on the head. More Nokias flying in Number Ten tonight...
"The BBC is reporting that the Conservatives will outline the spending cuts they will make in the 2010-11 tax year shortly after the budget. If so, that is welcome news as it will put Labour and the LibDems on the back foot."
ReplyDeleteI don't think that it will put anyone on the back foot at all. This is not "strategy" as you claim but "tactics". It is quite common for politicians not to understand the difference - but you and George Osborne seem to a have a particular problem.
Iain O/T but have to say well played to the Baroness in the Lords today wh hit Labour and the imbecile Adonis right where it hurts.
ReplyDeleteThey have well and truly been Ashcrofted on the BA strike and Unite bankrolling Labour MP's, marginals and Browns close bunker pals. Come on Tory Party en masse give it to them hard they do not like it up em.
ON the EU yes they do not have power, but with Lisbon they can reject UK membership of the Euro, which if we ever wanted to join, would be a major major headache for the corrupt Europhiles and our standing in the world.
Cameron missed the chance, when Brown called a referendum on voting changes in the UK Parliament, they should have said immediately after the money vote to pay for the referendum had passed that they would add a key question on EU membership.
That would have put Brown on the backfoot.
Brilliant news!
ReplyDeleteNow we can have a chance to explain to the public how many job cuts there will be under the Tories. We will be able to show how services will be slashed and the real effect it will have on people. And we will be able to show how much more people will be out of pocket they will be when they have no choice other than to buy the services from private suppliers instead.
I could kiss the nearest Tory for this brilliant present to Labour's campaign!
@tory boys..
ReplyDeleteYour problem is you have not grown up at all to realise that what this can do yto your leader Bully Brown.
Reminds me of that quote from LockStock
ReplyDelete"sh*t'em right up"
Gordon's "Cutting the deficit in half" will still mean debt rises by over £500bln to around £1.3trill and after all that they are still overspending by £90bln, i.e. borrowing yet more just to pay off the interest!
Tory spending cuts will need to be in the order of £100-200bln to get our house in order. Talking of a few £10bln's will not make the dent that is necessary.
Budgets for show, Cuts for dough.
Ok Norman fine with me if the Tories wish to portray what they plan to do until next March as a strategy. As Richard.blogger has pointed out their might be a slight flaw in the tactics as well. You are absolutely right Brown must be quaking in his boots.
ReplyDeleteTax Payers Alliance rehash of Unison propaganda:
ReplyDeleteFront Line Non-Jobs
...
@tory boys
ReplyDeleteIndeed, what the public is scared about is the forthcoming cuts. That is why both Labour and the Conservatives have kept quiet about them (Osborne's £1.5bn so far is nothing in the grand scheme of things).
The public is watching carefully if the Nasty Party is going to cut hard (as expected). Some want it, but I would contend that most won't when the consequences have been explained.
The Conservatives keep announcing ring fences. Hague drew a line in the sand only last week about his domain - he does not want cuts in the diplomatic budget, and along with the announced ring fences there are the unspoken ring fences like the police and the military. (And additional costs like the huge costs for the Boundary Commission to cut 10% of MPs, and the new quangos that will inevitably be created.)
That means that there will be huge cuts in a relatively few departments, notably DWP (most likely benefits) and where I think will take the biggest cuts, local authorities.
Look at the TPA spoof video. The majority of the jobs they mock are local authority jobs (tell me, which party controls most local authorities?). It would be ironic, with all this talk of Red Tory localism, that the biggest Tory cuts will be in local authorities, won't it?