The major issue was Labour’s inability or refusal to identify where the savings would come from. It is true that the government never got a mandate for some of the cuts but then the opposition are completely stumped on the question of where their axe would fall. This is essentially why nobody believes Labour on the economy, with many seeing what is happening as the lesser of two evils.

http://outspokenrabbit.blogspot.com/

Meanwhile all over Europe (Ireland, Spain and now Portugal) voters are massively rejecting left-wing incumbents who only offer cloud-cuckoo economics in favour of austere and business-like administrations. US doesn’t offer the left any greater hope. The recent spike in unemployment in the US suggests that stimulus economics serves no purpose other than to delay and deepen the day of reckoning.

Recap: George Osborne plan isn’t working, say top UK economists
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jun/04/george-osborne-plan-not-working

Check out the Office of National Statistics charts showing where the extra spending is coming from to make up for the cuts in public spending – and those cuts have barely started as yet – this one shows Consumer Spending:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=11

This ONS chart plots what has been happening to Business Investment since 2001:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=258

And this charts Britain’s Current Balance of (international) Payments since 2005:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=194

Yes theyre handling the economy terribly; theyre doing the exact same thing Labour did and would continue to do had they won the election; borrowing more, increasing govt expenditure as %GDP and raising taxes. Not good.

Apols for lack of reference but there are pressures for the US to engage in more QE. I think at this point we’re all just dealing with time lags and whimsical speculation.

those wanting to bash the Tories for poor economic management should be on the look out for this potential major policy mistake – although I think it would be the BoE to blame, rather than the govt, if monetary tightening happens.

The claim that the government is seen as credible on the economy is simply a media-created myth. It’s about time we questioned it.

Credibility on the economy isn’t a standalone concept, it’s a comparative one. Not ‘are these blokes competent?’, but ‘are they more competent than the other lot?’ And it is here where the ‘myth’ of Tory economic credibility comes from.

Although Labour is ahead of the Tories in most opinion polls, it has not yet regained its economic credentials. Only 18 per cent of people trust Mr Miliband to sort out the country’s economic problems and only 14 per cent Mr Balls. They trail Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, who scores 24 per cent.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/public-dont-yet-trust-balls-and-miliband-on-the-economy-2195528.html

So long as opposition economic credibility depends on Miliband and Balls, so long will the Tories seem credible in comparison.

At work, going to be a quick off topic type rant.

How can anyone get the economy right when this is happening SO much?
One of the lads want’s to get out of his workplace, spoke to a friend (over the weekend) of his who has work but is only taking on these lads from the ukraine at £7.50 an hour in their hand, he laid them off at the recent bank holidays so he didn’t have to pay them for it and of course no sick pay, took them back after!
He has said to my mate the best he can do to help him out is pay him £8.50 in the hand but only has work for the weekends.

It really is time the government clamped down HARD on these sorts of employers because I see it happening so much, in fact seems to be the way it is lately, and nothing seems to be done to stop it.
Those B*&*”*d employers need their bum kicked big time, but when is it going to happen? When will it stop?
People like me are doing the right thing but what’s the point, makes me so mad.

Rant over…….For now!

@ 8 Workman Fred

“It really is time the government clamped down HARD on these sorts of employers because I see it happening so much, in fact seems to be the way it is lately, and nothing seems to be done to stop it.”

Um, weren’t you the guy going on about how government intervention is terrible a few days ago?

@9

“Um, weren’t you the guy going on about how government intervention is terrible a few days ago?”

I remember saying I look after my own, that being British working class!

Things are getting to me now though, with not only what I put above, last week the old boy who works here said he is helping his son set up a business and guess what? He said “no way are WE employing English workers, they want too much, all round”! This from a man I thought of as my own, well I had some serrious words and we have fell out with each other, not my loss! I wish him bad luck!

The other thing about the above is that the man who is getting the work at the city has some scam with an agency that seems to employ only bods from over seas!!
Where I’ve been brought up you don’t grass on your own but those who aren’t acting like our own are going to pay!

One last thing!
Things are going to pick up in the building trade soon ish, one friends company I know have ordered 8 dozzers and another friends company is ordering new plant, somethings going on but will us Brits get the work that’s on it’s way? Looks like NO!

How awful New Labour was at regulating financial markets and institutions is one issue – I happen to believe it was pretty bad. Whether the New Labour government was overspending is yet another – arguably, it wasn’t, on the evidence, prior to the financial crisis in 2008. Whether the New Labour government was spending unwisely is yet another issue. All those wars?

But that is not the issue here and now – which is whether the timing and scale of public spending cuts in Osbornomics is unnecessarily depressing the economy. And btw the public spending cuts have barely started as yet.

@ 10 Workman Fred

I sympathise with you regarding the problems with your local job market at the moment. One of the reasons that I’m hesitant to accuse anti-immigration people of racism is that it’s totally understandable that people resent being marginalised when trying to find jobs. However, it seems a bit shifty that you were previously acting as if state intervention was a terrible thing (I think the topic was healthcare, but I’m not sure), but suddenly you’re all in favour of it when it suits your purposes.

@12

When I get home and I’ll look into that and explain myself.
Can’t talk anymore today things are getting busy.

@ 13 Fair dos.

@ Workman Fred,

Why is it wrong for employers to employ people who are prepared to do the same work for less? How can British companies be competitive if they overpay for labour?

Why should the British consumer have to pay higher prices for goods as a consequence of higher wages?

@ Maltese Cross:

just to quibble: Ireland has not seen voters reject a ‘left-wing’ government. Fianna Fail, formerly the largest Irish party for more or less the whole history of the State, is a centre-right party. They were replaced earlier this year by a Coalition of the likewise centre-right Fine Gael and the centre-left Labour Party, who are respectively the largest and the second largest parties. And, as I’m sure you’re aware, at the last UK general election, centre-left parties received a majority of the popular vote. These things have much more to do with incumbency and punishing the governing party than they do with ideology.

And, of course, we mustn’t overlook the crucial contribution of the banks to creating the financial crises in Britain and Ireland.

@15

Using my break time to answer this, sorry if hurried.

“Why is it wrong for employers to employ people who are prepared to do the same work for less? How can British companies be competitive if they overpay for labour?”

You did see where I said cash in their hand?!

Anywho!
Why is it ok for the British workforce to lose their jobs or not get one in the first place because they can’t compete? Think of their families trying to survive with the wage they have let alone it being reduced!
Why is it ok for the British workforce to end up with even lower stanards of living than we have now so companies can make more on top of selling the products to us!?
If things were truley competitive the rest of the EU would have the same work standards as us!

What are the unions doing to help us Brits, NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALL, look around, they’re good for nothing as well!

Seems the only people looking out for the British working class is ourselves!

Right back to work!

@18

“Why is it ok for the British workforce to lose their jobs or not get one in the first place because they can’t compete?”

Because they can’t compete – that’s why it is fair! Competition creates efficiency.

“If things were truley competitive the rest of the EU would have the same work standards as us!”

What do you mean by same work standards?

This seems to be happening a lot lately – as the Government becomes more and more fascist – doing the bidding of their corporate masters – the presented ‘public opinion’ seems to go in the opposite direction of personal experience.

This has not always been the case, usually public opinion would be the agreed consensus amongst a poll of friends – but these days I cannot fidn anyone who supposedly supports the Tory madness.

Remember the claim that ‘people voted for the cuts’ and the infamous “most people accept the cuts have to happen” – so often played out by the media?

Well this graph doesn’t bear this out – thanks to another LC poster for this.
http://www.allthatsleft.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/MFTA-RAD.png

We are being lied to by the right mwing media – it’s now at the levels of 1936 Germany. Soon we will be hearing downright lies from the media as they desperately try to put a good face on an unmitigated disaster.

It’s PR gone mad – but you cannot lie your way out of recession.

Lets shutdown the country on June 30th and demonstrate who the real ‘wealth creators’ are.
I’d like to see how many banks profit without a workforce to ponce off.

@18

Are you saying we should compete with Chinese slave labour? You go right ahead my friend – I’ll pass thanks.

The problems in the economy have been coming for a long time. The crisis of Capitalism never left us since Marx’s time – they just got better at covering it up.

The falling standards of living have been happening since the gold standard was dropped and we had a pur FIAT currency. It’s the only way they could ‘keep you in the manner to which you are accustomed’ – without impacting profits.

However the supplementation of income with debt – and housing bubbles (mainly) is well and truly finished.

What you are experiencing is REALITY – a reality which has been covered up for the last 30 years and is only now coming home to roost.

whne the people finally cotton on – there will be hell to pay. Nothing is as scary as the public scorned.
Already we’re seeing a collapse in the faith in politics and democracy – that’s why we have a coalition – and next time they’ll probably try the minority parties

@19. Fungus

“Because they can’t compete – that’s why it is fair! Competition creates efficiency”

No! It creates BIG tensions between certain people and makes British workers homeless!

I think the example I gave the other day fits well so I’ll repeat.
A gang of British builders are earning just enough to feed their family, pay the mortgage and bills, they have nothing at all left for luxuries.
One day they turn up for work and are told that when they move on to the next job the price being paid for the work they do is coming down because some overseas workers, who don’t have a family to feed, mortgage & bills to pay can AFFORD to work for less and have now taken the work away from the British workers.

You now have a gang of British workers who now have no work and all that entails.
So why don’t the British workers just work for less? Because they can’t afford to, less means not feeding the family or paying the bills and mortgage.
Trying to find another job is next to impossible and so they will now lose their house as they can’t pay the mortgage and will have look to the council to house them!!
So thanks to the overseas workers taking the jobs, because they can work at a more competitive price, we have made British workers homeless, Mmm makes sense!

“What do you mean by same work standards”

If every company in the EU had to treat its workforce the same, have the same standards as they do in Britain and pay the same, for a truly competitive EU workplace, then many who come here wouldn’t need to would they? British workers wouldn’t lose their job, would they?

Unless you can tell me it is all fair in the EU and the reason so many come here is because they like working in Britain!?

@ 21. Destiny’s Child

”Are you saying we should compete with Chinese slave labour”

What!!!
I suppose I could say that, because countries like China, with their slave workforce, work for such low rates, we in Britain are losing many jobs so that companies can make more money, if I had my way I wouldn’t allow any company that moved jobs from Britain to overseas to sell their product in Britain, full stop. You take our jobs from us you lose the sales and profit you thought you’d make by selling to the very people you have taken the jobs from!!

”What you are experiencing is REALITY”

I know and it hurts like hell, especially watching your fellow British workmates lose all he has to immigrants so some company can make more money, but then it’s the government I blame and the unions for not sticking up for us.

”there will be hell to pay”

I really hope so and I hope it hurts Labour, the Tories and their yellow friends, big time!

”and next time they’ll probably try the minority parties”

TOO RIGHT!
And I could be voting ukip, to give the main parties a kicking for not sorting things out and to stick my fingers up to that unfair, immigration flooding, money grabbing, British job losing, law making EU.

I’m a working class man, I should vote labour, like hell I will unless they fight like mad for me from now until the next election, and I know many who are thinking the same and never voted for minority parties before.

@14. Chaise Guevara

“weren’t you the guy going on about how government intervention is terrible a few days ago”

You’ve lost me.
Anywho! I think it’s obvious how I stand, I stand for my fellow British workmate and what’s best for them, and I think you know by now what you look like doesn’t come into it, if you’re British working class you are one of my own, together we can show “them” enough is enough!

As Destiny’s Child says, “Lets shutdown the country on June 30th and demonstrate who the real ‘wealth creators’ are”

Let’s do it and do it until “they” stop the madness!