tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467119.post7389375806060654497..comments2023-10-24T10:09:22.146+01:00Comments on The Yorkshire Ranter: further OsbornewatchAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17153530634675543954noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467119.post-21581741932316397462008-11-30T18:12:00.000+01:002008-11-30T18:12:00.000+01:00"if they'd elected Vince Cable leader, I think I'd..."<I>if they'd elected Vince Cable leader, I think I'd be voting for them, based purely on his sound reading of the capitalist clusterf***.</I>"<BR/><BR/>Thanks Richard, you've given me the grain of a post on LC, which I'll do Real Soon Now, on how unfortunate it is that both opposition parties finally got to grips with the Nothing Very Serious era of Blair-y flim-flam, just as things actually became serious and flim-flammy Blairite stock plunged by 95%...<BR/><BR/>(blah blah Iraq, War on Terror blah blah. Not serious <I>for British people</I>. 0.2% of GDP, fewer annual deaths than cooking accidents. Serious for Iraqis, but when has that ever factored into domestic political calculus?).John Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17024263999778310292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467119.post-41927791336838529392008-11-29T21:19:00.000+01:002008-11-29T21:19:00.000+01:00Put me in the credits column: great TYR post. No-o...Put me in the credits column: great TYR post. No-one's saying that Brown and Co aren't duplicitous and often wrong-headed - they are politicians, after all.<BR/><BR/>But Dave and little Georgie really are beyond appalling. The Tories now are so obsessed with electoral strategy that they're losing their grip on reality (read Danny Finkelstein at the Times for further evidence...). Like New Labour living in fear of 1983, these guys are constantly harking back to 1997 - "we'll never be be out-marketed again!"<BR/><BR/>I don't like the Lib Dems (I'd still be in the Owenite SDP if I could, so I guess my own credentials are suspect, too). But if they'd elected Vince Cable leader, I think I'd be voting for them, based purely on his sound reading of the capitalist clusterf***.Richard Younghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17213066768738392277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467119.post-41929959427743600482008-11-29T12:38:00.000+01:002008-11-29T12:38:00.000+01:00"Just because other countries aren't reporting the..."<I>Just because other countries aren't reporting the liabilities, why should we.</I>"<BR/><BR/>Fuckwit. The point is, we (and more to the point, the foreign investors we're borrowing the money from) can only assess whether our levels of debt are reasonable by comparison with other countries. And comparing UK national debt + future pensions to Italian national debt not including future pensions doesn't tell anyone anything meaningful.<BR/><BR/>And no, no company could publish accounts like the government and not be prosecuted for fraud. Similarly, no company could arrest people under the threat of lethal force, or compel people by law to pay it a proportion of their income. This is because companies and governments are Not The Same Thing.John Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17024263999778310292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467119.post-67316371582621388702008-11-29T09:45:00.000+01:002008-11-29T09:45:00.000+01:00More bollocks.Just because other countries aren't ...More bollocks.<BR/><BR/>Just because other countries aren't reporting the liabilities, why should we. A bit like a murder saying you can't prosecute me because others are getting away with it.<BR/><BR/>Why aren't the state employee's pensions on the books? The advantage I can see here is that if they aren't on the books, we don't have to pay them.<BR/><BR/>What about the state pension, state second pension? They aren't on the books either which means the government doens't have to pay that too.<BR/><BR/>What about all these new loans and guarantees? Not on books.<BR/><BR/>...<BR/><BR/>It's worse than Enron by miles. No company could publish accounts like the government and not be prosecuted for fraud.Lord Blaggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06783119146180259097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467119.post-88502488561165343742008-11-29T01:13:00.000+01:002008-11-29T01:13:00.000+01:00The government ran a significant surplus from 2000...The government ran a significant surplus from 2000-2003. Perhaps you need to get another Sunday paper.Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17153530634675543954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467119.post-52295185898589697762008-11-28T20:37:00.000+01:002008-11-28T20:37:00.000+01:00Oh, so what political party are you a member of?On...Oh, so what political party are you a member of?<BR/><BR/>One of the Sunday papers I read at the weekend had some interesting graphs showing how since 2000 or so, public borrowing has crept up and up, and the debt has been increasing. Given that Blair/ Brown were in the past 7 years trying to convince us that everything was coming up roses and the economy was in wonderful shape, the increasing gvt debt gives that the lie. <BR/><BR/>Of course I consider that the modern monetary system is crooked, and it is impossible to run a modern mixed economy country with a good dose of welfare state without a permanent gvt deficit.guthriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17992984293423290387noreply@blogger.com