UK national debt still increasing by £2.3 billion a week...

[nicko31]

28% of government spend is welfare, and pensions are a big chunk of that. The one thing governments are terrified of is the grey vote...

 

[Guinness Boy]

That's £380 a second or its like we're funding a Olympic Games on credit every single month, the debt interest alone is costing £2000 / year fro every taxpayer. If we're ever gonna get out of this warren, the only solutions will radical ones IMO. It will be interesting to see what the 2.5% growth does to the deficit.

Anyone got any bright ideas?

At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the UK had a national debt in excess of 250% of GDP. Now it's 90%.
This is why the rest of the 19th century was a succession of lost decades for the UK, and the burden of servicing all that debt is why it missed out on all that industrial revolution stuff. All that capital that went into the Consols would otherwise have been used to build canals, railroads, and factories.

But it didn't go there, crippling Britain in the process.

No, wait a minute, it didn't....

What I'd like to know is specifically who we owe it to? There was supposedly a global financial crises yet someone is trousering this cash at an astonishing rate.

You may think that's glib but an awful lot of people can't or won't take this seriously as the consequences of defaulting don't seem that obvious. Even Greece has basically just repealed some of the most generous (read barking) pensions and public sector pay deals in the Western World. After that all they had to do was threaten not to pay and they got let off a bit anyway. Greece is hardly in the grip of a third world famine.

If the answer to who we owe is "other countries" then my radical solution is to renegotiate the debt. It works for everyone else from banks to Crystal Palace FC after all.

 

[Postman Pat]

Stop paying the debt and when anyone calls about it say we don't live here any more.

If they send bailiffs refuse to let them in to the country.

If they persue us in court, tell them that there is a cheque in the post.

If all else fails, turn off all the lights and hide behind the sofa until they have gone away.

 

[JamesAndTheGiantHead]

I want to see what these Tridents that I've been spending all my wages on can REALLY do.

Who's rich enough to bother but not really much of a threat?

 

[RexCathedra]

http://www.northstandchat.com/showt...llion-a-week&p=6084400&viewfull=1#post6084400

Suggesting that it's a complicated issue, and not amenable to simple analysis... like that in the rest of this thread.

First person to mention Weimar Germany, or Zimbabwe, loses the thread....

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Note to self: "Don't ever let those useless Labour b4st4rds who got us into this debt shite get back into power, because that would totally fu(k my kids future, and their kids future, and the kids after that..."

Instructions: Light the blue touch paper, and stand well back..........

So all the debt run up by the Coalition Government between 2010 and 2015 will still be Labour's fault when they get back in ?

 

[keaton]

Are you aware that 30% of all income tax collected already comes from the top 1% of tax payers?

Because they earn a lot more money than anyone else. How is this unfair?

 

[easynow]

What matters most is government debt.

External debt also includes company debt and if the companies are very big in relation to the government you'll see those big numbers.

What matters most is government debt and the chances said government has to pay the debt. UK is OK in that department.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/country-list/government-debt-to-gdp

The government deficit is also very important.

It's important to understand that there's not one number that defines how the health of one government economy is. Look at Spain, they have a government debt at a very low value so is Russia. But in these countries the issues that do exist are related to other things. In case of Spain is the banking infrastructure that got close to collapse amongst other things.

 

[severnside gull]

the only solution is to sack every civil servant and farm their work out. Despite all the talk of cuts in government departments it never actually materialises Monwy just gets moved around and numbers are fudged or hidden and in reality the gravy train carries on and on and on....

 

[beorhthelm]

So all the debt run up by the Coalition Government between 2010 and 2015 will still be Labour's fault when they get back in ?

you do understand that for the first 2-3 years of a government, its the previous governments spending plans in action? so yes, the debt run up on Labour's spending plans and the interest paid on that debt is their responsibility.

...Despite all the talk of cuts in government departments it never actually materialises Monwy just gets moved around and numbers are fudged or hidden and in reality the gravy train carries on and on and on....

yes and an awful lot of the cuts are to projects and roles that were planned and not actually in place. so the previous years deficit is still there, they've just cut back the increase.

 

[nicko31]

Recover some of the £35bn tax avoidance (which has soared by £3bn under the Tories)

If we recover £3bn, the debt will be rising again by kick off against Huddersfield.

The kind of solution is something like a 10-15% cut in total welfare or partial dismantling of the NHS, both would be suicide for any government

 

[portslade seagull]

Get Barber on the case!

That would be good

 

[Philzo-93]

Print more money.

Lots and lots and lots so inflation sky rockets making the debt virtually worthless!

 

[Beach Hut]

Burn the Labour Party so they can never destroy our economy again.

Gets my vote

 

[worthingseagull123]

the only solution is to sack every civil servant and farm their work out. Despite all the talk of cuts in government departments it never actually materialises Monwy just gets moved around and numbers are fudged or hidden and in reality the gravy train carries on and on and on....

Probably the dummest thing I have ever read on here.

Privatised police, immigration staff, army etc.

Would you be happy for crap public services as profits would need to come before a quality service.

Also you cannot sack without good reason. So every civil servant would get redundancy pay (some up to 50k). How do we pay for that?

 

[Seagull on the wing]

The 1% are earning astronomical wages, so of course they will pay a lot of tax - but when you consider that 10p of every pound earned in the UK is pocketed by them, as opposed to the bottom 50% who share 18p of every pound between them - this is still massively disproportionate, they should be taxed even more.

That's good thinking Mustafa...if you can earn that money to be in the top 1% you will pay a lot of tax...but get to sqeeze them till the pips squeak then they will move abroad and pay nothing here...doesn't matter what system you use...be it Capalist,Communist,Dictatorship or any other system you will always have the top earners...I don't see many top Communist/Dictators paying tax in their system,just taking aid and ripping off their citizens for their own purposes...but hey,it's the season of goodwill so let's complain about our system...that'll larn em'
I agree we should shut the loophole of tax avoidance but also target the benefit culture who are ripping off the British taxpayer.

 

[Baldseagull]

We could sell off some of our gold, if Brown had not already done it when prices were low and we were supposedly doing ok.

 

[Seagull on the wing]

Gets my vote

That post by Pavionaire about Labour gets my vote too...everytime that bunch gets in the economy nosedives and someone has to put right their mistakes.
When are the Populus going to realise that the Labour party is NOT FOR THE WORKING MAN...Spend,borrow is not a good policy...all the doubters must be dismayed that we have the fastest growing economy in Europe and most of the world..that the employment figures are the best for years.....not flatlining like that idiot Ed Balls kept saying...

 

[Boys 9d]

If we make retirement age 100 then the amount that the Government needs to pay in Pensions would decrease dramatically.

 

[Nibble]

Kill everyone that earns less than 200K a year.