English: George Osborne MP, pictured speaking on the launch of the Conservative Party manifesto for the 2009 European Parliament elections, at Keele University. (805×1207 px, 283,711 bytes) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
![International Monetary Fund [oct 25]](https://i0.wp.com/farm3.static.flickr.com/2632/4148188910_7c68f1b6db_m.jpg "International Monetary Fund [oct 25]")
International Monetary Fund [oct 25] (Photo credit: JavierPsilocybin)
via IMF puts pressure on George Osborne with criticism of cuts | Business | guardian.co.uk.
For me, it’s no surprise that the IMF is increasingly critical of George Osborne blind austerity policies.
This blog has been arguing for the UK to stimulate capital spending for some time. Also there is still a problem with bank lending which needs fixing.
What do you think?
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Austerity only works if you do it very quickly and severely in a Big Bang approach over a 2 year period.
This is what Canada and Ireland both did and they did it in conjunction with export led growth and attracting foreign inward investment.
The UK in contrast has been extremely slow to cut, is actually borrowing more, is running scared of local authority CEOs, NHS apparachiks and Chief Constables who are not doing their jobs.
The public sector is therefore too big and unaffordable with worker productivity now at just 32%, some 20% below what it was at the start of the Olympic Games and the Jubilee (Source:ONS).
We now need massively increased export led growth, faster writing down allowances on plant and machinery and a concerted effort to take Housing Benefit recipients off that benefit and move these people out of London and major cities into system built houses and converted shipping container communities on the edges of industrial estates and close to public transport. The houses that they leave behind should be made available to wealthy foreign inward investors who should be given automatic citizenship and zero taxes in exchange for buying infrastructure bonds to fund roads, rail improvements and airport expansion and employing large numbers of the indigenous population.
Bigger tranches of infrastructure bonds could be issued to Sovereign Wealth Funds for really big projects and our builders and construction workers now on the dole or working as taxi drivers could be put back to work.
Some 50% of the taxi drivers in my area are builders who lost their jobs since the Coalition came to power yet my local authority and its housing association employ more people than ever between them.
Our taxes are still too high and the redistribution of money to the Celtic fringe under the Barnett Formula which costs England £35 billion gbp a year has to stop with that money reinvested into the part of the economy which is productive and cash generative.
As it is overall levels of taxation encourage corporations to play a waiting game, hide money offshore and ignore Osborne, Cameron, Gauke, Alexander and Cable who,after all, will probably be out of office in 2 years time.
Eric Schmidt CEO of Google said as much in code when he refused to be bounced into renouncing his firm’s tax mitigation policies by Osborne. Others like Microsoft, Apple, Vodaphone, Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Glaxo Smith Kline and Starbucks all do the same with the result that Singapore and Hong Kong are set to become the world’s leading financial centres within 3 years relegating London to 4th place behind New York which overtook London in 2012 to reach the number 1 position.
What Cameron and Osborne are doing is clearly benefiting our global competitors and certain individuals with large investments in those countries at our expense. This suggests they are either stupid, duplicitous or working to a different agenda. Given their respective levels of education stupidity is not a credible explanation so they are either being mis-advised, do not care, are duplicitous, greedy, have a different agenda and/or are working for someone else. They both come from wealthy backgrounds, have wealthy and successful wives and as politicians are naturally duplicitous so we can exclude greed leaving us with the only things which are left–working for someone else and a different agenda.
With all these things it is best to see “who benefits most” by following the money.From there one can examine the relationships between these two politicians and those who benefit the most to determine who they are really working for.
John,
Thanks for your detailed response. I agree with much of your argument but am not sure about your conclusions on David Cameron & George Osborne’s motivation. Whilst they are both young enough to have aspirations beyond politics, I believe that given their leadership qualities & political constraints they are endeavoring to do the best they can.