The Bank of England is expected to downgrade its growth forecasts today while warning of more financial pain to come.
As the graph shows, the growth trend in the UK economy has been downward since around the third quarter of 2010 – coincidentally, about the time George Osborne set out the coalition’s spending plans (20th October 2010), in the process ignoring the historical evidence.
Nor can Osborne plead ignorance. He was warned what would happen. He was warned repeatedly. One of those who warned him was shadow chancellor Ed Balls.
“We have a chancellor who believes that he can slash public spending, raise VAT and cut benefits – he can take billions out of the economy and billions more out of people’s pockets, he can directly cut thousands of public sector jobs and private sector contracts, and none of this will have any impact on unemployment or growth.
Against all the evidence, both contemporary and historical, he argues the private sector will somehow rush to fill the void left by government and consumer spending, and become the driver of jobs and growth.
This is ‘growth-denial’ on a grand scale.”
4 Responses to “The coalition is in ‘growth denial’”
LB
It’s never going to grow.
7,000 bn plus of debts.
550 bn of tax
700 bn of spending.
End result, they are taxing the UK out of jobs.
e.g Lets tax fags and drink to stop people smoking and drinking.
Tax jobs and working, and you discourage people from employing others, and working.
Simples.
Newsbot9
Nope, you won’t allow it to grow. You keep up your myths about the UK’s moderate tax rates, as Germany and the Nordics do fine. Keep on using your myths to lower wages further.
And yes, you’re simple. Thanks for admitting this.
Ash
What a strange graph. As you say, the growth trend has only been downward since late 2010; yet the line on the graph that’s presumably supposed to show the trend is already heading downward in 2009. Surely the line should head up through late 2009 and into mid-2010 as the recovery gathers pace, peak at the “0.7” bar, and then head down?
Newsbot9
No, not if you look at the trend over the whole period.