Which means the next 51 days, we are living in the hole. 😐

Economics is interesting.

Perhaps we’ve already bought all our Xmas presents, stocked up the freezer and filled the car up?

Had you thought about that?

It’s not even black Friday yet, we’re going to miss out on all the tat!

It’s OK. I’ve raided the children’s piggy banks to cover the shortfall. They wont mind, they’re used to it.

sold the missus’ jewellery getting ready for the 1509% apr from our favourite payday lender 🙂
Maybe the old farts should reconsider their self awarded payrise and expenses. Time to enforce a bit of working from home and conduct online parliament meetings

I wonder if the 30% cuts include the budget for personal security for the cabinet. They might feel a bit differently if their decisions had a direct effect on their own circumstances.

Can we find out what it was spent on? and how much of it was apportioned to government staff?

Stoner – Member
It’s OK. I’ve raided the children’s piggy banks to cover the shortfall. They wont mind, they’re used to it.

It’s a shame we can’t raid the old people’s pension pots. They’re the ones who got us into this mess, not the kids.

Hardly anything new, we’ve been running a deficit for most years in recent history…

Nart rong w’ a bit o debt.

Good job women are working for free for the rest of the year, then!

That’s nowt, I get paid on the last friday of the month and am invariably skint by monday

At least the French are worse than us.

More upsetting, 32 yo Triathlete has died.

It’s a debt we’re leaving for the next generation to pay.

Fortunately there are going to be more of them than us and they will be more productive.

Plus, what have they ever done for us anyway?

Odd that this happens at the same time the ‘Greggs’ thread takes off and ‘Young Binners’ returns?!
Not that I’m one to gossip 😉

Do you know how much it costs to feed a kid? And what do they contribute, eh?

i never quite get the debt point we all run our lives on debt, The reason we have to pay our mortgages off is because our working lives and income come to an end if we could carry on earning for ever we could carry on incouring or maintaining debt we could service. Great Britain does not appear to have any plans to retire so has no real need to run a surplus so long as it can service or renegotiate its loans particularly true if the way to cut the debt is to cut the things that made this a great country.

Great Britain does not appear to have any plans to retire so has no real need to run a surplus so long as it can service or renegotiate its loans

works fine while the economy is booming and/or inflation is high (which erodes your debt away).

doesn’t work so well when you’ve borrowed so much nobody wants to lend you any more and you can’t refinance – see anyone that’s previously been caught in a housing bubble or the likes of Greece/Argentina etc

Don’t worry about it, George has promised we will be running a surplus by 2020 – either we’ll pay it off one day (probably not) or we’ll inflate it to nothing.

@footflaps indeed, but look at the scale of the deficit and the accelerating trend the Labour party ran at the end of their parliament, £60bn to £160bn in a single year !

Yeah just think how bad it could have been if there had been a worldwide financial crash in 2008, then it would have really plummeted.

Please people do not confuse the UK GOVERNMENT and the UK ECONOMY, they are quite separate things, despite what Gideon and CMD would have you believe!

“We” are not in debt, the UK government are, and they are trying to make their perceived ‘problem’ our problem, and the media is helping this somewhat with shoddy reporting.

EDIT:…such as perpetuating the myth that we might go the way of Greece if we don’t ‘get the deficit under control’. Complete codswallop.

perpetuating the myth that we might go the way of Greece if we don’t ‘get the deficit under control’. Complete codswallop.

why so? if UK debt continued to spiral, credit ratings would eventually fall (all else being equal), the cost of borrowing would rise which ion turn would compound the problem.

We can’t go the way of Greece because our debt is in British pounds not Euros.

We control the currency – how much there is (as we create it) and we can set our own interest rate targets to effect the economy and we have a lot of tools we can use to do so – debt levels, interest rates etc

Greece has the Euro, a currency controlled by the Eurozone countries. They look after the general interest of all countries so a country whose economy is struggling compared to the majority has no control whatsoever. They can’t raise their own interest rate (to increase investment and influence saving over spending) so are stuck with things as they are.

This political control is the key reason why the Euro was always going to struggle – Monetary union means political union and when you have such diverse economies (Germany with heavy manufacturing, Greece with high tourism) it was always going be be impossible to make things work for everyone. It works in good times but struggles in bad times.

works fine while the economy is booming and/or inflation is high (which erodes your debt away).

Indeed but as in the 50s we are adopting the hidden solution of stealing money off savers instead.

They get you all ways – work hard and they take your money off you
Manage your finances sensibly – they take you money off you

All in (mis) name of free market capitalism. You couldn’t make it up It is made up.

It’s a debt we’re leaving for the next generation to pay.

It seems the plan is to flood the country with immigrants, get them to do the work and pay off our debt.

Unless, of course they realise this is the deal and go elsewhere…

*NB: this is not some anti-immigrant rant! As our working-age population shrinks and the % of the pop that is living off the taxpayer rather than paying taxes increases, immigration is one way of growing the working-age population who generate tax to pay for the older generation’s care and to pay off the debt

but look at the scale of the deficit and the accelerating trend the Labour party ran at the end of their parliament, £60bn to £160bn in a single year !

Hmmm, wasn’t that mostly spent on bailing out bankers who had gambled other people’s money and lost?

And – haven’t we now got a load of shares in RBS and Lloyds? How do they fit into this?

It was 69 bn not 60 bn – why do you get the facts wrong so often ?

Yes the labour party caused the collapse of the US sub prime market that then caused the worldwide economic slump…they must have as it happened on their watch

Obviously the fact that the debt rose under the tories is not their fault that is still labours fault even though it happened on their watch

This is how the logic works apparently

PS dont mention the bankers bails out either or their role it was definitely the public sector and our spending that was to blame

This has been a public service announcement on behalf of the RW press and tories everywhere now swallow this lie please.

Indeed but as in the 50s we are adopting the hidden solution of stealing money off savers instead.

D’you know what? This doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

People who are relying on the interest from enormous stockpiles in their bank accounts generally gained that money from the phenomenal house price increases over the last 50 years.

Right now I have a mortgage tracking at 1.5% above base rate which is, I suppose, being subsidised in a way by the lack of interest on savings. They might want to stop whinging and realise that the income tax of *my* generation is going to fund a long retirement for them, while it’s highly likely that pensions will be means tested in 40 years when I retire.

Frankly it’s about time that their generation cotton on to the fact that the reason nearly all younger people can barely afford to rent a home, let alone buy one, is directly because of them and the financial policies of those they elected.

Tough titties.

Tough tithes indeed. Theft, what a great answer

“It’s a debt we’re leaving for the next generation to pay.

Fortunately there are going to be more of them than us and they will be more productive.”

Make sure they’ve finished paying for all of those shiny new city centre student condomiuims first before saddling them with two generations of pensioners to keep fed…

I don’t know why anyone has traditional savings anymore – there has to be a loan somewhere you can offset it against – think of all the money you’ll earn!

Frankly it’s about time that their generation cotton on to the fact that the reason nearly all younger people can barely afford to rent a home, let alone buy one, is directly because of them and the financial policies of those they elected.

I’m not 100% sure pensioners should be allowed to vote as they don’t really have any further part to play in the countries economic future…

Its really not theft and if another poster did this you would be going on about them frothing and economics 101

You may disagree with what has happened but its not theft*, by any definition of the word.

* It may be wrong, misguided, unfair, daft, heartless but it is not at all THEFT

Let’s disincentivise the concept of saving and just encourage everybody to borrow for everything instead. I’m sure that will end well.

Good job that as of yesterday we’ve stopped paying women for the rest of the year then isn’t it.

disincentivise the concept of saving and just encourage everybody to borrow for everything instead

Most people dont have anything left in the pot to actually save and if you do have enough left over to just invest/save the excess you dont really need help.

Is personal saving actually good for the government’s finances?