Economic Growth.

Is it only me that thinks that it is a massive coincidence that the OBR figures have fallen at Budget time? Particularly as Brexit negotiations are coming to ahead, with regards to the financial settlement. If we settle for around £40 billion, in the next two months what is the betting that OBR figures are revised in March, giving the Government the extra money potential required to add to the £18 billion already discussed? Just a thought.

 

No id say we are ******.

 

Perhaps I'm too cynical.

 

We are paying for Osborne's ideological austerity agenda. Add Brexit into the mix and I agree, we are f*cked.

 

This is you don’t invest in your country and it’s people you can expect little or no return. It will cripple the country for years.

 

We are on the cusp of a major technology revolution in the workplace. Robots, AI and the rest will take somewhere around 2-3 million jobs out of the UK economy within the next couple of decades. Add to that the masses voting to make things worse and the economy is unlikely to recover to 2007 levels within the working life of anyone that was actually working in 2007!

 

I suspect in the great scheme of things in 10-20 years time austerity will be judged to be a catastrophic error in govt policy. I’m hoping it will finally result in a sea change that means FPTP is replaced to prevent such extremism happening again.

 

I think there are many things that will be judged to be catastrophic. But I don't see FPTP being debated again in our lifetimes after the shambles of the AV referendum and how it was a shoe to kick the libdems with.

I'm not sure cameras in the commons was a good thing, I wonder if its actually accelerated populism and encouraged grandstanding while sidelining true debate.

It would such a stepped improvement if debates were open and any side could discuss something that could improve the policy or idea. Most businesses encourage honing an idea to make it the best it can be. Politics seems far removed from implementing the best idea possible.

In terms of GDP, i'd be amazed if we're anywhere close to those figures at the end of the 5 year cycle. Combine brexit, with huge indebtedness with climbing interest rates with (as scoff rightly said) the likelihood of huge job losses when technology takes driver based careers out of the scheme of things, and we are royally in deep trouble the likes none of us have ever seen.

I'm truly glad i'm 40 something and not 20 something or younger.

 

I'm hoping that we will have got AI to the level where it can take over governance of the entire country. Although my smart phone could currently do a better job - even without a battery.

 

Scoff mi owd, there's a Robot in 10, Downing Street now.

 

No robot is that inept. I think she is actually a ventriloquists dummy with a different controller every day.

 

A history of economics post 1945 to the present day explained in around 8 minutes . Worth a watch .

 

I.have no doubt the austerity was required at the time . Public spending was out of control

However, mo is the time to increase spending and grease the wheels of the economy. For this to bee a success we need to move away from the ideology of a low taxation policy and start to increase taxation

 

The non-ideological approach, followed by most mature capitalist economies, would have been a Keynesian-type investment in infrastructure, skills etc. Particularly given the low cost of borrowing. Instead we got Osborne's "we are all in it together" austerity. I doubt we will recover from its effects in my lifetime.

 

The crash of 2008 was nothing to do with public spending which is why austerity came about . The bank's lent money to people who could not honour their debts hence the bailout . The narrative that somehow it's all our faults for demanding too many public services is just a smokescreen for a life-changing mistake made by previous governments .

 

I kinda agree. However, I think we needed to bottom out the inefficiencies first of all orher wise wed have been urinating into wind wirh the money

 

Absolutely but the war chest was empty due those inefficiencies

 

In the midst of all this, Hammond has just increased the threshold for basic tax by £350, saving the lower paid £70 a year. At the same time he increased the higher rate threshold by £1,350, saving those on or above the higher rate threshold £270 a year. But those people also get the benefit of the basic rate threshold increase of £70, so they are actually £340 a year better off. Given near on a decade of wage freezes, was this really the time to further increase the divide between the well-off and the lower paid? A country that works for everyone?

 

Like I said . Post number 4

Like I said, post number 4

http://barnsleyfc.org.uk/threads/this-govt-money-for-driverless-cars.261134/

 

Trickle down economics , its just that it isn't working out anymore , not that it ever worked in the first place . No family silver to sell off to balance the books like back in the 80 s .