So tell us something that we haven’t figured out. Well, those of us who have more than half a brain cell and have been paying attention, that is.
Rishi Sunak today refused to rule out tax hikes and public spending cuts after leaked Treasury documents set out desperate plans to deal with coronavirus chaos.
The Chancellor said the government is ‘thinking about everything’ after the shocking assessment warned of a £300billion body-blow to the public finances and the grim decisions needed to keep the country on an even keel.
Yet still there are cretins who want this insane lock-down to continue. Those who still have a job when the lock-down ceases will be paying more taxes to cover the losses and to pay for the benefits of those now out of work. Brilliant plan. Fantastic strategy. And that great and glorious NHS, how will that be paid for?
Cancel HS2 that will cover most of it.
Cease all third sector spending and foreign aid, but will they? Nah, let’s do what we always do and stiff the middle earners.
Sorry guys, even those valid targets of HS2 and foreign aid would barely scratch the surface of this enormous cash-hole – taxes of every form, visible and stealth, will need to increase for much more than a decade to make any impact on the debt mountain this has created.
Add to that the insatiable demand from the NHS, now somehow ennobled by botching its simple job so spectacularly, no politician fancying re-election would dare deny it whatever it seeks, thus adding even more to the problem.
@Mudplugger:
A start:
Foreign Aid £15 Billion
EU £12 Billion
PHE £5 Billion
Three gone and £32 Billion saved
Green Crap at Gov Depts, Quangos, Charitees, Grants etc gone probably same again
Gov’t could cut spending by £100 Billion easily with nobody except sacked noticing
NHS: most admin are Blair/Brown “make work” jobs whose job is meetings and reports for other “make work” Depts
Who will continue to do the “make work”from the comfort of their own homes.
Although HS2 should be cancelled NOW, unfortunately Mudplugger is right. The managerial ineptitude at the NHS will be ignored as it always has been and they’ll plead underfunding as they always have. Cash cows will be milked as usual so if you can stock up on diesel at today’s prices, do so: it won’t work with petrol, though, as it has a short shelf life.
It may be some time off, but bear in mind that diesel supplies are now re-formulated for summer and winter. You don’t want to get stuck with a tank full of summer diesel in sub zero temperatures – it will easily “Wax” up, and lead to blockages. In the “Good Old Days” truck drivers would often have to put burning rags under fuel tanks, pipework & filters to melt the wax and get their engines started. Not very practical with modern plastic tanks and pipes…
Also in the good old days 10% paraffin was added when filling up. Works down to -10.
Yes. I remember seeing that on news
@Jannie: petrol keeps if in sealed containers, eg 5 Gallon ‘Jerry cans’. Preserves also available
Be careful when storing petrol – remember this guy?: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1220240.stm
What a prat. Dumb on two counts: petrol taxi and storing petrol in plastic dustbins. Shame he didn’t win a Darwin Award
Wow yes i remember that !
Don’t take this the wrong way, but what is your alternative? To allows tens of thousands of businesses and perhaps 7 million people to go flat on their arses?
Or are you advocating that everyone just ignore the pandemic (for which there is currently no vaccine) and everyone take their chances?
Sweden.
As for a vaccine, it’s an RNA virus. Any vaccine will be of limited effect as it mutates too quickly, so learning to live with it and allowing nature to take its course while protecting the vulnerable is the sensible option. It was the option our government was going to take until they got spooked.
Edited to add: Tens of thousands of businesses are already going under because they don’t have enough capital to survive long term closure, so the furlough is merely delaying the benefits payments for people who have already lost their jobs because the economy has been trashed.
Yes I am. Let the disease run its course. End lockdown and furlough and let the market prevail.
The 1957 Asian Flu epidemic was a very similar profile – more than 30,000 died in the UK, 1.5m worldwide.
What did that UK Government do, nothing – they let it run its course, it ‘filtered the herd’, everything kept running, business boomed, everyone went to work and school, no massive debts, the 1960s happened without any hangover from it. Basically nobody noticed.
How many years of granny-life have been saved by this massive disturbance? And at what cost per year saved? Not a number they will ever reveal, but it will be humungous.
Mud, the 1968 Hong Kong flu was worse. 80,000 deaths in the UK. Adjusted to the increase in population the total death toll would now be 96,000.
The prospects for this country are not helped by the fact that all the countries that buy from us, send tourists here and invest their dosh here are also in deep doo-doo.
Meanwhile the cost of everything we want to import will rise and the value of the pound will go down.
But through the magic of economics our GDP will maybe rise because of all the low value money getting circulated quicker.
It is very hard to be optimistic.
Talking of green crap.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2020/05/13/solar-panel-trial-save-homes-hundreds-of-pounds-a-year-at-a-cost-of-55k/
They spent 55k on each house. The payback from fuel savings means that they would break even in about a hundred years, even if the panels lasted that long, which they obviously won’t. Nobody would invest their own money in such a ludicrous scheme. Other people’s money, on the other hand, is fair game. There is obviously no accountability here or the utter fools who came up with this colossal waste would have been fired, or would know that they would be and not done it in the first place.
That’s assuming zero interest. At even 1% interest, the ‘benefit’ just pays the interest and never reduces the amount owing.
But that ‘benefit’ is entirely based upon non-market prices, excessive credit given to unwanted, non-dispatchable power, subsidised by everyone else.
Only feasible for a very small virtue-signalling example, not possible for everyone, as they would be subsidising themselves, and the true cost unhideable.
Oh, and did they factor into the “payback” the increase in house insurance premiums, because the solar panels make any fire unfightable (because of electric shock hazard)?
Cutting all the green crap might help Rishi.
I think Rishi is whistling in the wind.
Many taxes are already far past their peak on the Laffer curve: income tax and stamp duty are obvious examples. Any increase in rate won’t increase the take.
Indeed, silly rates of stamp duty had just about destroyed the property market before all this.
About the only tax he can increase, with any real effect, would be VAT.
But of course, not until Dec 31st 🙂
However, much of the spend, especially in a deep downturn, is VAT exempt: food for example.
So expect 30% VAT, levied on electricity and power also (inc domestic heating), and extended to food.
This should certainly boost online ordering, as the evasion will become a torrent.
No, political suicide awaits that path. The other path is a huge burst of inflation to devalue all the debts. It’s what’s been chosen every time before…
Furlough should be ended NOW. Its bankrupting us.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2020/05/14/nhs-to-tackle-climate-emergency/#comments
Paul Homewood again. When it comes to wasting money the state has no rivals. Surely if we could just put a stop to this kind of crap, we could afford to fund the lockdown, cut taxes and pay off the national debt as well.
Economics
Yes. Aus PM and more proposing tax cuts, state wage cuts/freezes & closures and regs chop
– Bring It On; and here too
NSW Premier considers cutting the wages of public servants
youtube.com/watch?v=rXq-8dwPTSY
Green BoJo: avoid public transport, travel in your car. Parking & congestion charges suspended – No